Zen Book Two

The Great Unraveling

p

The Gateless Gate

 Copyright 2010 Stephen H. Wolinsky, PhD

An imprint of Quantum Press,

under the auspices of Quantum Institute Inc.
Stephen H. Wolinsky, PhD Library

ISBN 0-9749954-3-6

114 Rio Del Mar Blvd.

Aptos, California
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by
Mike Dowdall
[email protected]
R ealizing there is no within or without
Realizing there is no inside or outside
is to enter the gateless gate
A pproach a poet with a poem
A warrior with a sword
What is the approach for someone who is not?
Acknowledgements
Salutations to Master Mumon,
complier of the “Gateless Gate”

My never ending love and gratitude to

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Gateless Gate.
 A Note on the
Lexicon of the Text
In an attempt to fairly present the material and its
“sources”, and to not confuse Zen Sayings and
Zen Koans from Sayings and Koans which naturally
appear through the text, please note the following.

In the original all numbered Zen Koans and Zen

stories were written using the word Case, as in
Case 1, Case 2 etc. with a title.
A Case can mean a barrier or a checkpoint.
These cases, (barriers or checkpoints) were given to
students to check where they were, and what they
need, or are they ready to go through (checkpoint).
Cases were also referred to as a barrier which was
set up as an obstacle, (barrier), to test students and
see where they were.

In the text you are about to read, “I” use the words
wave, as in wave in the ocean. This connotes, a
temporary “state”, that may be encountered, along
with a Koan, saying or understanding to first
acknowledge and then vanish unseen concepts, or
intellectualizations that can encapsulate vision and
inhibit realization. Moreover wave also connotes
the Ocean, of which all states and Koans appear
to arise and subside in, yet they never leave their
“True Nature”.
Please note the many metaphors from an earlier time
and culture have been updated with the hope of
making the material both clearer and more available
to readers in 2010. I would also suggest that this is
an ongoing process as culture and vocabulary are
constantly changing.

To differentiate, Zen Koans are labeled as such

as they are in the traditional language which came
from the original Zen, and Bold. Koans on the other
hand are what naturally arose to “me” over the last
35 years, and are italics.

Italics with quotes marked as Zen Sayings are

again labeled as such as they are in the traditional
language and lineage of Zen. When phrases appear
in italics with quotes or without quotes they too are
what naturally arose over the last 35 years.
Zen Saying: “Nothing that enters by the gate can be
family treasure—whatever is causally gained is always
subject to change”

Zen, based on the formless mind

the Buddha mind
the mind of Buddha
the original mind
Nature
Buddha nature
Your mind
one with the Buddha mind
and is the Buddha Mind
there is no mind of mine
Only Buddha
The Great Way is Void and has no Gate
There is no gate, no barrier
Only Void
All enter in and leave by the Void
the windowless window
Without inside or outside
The gateless gate
 Wave One
Buddha Nature
Everything has Buddha Nature-Consciousness

Zen Koan: “Does a dog have Buddha Nature?”

Answer: MU, NO, nothing, nonbeing, to have
nothing, nothingness, without, does not have
Mu-NO is the sword of deconstruction.

MU Buddha nature and dog are one

neither are

Zen Saying: “Cut off the way of thinking”.

Discard the universe

all perceivables and conceivables
Prior to Yes and No
MU

Everything is Buddha and has Buddha Nature

all concepts are Buddha—MU
Kill them with the sword of Deconstruction
MU-NO

1
Zen Saying: “If you meet Buddha on the street Kill
him”.

Giving and Taking Away

Zen Koan
Student: “Does a dog have Buddha nature?
Master: Yes
Student: Do you have Buddha Nature?
Master: No

Buddha Nature is empty

Empty of empty
Empty is empty
Emptylessness

No, No Buddha Nature

The universe is a reflection of Buddha Nature
The Absolute

Zen Saying: “One moon many reflections”

MU

2
 Wave Two
No form,
No Cause,
No Effect
No law of cause-effect
Without words what is cause-effect?

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Cause and effect are just

a way of thinking about things.”

One current appearing as two currents at once

The causeless-effectless cause

Is there cause?
Is there effect?
Is there both cause-effect?
Neither cause and effect
Cause-effect are one
Neither are

Nothing comes

3
 Nothing goes
Without a knower to know them
Prior to the “I” is there cause and effect?

Prior to words what is cause-effect?

Nisargadata Maharaj, “ All is plus and minus.”

Zero
No reference point
No point of reference
Reverse
Turn the knower on itself

Two miss-perceptions at once

Two miss-conceptions at once

Cause-effect are one

Confuse them not
The ocean is still the waves although through
perception they appear to move
Trust not perceptions

Things are constantly changing

There is no definite form
“I” is not “I”
the “I” now………………
is not the “I” now

Things constantly perceptually appearing to

change
Cause-effect appear as two

4
 they are one
One seamless one

A wave or current in the ocean

Cause and effect is an abstraction

An abstracted representation

Cause and effect give the illusion that

A causes B
Rather B is an rippling-abstraction of A
A beginingless movement or wave

C is a rippling-abstraction of B
A beginingless movement or wave

As B is essential for C
As A is essential for B
A followed by its rippling-abstraction B, is also a
rippling-
Abstraction

Koan: “A rippling abstraction of what?”

