A Smile in His Lifetime
A monk asked Zhaozhou, "
Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" Zhaozhou answered, "It does not." The monk then asked,
"All sentient beings have Buddha-nature.
Why does the dog not have it?" Zhaozhou replied,
"Because it has karmic consciousness."
Reflection
A Smile in His Lifetime presents Zhaozhou answering 'It does not' to the dog's Buddha-nature question, then giving a reason: 'Because it has karmic consciousness.' The apparent contradiction shatters the monk's conceptual attachment to doctrinal truths. When the absolute (Buddha-nature) and relative (karmic consciousness) are held together, the mind can no longer rest in a fixed position.