Jundo Cohen

“In “Dream within a Dream,” Dōgen said that although everything is a dream, it is our dream. Thus we had best see through it and dream it well. Sometimes the dream is not to our liking, sometimes it can seem like a nightmare, but Buddha is the dreamer and the dream too. When we wake up, we can see through those same dreams. But in order to realize this in our zazen and our lives, we must drop all thought of the least separation between us and Buddha from our minds. Otherwise Buddha will seem a million miles out of reach. Dōgen also warns us that this realization is not a stagnant knowing, a final stopping place, but is instead a realization that keeps unfolding:”
― Jundo Cohen, The Zen Master's Dance: A Guide to Understanding Dogen and Who You Are in the Universe

“Mahayana Buddhists often use this word “Buddha” as a term for the truth of everything. But please don’t get caught up in labels or ideas about what kind of “thing” Buddha is. When you freeze it into an idea and paste a name on it, you might forget how all-pervading this truth is. If we must try to explain it, Buddha might be said to be this world and life when we put aside all judgments and mental categories, names and labels. All those names, categories, and ideas create a separation between us and the rest of the world. This is what we Buddhists call “delusion.” Buddha then means seeing beyond all those divisions, putting aside all our considerations about the world. And when we do so, what remains is not an empty vacuum, but rather a wholeness, a flowing dance that sweeps up everything that is this world, and sweeps us up too. It is wondrous, peaceful, and whole, even in the face of all the ups and downs, sickness and health, life and death of this world. To see that fact is what we call enlightenment. This Buddha is what you and I truly are.”
― Jundo Cohen, The Zen Master's Dance: A Guide to Understanding Dogen and Who You Are in the Universe