A does not cause B

B is a rippling-abstracted by-product of A
A beginingless movement or wave

There is one continuous motion

B, C or D are one
Prior to A
Neither are
5
 As summer follows spring
As fall follows summer.
In the current of the mind A is seen as the earliest
rippling-abstraction
B in the current of the mind an abstraction of an
abstraction of an abstraction
An abstracted self---- reflecting
Reinforcing A,

C is a descriptive labeling rippling-abstraction

reinforcing both B and A

No mind
No abstracting
No rippling
No A, B, C, D
MU

This “natural” flow can be seen as Ramana

Maharishi’s “…go back the way you came…”

prior to the “first” A

Nisargadatta Maharaj , “…Prior to your last

thought, stay there...”

Zen Koan (slight variation), Recognize (what is)

your original face or nature or Buddha Nature before
your mother was born

(perceived or seen as)

6
 Prior to thought
Prior to “I”
MU

Your essential nature is always the same

Every Koan should be approached from the
essential nature
prior to words

Buddha: “…There is no essential nature…”

“There is no fundamental Reality”

7
Wave Three
One Finger
One finger
A Seamless web

No finger
No seamless web
The Absolute

Nature
Without “I”
The unborn
No born
Prior to birth
birthless
One Seamless web
No seamless web

Mirrored reflection
Emptiness
The reflection
An Interference pattern
One and the same
Neither

One,
One movement

8
 no movement
one being
no being
---------------------

9
 Wave Four
Double No
Zen Koan: “The barbarian has no beard”…OR
“Why does the foreigner from the west have no
beard”?
There is no meaning
There is no purpose
Unpack

Zen Koan: “What is your original face before your

mother was born?”

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “ Eight days prior to

conception, or 1000 years back, who were you?”

Break the language pattern

Your original face

Same as “all” original faces
No all
No faces

No beard…no mask
No mask
No face
No abstraction…no perception
No self

10
 Break the mask of perceptions

Diamond Sutra: “…no nose, no ears, no eyes, no

self, no being, no life, no soul, no world…”
…We refer to it as a being, but there is no being...”

Your essential nature is without an essential

nature,
(has no beard)

Where is your mind

The mind is not
The mind is nonlocal
Non-minding
No mind to mind

Contemplate: Focus on your mind using your

mind
Reverse

Yoga: To Yoke
Prior to senses
Yoga: Union
No Union

There is only consciousness.

Approach every Koan from the essential nature

Buddha: “There is no essential nature…”

Your original face

All original faces
No original face
11
 Wave Five
The Soundless Sound
Zen Koan: “What is the sound of one hand
clapping?”

One hand has desolved all my previous knowledge

Shiva Sutras: the cause of bondage is sound

All contradictions, and problems are sounds, in

words and language
In the mind
Without a discriminating mind
No yes
No no

The mind is language

Prior to mind and language
Prior to them, is empty
Empty is empty of empty
Emptiness without
MU

To hear is sound
To answer is to make a sound

12
 All sound fused with meaning is falling down a
rabbit hole

Answers coming from within are your own

Answers coming from without are mine,
which you try to make yours

Krsna: “It is better to do your path imperfectly then

another’s perfectly.”

The “I” once reversed leaves no tracks or traces

behind
The “I” that synthesizes
the “I” that remembers is False, and appears after
the initial “I”

The self-reflecting abstracted “I” offers a path of

traces-tracks and a delusional sense of existence

Zen Saying: “…No picking and choosing…”

The empty mind neither picks nor chooses

Zen Koan: “Why did Bodhidharma come from the

west?”
Answer: Because he did………….

Unpack
De-condition

Zen Koan: “What was the meaning of

Bodhidharma coming from the west?”

13
Answer: NO (ne)
Mu

Unpack
De-condition

14
 Wave Six
Unity:
The Double Negative
A mango falls
Cracks the mask of perception
No “me”
No one to perceive your original face
No me
No you
No world

The mind is nirvana

The form is formless

No separate objects without the mask

No separate self without the mask
No separate separate
No separate, no unity, no One

Zen Koan: “What is the teaching beyond all

teachings?”

Scrambled eggs

One sound between two mirrors

15
 No one
No sound

Transmission is not a trajectory

Practice is not a trajectory
It is a straight shot
One
Not
“It”

The whole universe moves at once

No movement
Mu

As is, as is
Consciousness second, world first
Consciousness first, world second
One
Neither
As is, one is there
As is, neither are

Everything is everything else

The so called life experience is the Absolute
without
The whole of which there is no whole,
and no not whole

The mind is nirvana

Nirvana is extinction

The true form is no form

16
 Nirvana means annihilation

The mind is not,

The true form is not a state of formlessness
There is no form

Emptiness is not a state of empty

Rather, emptiness is neither empty nor not empty

Emptiness is emptiness and not empty

Emptyness is a “perceptional” mask

Emptiness is empty of empty

When a monk asked a Zen Master, “What is the

opposite of truth?”
The Master replied, “ truth”

Shiva Sutras: “The cause of bondage is sound.”

