true nature by Brian Swichkow

The Buddha taught that your true nature is obscured by the veils of wanting, fear, and delusion (or ignorance). He urged to look at the nature of your mind systematically and observe how these three mind-states condition what you think and value, and how you behave. He taught that it is the identification with these mind-states that causes suffering; for instance, you mistakenly believe that just because you feel the emotion of wanting, your true nature is the same as that wanting.

True nature is emptiness, Sunyata, a lack of a permanent Self- and when this true nature is realized, the divine states of the Brahma-viharas - loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity- emerge. There is also a state of mind and heart known as bodhichitta that leads one to completely dedicate oneself to the liberation of all beings from suffering. In the teachings of the great yoga masters, our true nature is Brahman, the universal soul, of which the individual soul is simply a part. When this is realized there is satchidananda, the awareness of bliss, from the knowing that pure awareness is our ultimate nature.