[Angry White American]

Just an exaple of how Zen deals with such things like the Buddha Nature... let me give a short Zen story.

One day a fifty-year-old student of enlightenment said to Shinkan: "I have studied the Tendai School of thought since I was a little boy, but one thing in it I cannot understand. Tendai claims that even the grass and trees will become enlightened. To me this seems very strange."

"Of what use is it to discuss how grass and trees become enlightened?" said Shinkan. The question is how you yourself can become so. Did you ever considered that?"

"I never thought of it in that way," marveled the old man.

"Then go home and think it over," finished Shinkan.

Edited from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones