your true nature is not lost

jan yoors

 

Your true nature is not lost

in moments of delusion, nor is it gained

at the moment of enlightenment. It was never born

and can never die. It shines through the

whole universe, filling emptiness,

one with emptiness.

 

It is without time or space,

and has no passions, no people, and no buddhas;

it contains not the smallest hairbreadth of anything

that exists objectively; it depends on nothing

and is attached to nothing.

 

It is all-pervading,

radiant beauty: absolute reality,

self-existent and uncreated. How then

can you doubt that the buddha has no mouth

to speak with and nothing to teach, or that

the truth is learned without learning,

for who is there to learn? It is a

jewel beyond all price.

 

Huang-po