Zen Master Bankei: Accessing the Unborn Buddha Mind (Oct 2011) (1 of 3)

My message to everyone is that the Buddha Mind is innate in them. From their parents, nothing else is innate. The Buddha Mind is Unborn because it is always here, innate, and it enlightens the mind…The One Mind, Unborn, undefined, this is “the one” that, in everybody, sees images via the eyes, hears sounds via the ears and, generally, when it encounters the objects of the six senses, reveals whatever is seen or heard, felt or thought, with nothing left conceal.

-Japanese Zen Master Bankei, (1622-93)

Bankei was a meditation teacher who presented the path of awakening as something simple, practical, readily apparent and available to anyone who would follow his directions. Although his early meditation practice was quite arduous and strident, after his enlightenment, he realized that accessing the Unborn Born Buddha Mind was a much easier and relaxed process than he had imagined. In this retreat, Dharma teacher Fred Eppsteiner used the teachings and, most importantly, the practices taught by this illustrious master to help students understand and experience this Unborn Buddha Mind that each of us possesses.