Nothing depends on letters words or teachings

Nisargadatta Maharaj, “…Forget me, forget

Maharaj, forget the teachings…”

The Buddha was not teaching

“I” am not teaching although from “outside” it may
seem so

The Diamond Sutra: “How can a Buddha save a

Buddha?”

17
The universe and your essential nature are one
Do not get deluded into thinking that there is a
state of oneness
rather, there is no one, nor not no one

All experiences imply an experiencer

Not

All experiences are just a name for your own

SELF, which is not

18
 Wave Seven
Significance
No significance

Sky is the sky

Why is a story
Any sound before or after lies
Without description
Without labels
Without Associations

What is is without
Naked
“It” “is” “it”
Mu

All is a manifestation of the essential nature

There is no all
There is no essential nature

Heart Sutra: “Form is emptiness, Emptiness is

form

Emptiness is subtle form

Form gross emptiness
The two are one

19
 The absolute is without

Mantra: “I am the Absolute the Absolute I am”

“I am That That I Am

Startlingly obvious

20
 Wave Eight
No Form,
No Not Form
Prior to the perceptual illusion
No oneness

With movement comes oneness

Location
And the hub of a wheel

Prior to the perceptual illusion

No oneness
No turning
No wheel

No
no movement

All appears all

or
Not at all

21
 Wave Nine
Buddha is
Buddha is Not
Zen Story: Daitshu sat for endless years
why did he not become a Buddha?
Answer: “He is a non attaining Buddha.”

Double no-yes

Not to attain Buddhahood is Buddhahood

“This” “Is” “it”
Attaining or experiencing Buddhahood is not

But why did he not become a Buddha?

Because he did not become a Buddha?

All understanding is a conceptual corpse

Kill the Buddha
“This” “is” “It”

Prior to knowing and not knowing

You can never attain Buddhahood

No Buddhahood or Buddha

22
Diamond Sutra: “No being has ever entered
Nirvana”

The one mind is Nirvana

Nirvana is nirvana

23
 Wave Ten
The Poverty of
Beingness
No contradictions,
No lessons
There is no contradiction in the essential
world
All contradictions are in words and language

There is no essential world

.
There are no lessons

No Polishing
No Purification
Can a Buddha be purified?
Can you be other then what you are?

Zen Saying: “Fish do not breed in a pond that is to

pure.”

24
How “wonderful” to be without abstraction
No color
No-thing
No shape no form
No “I” state
No No “I” state
Void
Void of Void
Voidlessness

There is no essential nature

nor pond
nor pure

25
 Wave Eleven
Perceptual Illusions:
““See” “Through”
“Emptiness-Form””
Zen Koan: “Is the Master in?”
“Anybody in?”

Is the “I”-subject in?

Yes is Buddha
No is Buddha

Who is In?
A response is not a response, rather a name for a
perception
A perceptual response is a perceptional illusion

In shallow water illusions respond

A full glass with no room
No one is in
No one is out

No response

26
 Silence is not silence, rather a name of a
perception
Still(ness) a perceptual response
a perceptional illusion

The shallow water remains silent

A full glass with no room
Both answers are the same
Two sides of one Mirror

No comparisons
Who did what?
Neither

The study-training ends

The practice is forever

Form and empty

Two names for perceptions
Both appearances

Giving and taking away

In words there is contradiction and problems
In the essential world there is none

Buddha: “There is no essential reality.”

Everything is one and Not

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “No me no you, no me,

no you, no me no you.”

27
 No one
““see” “through” “form””
“”See “through” Emptiness””

28
 Wave Twelve
Change is Constant
The Master-Guru-Absolute is without subject or
object
The Master-Guru-Absolute asks
The Master-Guru-Absolute answers

The Master-Guru-Absolute is here prior to the

word here
Avoid ANY associations as to what that
means

The Master-Guru is Now prior to the word Now

Avoid ANY associations as to what that
means

One Voice
Your voice

The ego or “I” is a wave

All concepts are ripples on your self-nature
A wave of your self nature

With waves come more waves reaching a crest and

then disappearing in the ocean
One voice

29
 Do not take the perception of self as yourself
One who sees or hears is MU

Yoga Sutras: “Yoga is stilling the thought waves of

the mind.”

The one who perceives the SELF is the self

The SELF is the name of a perception
Neither are
The original SELF has no origin

The “I” ripples “in”

The “I” ripples “out”
The current-mind makes it seem as though it
is……
And is constant

The ego is a wave on the ocean of consciousness

The mind-current “sees” the wave and the ocean
not recognizing itself as itself

One Voice

Master Baso: “The Mind is Buddha

Master Baso: “The mind is not Buddha”

Buddha-consciousness has no form

no color
and occupies no space

Koan: Can something be, without a space to be in?

30
 Wave 13
The Last Word
Two is one
No two
because they are one
One implies two
There is not one

The body is like a puppet

Appearing as if it is
It dances, sings and speaks in the illusion
Yet, it is not

There is no mind prior to the first and last word

Notice the space at the end of a word

Ramana Maharishi: “Go back the way “you”

came.”

All….. is part of the mirage

No all

The last word is without sound

31
 All thoughts give the illusion of a subject and an
object

Koan: Without subject and object, where are you?

