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IT.... What does he mean by 'selfsame essence'? Your ordinary mind changes every moment; it is never the same for two seconds even. One moment you are angry, another moment you are sad, another moment you are happy.... You go on changing, you change so easily; you are a flux. But if you watch this flux, then a totally different kind of mind arises in you: the witnessing.
This witnessing is selfsame: sadness comes, you witness it; happiness comes, you witness it; despair comes, you witness it; joy comes, you witness it. Now, the content is continuously changing, but the witnessing is the selfsame witnessing. It is always the same, it never changes. The mirror remains the same. People go on and go on passing in front of the mirror. It reflects one face for a moment, then another face, but the mirror remains the same.
Bodhidharma says:
WHEN YOU SEE THE SELFSAME ESSENCE OF IT, YOU CAN CALL IT SUCHNESS.
You can call it tathata, suchness. 'Suchness' is a Buddhist way of expressing that there is something in you which always remains in its intrinsic nature, never changing. It always remains in its selfsame essence, eternally so. That is your real nature. That which changes is not you, that is mind. That which does not change in you is buddha-mind. You can call it no-mind, you can call it samadhi, satori. It depends upon you; you can give it whatsoever name you want. You can call it christ-consciousness.
WHEN YOU SEE THE CHANGELESS NATURE OF IT, YOU CAN CALL IT DHARMAKAYA.
Seeing that it never changes, you can call it the very embodiment of the ultimate law, the very body of dharma.
IT DOES NOT BELONG TO ANYTHING....
It is not identified with anything, it does not belong to anything. The witness in you is always a transcendence, always a surpassing phenomenon; it transcends everything. Whatsoever is seen, whatsoever comes before it, it is never one with.
IT DOES NOT BELONG TO ANYTHING; THEREFORE, IT IS CALLED EMANCIPATION.
It is called liberation. Liberation from the mind brings the buddha-mind into your vision. Liberation from identification, liberation from the body, from the mind, from ideologies,
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