We must understand that Buddha nature and its wisdom are inherent in our minds. It is extensively explained by many great scholars and masters, but it is very simple. It is just that awareness that engages in all these activities, worldly or dharmic. It is the one who thinks “I must do this, do that, go here or there,” or the scientists building planes and improving the world doing this and that. It is just that awareness engaging in all these activities and doing all these things that we must recognize.

If we ride the horse of self-grasping and merge the mind with self-grasping, we will only go down further and further into samsara — we will have to continue wandering in samsara. But if we ride the horse of loving-kindness and compassion we will go more and more through the enlightened qualities of the Buddha; the nirmanakaya, then the sambhogakaya, then the dharmakaya — we will go up to complete enlightenment.

Another example is like a big tree. The lower part, the roots, represents the lower realms and self-grasping, the pain of self-grasping. If there is self-grasping we will always abide at the lower part of the tree. But if we give rise to the altruistic mind then we go up to the higher parts of the tree — the branches, the foliage, the leaves, the flowers and fruits and so on. There is still just one tree, one single ground, but if we abide at the bottom we experience great suffering and great difficulty from the self-grasping mind, but if we go up we bring about the benefit of others and our own happiness. The basis, the ground, is a single one — buddha nature.