One eye
One thought

Rest in the essential world

Zen Saying: “There is not a grain of sand in the

essential world”

There is nothing outside of Buddha

There is no Buddha
There is no enlightenment
There is no essential world
This is it
Infinite negations
Unassume
Unperceive
Wthout

Nirvana Means Extinction

32
 Wave Fourteen
Prior to Existence-
Nonexistence
Die to words
There is nothing behind words
Unassume
Unperceive

Neither existence or nonexistence are

What is prior to them is prior to words

Koan: “What “I” is prior to “I?””

Koan: “What is it that does not exist, and is prior to

existence and non-existence?”

Koan: “Without a knower, what is there to be

known?”
Mu

In nature all happens as it happens

Without an “I”
Telescope out

33
 There is no deserving or earning

Koan: “What is be(ing), and yet is not be(ing)?”

34
 Wave Fifteen
Nisargadatta
Maharaj:
“There is no karma.
(movement or
activity), in the state
of Parabrahma.”
All that is seen
All that is understood
All that is interpreted
Is from where you stand

I want to know
I have to know
A nightmare
“I don’t know”: The mantra of deconstruction

35
 Without causation
Prior to the anguish of yes and no
No words
No no no

Without an inside or outside

Everything is as it is
beneath your feet

Koan: “Where can you go which is not “it””

There is no it

Nisargadtta Maharaj: “…Stop wandering about,

it is only entertainment for your mind...”

Without drowning in the sea of yes and no

Pain and desperation

the shock points of realization

The teacher proposes

The student agonizes

What is it that makes you wander about?

The mind makes you believe you are doing,
witnessing and being
MU

36
 Wave Sixteen
The Perceptual
Illusion of Sound
Where are you?

Zen Koan: “Does the sound come to the ear or the

ear to the sound?”

Transcending does not mean “Going beyond”

Where can you go which is not you

Transcending means, “It has nothing to do with

anything.”

Transcend sound

Is there hearing without sound

Listening with the eye. location is lost
Seeing with the ear, where is “it”
Where am “I”?

Transcend the empty mirror of silence

Sounds and forms are perceptual illusions

37
 Attention vanishes prior to
The attentioner-knower dissolves

Buddha The Diamond Sutra:

eyes are empty
ears are empty
nose is empty
taste is empty

The empty mirror deceives

Smash the mirror

Associations form the perceptual illusion of a why

Associations form the perceptual illusion of
because
Associations form the perceptual illusion of
change
What is is without associations

Changes and experiences without associations

No why
No because

Non-duality has no sound

No non-duality
No sound prior to sound

“Is there Zen prior to words and sounds?”

I am Buddha pervading all

No Buddha

38
 No all

One family
No family
Once sound and silence are unperceived
There is freedom from your own bark

Without perceptual illusions of form

Wihout the perceptual illusion of forms and now

Nothing comes, nothing goes

The reflection of realization dies, and with it you

Forget about your realization

The empty mirror deceives

39
 Wave Seventeen
Oneness Minus
All words are metaphors
All perceptions are abstractions
Unperceived there is no sound
Unperceived there is no emptiness or form
Unperceived without sequences
Unperceived no non-duality
Unperceived no organization
Unperceived no Zen

The illusion of subject-object is assumed

Seeing two is an assumption
Seeing one is delusive fantasy
There is neither

The illusionary seen is a reflection

The emptiness without a seer a deception
Smoke and mirrors
Neither are

The “IT” is an assumption

A miss perception
Emptiness and form an illusion

40
 A perceived dream
An assumed being

Not birthless
Neither birthless nor deathless
“When” unperceived

41
 Wave Eighteen
What is Buddha?
Consciousness is the substance the illusion is
made of
Consciousness is the illusory “fairy dust”
Without will
A function
Hydrogen
Oxygen
Water

Consciousness too is an illusion

There is no Buddha without consciousness

There is no Buddha

The “fairy dust” named and perceived as the

underlying- substance consciousness-emptiness
Consciousness-emptiness is the name of a
perception
No consciousness-emptiness
No perceiver
No Buddha

Realizing a “new mind of emptiness”

the old mind fades

42
 But what of the “new mind”
Subtle “Fairy Dust”

Without meaning
Seeing with one eye
Events: a seamless w(hole)
Nothingness without

The Buddha is the name for all perceptions

Chair, couch, oatmeal, sounds the seer and seen
The Buddha is the consciousness the substance
that “all” is made of
A name for a fuction
A perception

“Fairy Dust”

Zen Koan: “What is Buddha?”

Answer: No Buddha

43
 Wave Nineteen
The Ordinary
Mind is the Way
The ordinary mind is Tao
The minds’ substratum is Tao
The essential prior to mind is the Way
Way is the Tao
It has nothing to do with behavior or attitude

Prior to being or no being

Without Yes and No
Without direction or non-direction
Without the concept of distance or location

Do not be confused
It is not

Zen Saying: “when you lift your arm the world lifts
its arm.”

Is confusing and misleading

Rather, “When “you” appear the world appears.”

The Way-Tao-Essential is unaffected

44
Zen Saying: “If you try to turn toward it, you turn
against it.”

Zen Saying: “If you try for it you will become

separated from it.”

When you find the Way

you will understand the illusionary appearance of
the world
There is no world
Just the Tao
Consciousness-Emptiness
MU

Summer follows Spring

hate follows love
Rain follows drought
Yes follows no
The two are one

No need for reasons

No need for fragmentary explanations
Without a world of abstracted parts

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “…All is plus and minus

all is zero….”

