Thinking that practice and enlightenment are not one is no more than a view that is outside the Way [that is, deluded]. In the buddha-dharma, practice and enlightenment are one and the same. Because it is the practice of enlightenment, a beginner’s wholehearted practice of the Way is exactly the totality of original enlightenment. For this reason, in conveying the essential attitude for practice, it is taught not to wait for enlightenment outside practice.

Dogen Zenji

from the book The Wholehearted Way

translated by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, Shohaku Okumura & Taigen Daniel Leighton


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