(BENDOWA XV)

Tathāgata” is a name which can have several meanings and interpretations, including one who has thus gone and one who has thus come, or one who has found the truth. It may also be taken as the one who has gone to suchness or the one who has arrived at suchness

Yet there is no difference there.

And the Dharma-joy of a Tathagata may be thus the joy that is the truth, beyond all thought of mere joy or sadness. It is the joy of tasting one’s original ground and state, true home, thereupon to live in such way as the ever-renewing realization of that truth

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When one displays the buddhamudra with one's whole body and mind, sitting upright in this samadhi even fora short time, everything in the entire dharma world becomes buddha mudra, andall space in the universe completely becomes enlightenment. Therefore, itenables buddha-tathagatas to increase the dharma joy of their own originalgrounds and renew the adornment of the way of awakening. Simultaneously, allliving beings of the dharma world in the ten directions and six realms becomeclear and pure in body and mind, realize great emancipation, and their ownoriginal face appears. At that time, all things together awaken to supremeenlightenment and utilize the buddha-body, immediately go beyond the culminationof awakening, and sit upright under the kingly bodhi tree. At the same time,they turn the incomparable, great dharma wheel and begin expressing ultimateand unfabricated profound prajna.

From: Talk on the Wholehearted Practice of the Way -Kosho Uchiyama (with Shohaku Okumura, Taigen Daniel Leighton)

[Thepractice] thus increases the Dharma-joy that is the original state of the buddha-tathagatas, and renews thesplendor of their realization of the truth.

From: Bendowa - A Talk about Pursuing the Truth  - Nishijima-Cross


(remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells;
a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended)

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