Divide everything by itself

Things happen as they happen

praise and blame are given afterwards.

45
 The mind must be in order
The Way is ordinary consciousness
Consciousness-Emptiness
Form as a reflection
The Two are one
Neither

Without the “I” there is no discrimination

No “I” is ordinary mind
Empty Mind
Empty Mirror

The Empty Mirror deceives

There is no mind
No-minding

Knowing is delusion
Not knowing is the trap of blank

THAT does not belong to the world of knowing

and not knowing
It is like a vast outer space
MU

46
 Wave Twenty
Free Subjectivity
Nature moves as “I”
As “I” so does nature
The two are one

They move in unison

A seamless web
Appearing on no-thingness
Why?

Without abstraction
Without a single thought appearing
Without a subject-object

The intimacy of oneness

with no one
No seamless web
No…. no-thingness
Nature contains no “I”
Nature contains no delusion of being or beingness

It happens or not
No movement no legs
No sound

47
 No space
No happening
No “I”

As the Emptiness, the consciousness is barely

visible
Only a knower knows
MU

Nature speaks without any “I” to hear

or “I” to speak
No sound
No nature

Because is No
Why is No
A fragmentary tendency appealing to reason?

Prior to mind
Prior to Yes-No
Or deconstruction-not deconstruction

Free Subjectivity
Prior to the knower-knowing
Prior to the knowing-knower
Free subjectivity without an “I”
Free Subjectivity is without subject-object

Negation
Why
Precognitive

48
 Without reasoning
Or knowledge of being
No knower knowing

Free Subjectivity without an “I”

Without A knowing knower
Free Subjectivity is without subject-object

Why free subjectivity at all?

MU

Zen Koan: “All things return to One, where does

one return too.”

49
 Wave 21
A Shit Stick
A Monk asked, “What is Buddha?”
Master Unmon answered, “A shit stick”

A great answer
A perfect fit for the questioner
No holy

A homeopathic remedy
Without all pervading bliss
Breaking delusions

Buddha pervades all the universe

This, and this
Not this Not This
Another delusion smashed

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “I want to smash all your

concepts and put you in the no concept state.”

Buddha is:
A shit stick
A perceiver
A rice cake
A perception

50
 Love
Hate
Greed
Revenge

Wipe away any religious ideas

Zen Saying: “Give up the stink of Buddhism.”

Without “spiritual” behaviors implicitly exalted

Without “spiritual” actions given significance
Without “spiritual” thoughts and feelings
cultivated
Without a “spiritual” sanga
Without a “spiritual” path or dharma
Without Buddha

The end of a lifestyle

No gain or loss
The end of dharma
No game
No path
Cut off all delusions

Waves in the ocean

No fixed opinion or frame of mind

“Waves in the ocean”

All religious dogma and dharma are like Buddha’s

shit

51
Still Buddha
Still shit
No Buddha
No shit
MU

52
 Wave Twenty-Two
No-Minding
Without thoughts, memory, associations
Without an “I”
”I” am myself

One voice
One mind
Shock: the voice is only “Me”
A shallow wave appearing in the Absolute
I Am The Absolute, The Absolute I Am
I am That That I am

Throw away all thoughts of/a your (self)

All thoughts of transmission to a self
No self
No Transmission

Zen Saying: “How can a Buddha save a Buddha?”

Prior to the discursive mind

The mind of discrimination
The mind of yes and no

Mind to Mind

53
 One Mind
One voice
No Mind
No One

Two mirrors
Emptiness and form
In-between neither are

Prior to consciousness
No mirrors
No consciousness

Koan: “What is it that is neither passive or active?”

The non-existent Absolute

Still looking?

The looker is a wave

Wavering

Without Mind
Without no mind
Without Buddha, (consciousness)
Without no Buddha
Without…..No……Nothing

Mirage

54
 Wave Twenty-Three
Neither Good
Nor Bad
Realization is only the empty mind
No mind
No realization

The Absolute
No Absolute
Birthless

Zen Koan: “Show me your original face before your

mother was born.”
OR
Zen Koan: “What is your original face before your
mother was born?”

There is no separate universe

AND
With(out) the original or primal face,
There is just the primal face
The two are one
Neither are

55
 “There is nothing for the reflection in the mirror to
stand on.”

There is no polishing or purification

Zen Saying: “Fish do not breed in a pond that is to

pure.”

“There is no consciousness in the Absolute.”

Mumon: “If you are truly awakened to your True

Self, then everything you see, and everything that
you hear is nothing but “it”.

The is is no more
Without a face
No movement

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “…There is no

karma, (movement or activity), in the state of
Parabrahma…” (the Absolute).

No changes
No space
No time

Without an organization
Without good
Without evil
My original face
Your original face
No Face

56
 No rules
No where
No location
No reason
No purpose
No one

Koan: “How can what is seen and heard be “it”?”

As an abstraction of the Absolute, which is not

Koan: “What is it an abstraction of?”

