Life is Our True Self Revealing Itself Fully

What is life? What is our "True Self"? Dogen expresses the Zen view:

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Our True Self revealing Itself to the full is what life is, and life is our True Self revealing Itself to the full. At the time when our True Self reveals Itself, we can say that there is nothing that is not a full displaying of life, and there is nothing that is not a full displaying of death.

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It is the operating of this True Self that causes life to come about and causes death to come about. At the very moment when we fully manifest this functioning of our True Self, It will not necessarily be something great or something small, or the whole universe or some limited bit of it, or something drawn out or something short and quick. Our life at this very moment is the True Self in operation, and the operating of our True Self is our life at this very moment. Life is not something that comes and life is not something that goes; life is not something that reveals itself and life is not something that is accomplished. Rather, life is a displaying of one’s Buddha Nature to the full, and death is also a displaying of one’s Buddha Nature to the full. You need to realize that both life and death occur in the immeasurable thoughts and things within ourselves.
~Shobogenzo, Zenki, Hubert Nearman
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How do we clarify this Zen "Truth" about Our True Nature"? The same way all those that have clarified it did so--as Dogen puts it:

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All Buddhas, along with all Bodhisattvas and all sentient beings, by the power of their inherent keenness, clarify what the Great Truth of the True Nature of all things is. They clarify what the Great Truth of this True Nature is by following the Scriptures and by following their spiritual friend. In this way, they come to understand their own True Nature. The Scriptures are what True Nature is: they are our true Self. And because True Nature is our true Self, It is not the self that non-Buddhists and devilish beings misunderstand It to be.
~Shobogenzo, Hossho, Hubert Nearman

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Lovely! So clear and direct! How could we fail to be grateful?

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Peace,

Ted