The Buddha-nature is not only a potential in Man, but in everything that exists. Stone, river and tree are all parts of the great hidden Unity. Thus Man, through his Buddha-nature or universalised consciousness, possesses an intimate means of contact with all of Nature. The songs of birds, the noise of waterfalls, the rolling of thunder, the whispering of wind in the pine-trees, all these are utterances of the Absolute. From Zen and Art, by Arthur Waley.