MU
“it”
A personality of one
MU

No such thing as it

57
Wave Twenty-Four
Equality and
Differentiation
No one in charge
Without mind
Without meaning-purpose

The subject and object are one

No subject-object
Without

Speech is “outward”
Silence is “inward”
No distinction between speech and silence
Without speaking and silence

“Outward” perception
“Inward” perception
Not two
Neither are
Without perception

Prior to language
Mind to mind

58
 One Mind
No Mind

No images
No world

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “You are like grass

growing.”

A dog is barking

No duality
Yes is no

Zen Koan: “What is the opposite of truth?”

Answer: “Truth.”

Practice-enlightenment and delusion are one

No non-duality prior to words

The illusion of a separate inward action of the

mind
The illusion of a separate outward action of the
mind
Both Abstractions
“I” am an abstraction
“You” are an abstraction
An abstraction of What?

Prior to silence
Prior to differentiation
No knower

59
 No known

No one in charge

Air is empty
Earth is empty
Water is empty
Fire is empty
Ether is empty
Sensation is empty
Conception is empty
Awareness is empty
Thought is empty
Form is empty
Empty is empty

An abstractions of what?

No one is in control
No one knows why

Bodhidharma: ”I don’t know.”

If you believe this…you are stuck

Discard all beliefs….MU
Even Samadhi or one-with-ness-nonduaity
Is Mind
The empty side of the mirror

Location is an abstraction

60
Appearing out of nowhere
“I” have no location
No location

An abstraction of what?

Without
Your Original Face

61
 Wave Twenty-Five
Dreaming
Negations
The Diamond Sutra: “All of life is a dream.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj: ”See it all as a dream and

have done with it.”

All a dream
A mirage
Love-hate
Enlightenment-delusion are part of the mirage-
dream
Spirituality is part of the illusion
All perceivables and conceivables are in the
illusion

Infinite Negations occurring within the

illusion
Being, (existing)
Nonbeing, (not existing)
Both being and non-being, (both existing and not
existing).

62
Neither being or non-being, (Neither existing nor
not existing.

No Being, (not existing)

No Nonbeing, (no not existing)
Neither both being and non-being, (neither both
existing and non-existing)
Not Neither being or non-being, (not neither
existing or not existing).

Negation and affirmation simultaneously

All internal states are an illusion

All external states are an illusion
You are an illusion
I am an illusion

The dream is “It”

This is “It”
No “It”

The dream is an abstraction

The waking state is an abstraction
The I Am is an abstraction

This is “It”
Why?
Its an abstraction
An Abstraction of what?

“The lens of consciousness deludes in both

directions.”

63
 Wave Twenty-Six
The Rorschach Test
“Inside” and “outside” are an abstraction
Without either abstraction or transduction
“I” don’t know”

The Absolute is without a mind of dualistic or

non-dual concepts.

Anything in the mind that has a point of view or

commands attention to “I” is a transduced figment
A figment of what?

All phenomena exists because of abstraction-

transduction and much much later recognition
Without phenomena

Phenomena and the Absolute are one

Phenomena is an abstraction of the Absolute
Phenomena is “It”
A Rorschach Test

There is no connection between words and Koans

without abstraction-transduction
It’s all what abstraction-transduction, (the a-t
mind) makes of it

64
 A Rorschach Test
Not “you”

Sounds blah-blah-blah
Without transduction
A Rorschach test

“…All that is heard is nonexistent…”

Sri Shankara

One gains one loses

A Rorschach Test

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “There is no gain there is

no loss.”

without abstraction-transduction

Mantra, “I don’t know”

How could “you?”

One eye
The single eye
No comparisons
Without abstraction-transduction

The eye of non-duality

No non-duality

The Void that is potent with all things

No Void
No things

65
 No abstraction-transduction
A Rorschach Test
Nothing means anything
Nothing means anything
Nothing means anything

Bodhidharma: “… Vast emptiness no holiness…”

Koan: “From where does the moon arise?”

A Rorschach Test

66
Wave Twenty-Seven
Nansen:
“It is not mind,
It is not Buddha,
It is not beings,
It is not things.”
It is not mind
It is not Buddha
It is not Beings
It is not things

All that is… is here

All that is… is all perceivables and conceivables
All perceivables and conceivables are abstracted
representations of things which do not exist

Words represent things which do not exist

There is nothing behind words, labels or
descriptions

67
 All phenomena are abstractions
Mind, Buddha, beings, and things are abstracted
representations of “something” which does not
exist

Koan: “An abstraction of ‘what’?”

Anything that is dependent upon something else is

“part” of “something else.”

Koan: “What “something is a part” of something?”

This is “it”
This is not “it”
That is why, This is “it”…MU

“It” cannot be communicated

it cannot be taught
Transcendence is not going someplace beyond
Rather transcending has nothing to do with
anything
Transcending has nothing to do with talking or
teaching
Transcendence=Not

Mind is a abstracted phenomenological label

The Mind descriptive concept is all that appears
to be
including the knower
No mind
No all that appears to be

68
 Buddha is the consciousness
The substratum of all there is
The underlying substance of all there is
No Buddha

Diamond Sutra: “…We refer to it as a world,

but there is no world… We refer to it as a being,
but there is no being…No being has ever entered
Nirvana…”

The mind is all that appears

the one that is aware of the appearance is mind

The Buddha is the dream substance of the

appearance
The mind is what it is all called

Mind is Buddha is being

No mind, no Buddha, no being
“This is it”… MU

“An abstraction of what?”

