[FN#168] It is not conscience in the ordinary sense of the term.  It is ‘moral’ principle, according to Wang, pervading through the Universe.  ’It expresses itself as Providence in Heaven, as moral nature in man, and as mechanical laws in things.’  The reader will notice that Wang’s Conscience is the nearest approach to Buddha-nature.

11.  The Bad are the Good in the Egg.

This is not only the case with a robber or a murderer, but also with ordinary people.  There are many who are honest and good in their homesteads, but turn out to be base and dishonest folk outside them.  Similarly, there are those who, having an enthusiastic love of their local district, act unlawfully against the interests of other districts.  They are upright and honourable gentlemen within the boundary of their own district, but a gang of rascals without it.  So also there are many who are Washingtons and William Tells in their own, but at the same time pirates and cannibals in the other countries.  Again, there are not a few persons who, having racial prejudices, would not allow the rays of their Buddha-nature to pass through a coloured skin.  There are civilized persons who are humane enough to love and esteem any human being as their brother, but so unfeeling that they think lower creatures as their proper food.  The highly enlightened person, however, cannot but sympathize with human beings and lower creatures as well, as Shakya Muni felt all sentient beings to be his children.

These people are exactly the same in their Buddha-nature, but a wide difference obtains among them in the extent of their expressing that nature in deeds.  If thieves and murderers be called bad-natured, reformers and revolutionists should be called so.  If, on the other hand, patriotism and loyalty be said to be good, treason and insurrection should likewise be so.  Therefore it is evident that a so-called good person is none but one who acts to promote wider interests of life, and a so-called bad person is none but one who acts to advance narrower ones.  In other words, the bad are the good in the egg, so to speak, and the good are the bad on the wing.  As the bird in the egg is one and the same as the bird on the wing, so the good in the egg is entirely of the same nature as the bad on the wing.  To show that human nature transcends the duality of good and evil, the author of Avatamsaka-sutra declares that ’all beings are endowed with the wisdom and virtue of Tathagata.’  Kwei Fung (Kei-ho) also says:  “All sentient beings have the Real Spirit of Original Enlightenment (within themselves).  It is unchanging and pure.  It is eternally bright and clear, and conscious.  It is also named Buddha-nature, or Tathagata-garbha.”

12.  The Great Person and Small Person.