We say everything has buddha-nature, so we have to treat everything as a buddha. To say “everything has buddha-nature” is not appropriate, because to say everything has buddha-nature is dualistic. Actually, everything itself is buddha. We say “buddha-nature,” but this word is not so appropriate. If I say “buddha-nature,” it looks like we have many natures: human nature, buddha-nature, and nature of animals. But what we mean by buddha-nature is not some special nature in comparison to other natures. So, there is nothing but buddha-nature. —Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture - 67-12-06-B - as found on shunryusuzuki.com edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts - with a photo.