69
 Wave Twenty-Eight
Empty Is Empty
Mind is a descriptive-label placed upon a
perception,
later then late

Is there a mind prior to perception-abstraction?

The world dissolves

No perception…No mind
The past without labels is empty
The present without labels is empty
The future without labels is empty
Empty is empty without labels

Collapse the world

Blow out the candle

Nisargadata Maharaj: .”…I do not believe in

spiritual paths…all paths lead to unreality…”

Blow out the light showing the path

The path and light are abstracted representations
Perceptual illusions
Prior to abstraction-omission are they?

70
Nisargadatta Maharaj: “…Stay in the
consciousness, (prior to sensation) and your own
unique path will emerge for you…”

Not Emptiness
Not form
Teachings are a distraction
The sensation prior to thought is consciousness

Not the mirror(ed) world

Not the mirror(ed) emptiness
Shattered glass

You only speak to yourself

“See” the original face

That which is in front of “you”
An abstraction of the original face
The original face and what is in front of “you” are
one
See the face
“You” are not
Mu

“What is your original face?”

The end of delusion-enlightenment is blindful

seeing
The original face
Without perception
No you to see or know

That which knows empty is empty

71
 Wave Twenty-Nine
Not the Wind,
Not the Flag,
Not the Mind
Master Eno:
“The flag does not move
the wind does not move
It is the mind that moves.”

Master Mumon:
“Where is the heart of the Patriarch,” (Buddha)

Master Sunno: “Where does it come from?”

As the mind is a reflection in the abstracted mirror

The world appearance appears with the Emptiness
An instantaneous-simultaneous appearance
No prior

The mirrored mind appears to move

as long as the knower of the mind appears to be

72
 “What appears to lie “prior” to it
is instantaneous with it
is simultaneous with it
is not “it”
and yet is it?”

The mind is an instantaneous-simultaneous

appearance

A label with nothing behind it

As all that is… is an instantaneous-simultaneous

appearance
Without a past
Without a now
Without a now
Without a now
Without a reason
Without a cause
Without subject or object

A label with nothing behind it

All appearances are abstractions

Our True Self
A wonderful concept
An abstraction of what?

The mind appears to move in the abstracted world

There is no mind which moves “prior” to the

instantaneous-simultaneous appearance
Both are correct
73
Nisargadatta Maharaj “There is no karma,
(movement or activity) in the state of the
Parabrahma, (The Absolute).”

The heart of Buddha is here and now, prior to the

experiential appearance of here, (hear), and (no)w.

An abstracted representation of what?

Do not assume there is an of what?

74
 Wave Thirty
“This Very Mind
is Buddha
Daibai asked Master Baso: “What is Buddha?”
Master Baso answered: “This very mind is
Buddha”

Follow the thread backward

Ramana Maharishi: “Go back the way you came.”

Backtrack prior to the abstracted mind

The one doing it is Buddha
No one doing

The mind is Buddha

Your mind is Buddha
Now

The mind is a label placed on the abstracted world

The abstracted world is Buddha

The Buddha is an appearance on-in-and-of the
abstracted mind-world.

75
Master Baso: “No mind, no Buddha.”

The whole universe is one and empty

All mind is one and empty
The empty one
Empty of empty
Empty of one
Oneness is without labels
No oneness
No empty

Buddha is without a fixed form

No Buddha without fixed form
The Buddha mind

Master Baso: “No Mind, No Buddha”

Nature with no “I” does not and cannot become

attached to any being.

Nature with no “I”

No “I”
No nature

Buddha: “If you seek after Dharma you attain

nothing . . . Outside of mind there is no Buddha;
outside Buddha there is no mind.”

Zen Saying: “The finger that points at the mono is

not the moon.”

76
 Believing in words and teaching is a stuck pointer
There is no meditation taught in Buddhism
A stuck pointer
Meditation is a stuck pointer
Meditation is a stuck pointer
Meditation is a stuck pointer

Mind is the foundation of Zen

Master Baso: “Mind is not Buddha.”

All is “it”
The knower of “it” is “it”

Buddha said upon realization “all beings at this very

moment have attained the Way.”

Seek and you shall not find.

You that is seeking is “it”
No “It”

No matter what you do you cannot become a

Buddha
You cannot become what you already are

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “If you think you can

attain something through actions you are deluded.”

The soil of the abstracted mind is Buddha

The essence of mind is Buddha

Buddha: “There is no fundamental reality.”

77
 A tree falls in the forest
No one is there
No sound
No mind
No world
No Buddha
Buddha

“What Buddha is beyond Buddha?”

“No Buddha”

78
 Wave Thirty-One
In front of You
“Go straight on”
Its in front of you
An abstraction is “It”
An abstraction of what?

Here prior to here

Hear prior to hear
Now, prior to now
W(here) prior to location
“You” prior to you

“Go straight inside”

Consciousness
Introverted
Go in
Straight back
Without
Prior

Looking prior to a looker

No subject object

Koan: “How can you become you?”

79
 The consciousness

“I” have seen through her”

Without abstraction-transduction

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “No me, No you, No me,

no you.”

