Zen teachers often return to a handful of passages in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, treating them like signposts on the way to waking up:

• “Originally there is neither purity nor defilement” (Chapter 1)
This line cuts straight to the heart—no need to scrub away imaginary stains. It underlines that ordinary mind and Buddha-mind are one and the same, before concepts of clean and unclean even arise.

• “The nature of mind is fundamentally pure, always radiant and self-enlightened” (Chapter 2)
Quoting this is like opening a window on a misty morning: suddenly the sun’s been there all along. Modern retreats over Zoom have leaned on it to remind seekers that screens don’t block the light.

• “Drop body and mind; all Buddhas and sentient beings are not two” (Chapter 7)
When life feels like a tangle of “me versus the world,” this passage is the go-to. It insists that letting go of “self” isn’t an escape hatch but the very path to freedom.

• “Mind is the path; mind is no-path” (Chapter 10)
This apparent paradox is a koan in a nutshell—right out of the horse’s mouth. It underlines that practice and realization aren’t two separate things.

• The Ten Questions discourse
Teachers often spotlight the second and eighth queries, which dissolve any final “there” to arrive at. In today’s climate of polarization, the teaching that “no point exists to cling to” offers a breath of fresh air.

These passages pop up in Dharma talks from Seoul’s Jogye Order to California’s silent retreats. They’re the steady drumbeat urging everyone to see: enlightenment isn’t somewhere else—it’s right where stubborn ideas about “someone” and “something” fall away.