“Such simple words – come as you are – just as you are. When we accept the invitation, there is an unfolding, and opening up, a softening of boundaries, a natural freedom that comes from learning to let go of the shame, or thinking we need to be someone else than who we are to be loved.   This opening, this attending, this tending to each other, is what I see as the naturalness of who we really are, our innate Buddha-selves, that are born out of Come as you are – namu amida bustu. Here is where the healing energy of nembutsu is found.  In this opening space, revealed by this invitation, we find the space to become who we really are from moment to moment – an awakening, a ripening.”