Original Nature

Text

Qinshan said: "Your original nature is like a clear mirror. It does not come into being when you polish it, nor does it cease to be when dust covers it. The mirror has never changed—why do you keep trying to improve it?"

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Qinshan Wensui

Lineage: Guiyang

From Traditional Zen Sayings

• A Special Transmission Outside the Scriptures
• Thirty Blows
• A Day Without Work Is a Day Without Eating
• Mountains Are Mountains
• Cease and Desist
• Die While Alive
• The Whole Universe Is the Eye
• The Directness of Realization
• The Barrier of Words
• The Great Doubt Block

Sources

• contentWikisource — English-language free library

  Jingde Chuandeng Lu, Qinshan Wensui chapter

  Traditional Zen Sayings: Original Nature