Pai-Chang

Short and sweet was right. I’ve found all the readings we’ve done to be interesting, but this was right to the point and very clear.

“To behold the Buddha nature means you must wait for the right moment and the right conditions. When the time comes, you are awakened as if from a dream. You realize that what you have found is your own and doesn’t come from anywhere outside.” I think that this means exactly what it says. When it’s the right time in your life, you’ll be able to reach enlightenment. When you reach that place in your life, it will be like waking up from a dream. You will then realize that your enlightenment came from within yourself and not from an outside source.

“After enlightenment you are still the same as you were before. There is no mind and there is no truth.” I think this is saying that enlightenment isn’t going to change the person that you are, it’s just going to simplify your life. You don’t become someone else when you’re enlightened; you are simply the best version of yourself.

"The ordinary person's mind is the same as the sage's, because Original Mind is perfect and complete in itself." I think this is just the idea that we come into the world with a perfect mind that’s in the right condition for enlightenment, but as we go through life, we fill up our minds with a lot of useless information and useless worry. Once we are able to clear out our minds back to the original state, we’re able to reach enlightenment.