Prairyerth Zen Center

Bowing To The Buddha Within
By Richard Brown, Senior Dharma Teacher
Bowing is a bit of Asian tradition that is foreign to many beginning American Zen students. It is one of our practices that provokes a lot of questions. “Who are you bowing to? Why do you bow? Are you worshiping the Buddha? The short answer is that we bow to the Buddha within us all. Our Buddha nature.

A Zen master and his student were walking along the bank of a stream. The teacher spotted a scorpion struggling in the water in fear of drowning. He bent down to help the insect. But, as soon as he was close enough the scorpion stung him on his hand. He recoiled from the pain and stood up. As he bent down again toward the scorpion his student cried out, “Master, why bother that animal? It will only hurt you again!” The teacher replied, “It is the scorpion’s nature to sting. It is my nature to help. If I allowed its behavior to change my heart I would lose myself. Then who would be the one truly suffering? He placed a leaf next to the scorpion, it crawled onto it and he lifted it to safety.

According to the Buddha, we are all born enlightened, but we don’t recognize what we possess. It would be like a lion who was raised by sheep and so believes that it is also a sheep. This nature that the Buddha and the Zen master above spoke of is the ability to be fully present without drifting off into memories of the past, dreams of the future, expectations, opinions, and desires. Just open to the present moment. When we are this present we see there is no difference between our mind and the minds of all beings. This helps to create a strong sense of compassion for all. Zen Master Hae Kwang, referring to this true nature, once told me that “enlightenment only makes you more like who you already are.” Like your true self.

When we meditate thinking that we have to strive to change something fundamental about ourselves by becoming enlightened, every time our mind wanders or some feeling comes up we might feel a sense of failure. But, when we meditate from a place before thinking, knowing that our nature is already whole, we recognize that awareness which is already present. This takes work, practice and time. But, when we meditate with this awareness, each time we become lost in thought we realize that we are not fixing a mistake. We are simply teaching our mind to recognize our true inborn nature. This is what the Buddha meant when he said, “Each thing is complete. Each thing has it.”

Regardless of whether we bow to the Buddha when entering the dharma room, or when we perform 108 prostrations as a part of morning practice, we do so as a recognition of our own inherent Buddha nature and the Buddha nature of all. Each time we rededicate ourselves to our “big I”, rather than to our “small I”, so that we can help save all beings from suffering and help this world.