Without abstraction-transduction
No Zen

Without abstraction-transduction
No Zen

Without abstraction-transduction
No Zen

80
 Wave Thirty-Two
Neither Are
One eye, not two
All perceptions vanish

There is an “I”, is a state…a delusion

There is no “I”, is a state…a delusion
“I am” dissolves as delusion
“I am not”-“You are not” dissolves as delusion

Words form the illusionary sense of beingness

No words form the illusionary sense of non-being
The “wind” of the empty mind remains
Or not

Without a subject or object

The illusion of distinction dissolves
The knower reverses direction…”never was”

The empty mirror without empty

The Void Without

The Void of Void

Nothing moves

81
Nisargadatta Maharaj “There is no karma
(movement or activity) in the State of Parabrahma
(Absolute)

All is a perfect manifestation of our essential

nature

Buddha: “There is no essential nature.”

Realize there is no within and without

Realize there is no inside or outside
Enter the gateless gate

Koan: “One side the illusioned phenomena,

The other no differences,
Neither are a manifestation of the Absolute.
Why?

82
 Wave Thirty-Three
Not Mind,
Not Buddha
Question: What is Buddha?
Master Baso: “Mind is Buddha.”

Question: What is Buddha?

Master Baso: “No Mind No Buddha.”

First understand Mind is Buddha

Then understand No mind No Buddha

Master Jizai:
“Mind is Buddha is the phase for one who wants
medicine while he has no disease
No mind no Buddha is the phase for one who cannot
do away with medicine after his disease is cured.”

No truth or reality in the objective world

First Buddha
And then what is is
Then comes the story of what is

Mind without form

Abstraction gives form to the formless-Buddha
83
 Being to the beinglessness-Buddha
And isness to islessness-Buddha

Monk asked Baso, “Why do you teach that Mind is

Buddha?”
Baso: “In order to stop a baby crying replied Baso.
The monk asked, “What it like when a baby stops
crying?”
“No Mind No Buddha”, replied Baso

Realize Zen without the name and form of Buddha

Koan: “Is there Zen prior to the word Zen?”

Koan: “Is there Buddha prior to the word Buddha?”

Zen Saying: “Those who fall in love with the path

forget the destination.”

The perceivable world is Buddha

The full—abstracted mirror is Buddha
The Emptiness is Buddha
The other side of the mirror is Buddha
The mind is Buddha
The world is Buddha
Not Mind---
Not World
Not Buddha

What is Buddha?
The Void is Buddha
The empty mirror is Buddha
Not Buddha

84
 Not Not Buddha

The empty mirror is not mind

The empty mirror is not not Buddha
No abstracted Mind, No Buddha

Heart Sutra “Form is emptiness, Emptiness is

form”

The pain of disillusionment, is the pain over a

word(s)

Contradictions are in words

descriptions are in words
Labels are in words
Compliments are in words
None are
Without a knower

I am not
You are not

One eye
The Dharma Eye is without subject-object
which might change words and perceptions
Or not
Its still an abstracted representation of something
which does not exist

First understand abstracted-transduced, “Mind is

Buddha.”
Then understand, “No mind No Buddha.”.

85
What is Buddha?
Master Baso: “Mind is Buddha.”

What is Buddha?
Master Baso: “No Mind No Buddha

86
 Wave Thirty-Four
The Mind is
Not Buddha,
Wisdom Is
Not The Way
Zen Koan:
“Mind is not the Buddha, Wisdom is not the Tao.”

Or

“Mind is not the Buddha, Knowing is not the Way.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “If you can forget it or

remember it, it is not you, therefore discard it.”

One sound emits, ignorance follows

Sri Shankara, “All that is heard is nonexistent”

Master Nansen: “This is not mind, this is not

Buddha, this is not a thing,”

87
 This is not knowing, this is not wisdom

Diamond Sutra, (Variation),“We refer to it as

___________, but it is not__________”

Shiva Sutras: “Knowledge is bondage”

There is nothing behind words

Words and labels are abstracted-concepts
representing things and facts which do not exist

Words and labels get confused with facts and the

Way
Things, facts, and knowing, (ness) are rippled-
perceptual illusions

Buddha, Mind, Knowing and Way are Not

Empty
Empty without empty
Not as you think them to be
MU

Eating, sleeping, shitting, fucking, learning,

comfort seeking, merging, or making more money
to have a better place to do it in are the Way

It is as it is, as it is, as it is, as it is,

Complete, prior to the word complete
Now prior to the word now

88
 The substance of the mind is consciousness
Without this knowledge there is the illusion of
being lost

Lost in a mirage

Can a mirage be lost?

Can a mirage make a sound?
Can a mirage have a Way?
Can a mirage have wisdom?
Can a mirage have or perceive a Buddha?
Can a mirage have or perceive a Tao?
Buddha, Way, Wisdom, Knowing, Mind, Tao are
all part of the mirage

The Buddha is a by-product of the essential empty

mirror
There is no Buddha
There is no mirror

All is hanging onto a mirage of emptiness

All is hanging onto a mirage of form

No form
No emptiness

Nisargadatta Maharaj when asked, “Who

are you?, responded, “Nothing perceivable or
conceivable.”

MU

89
 Wave Thirty-Five
The Background
of Not Not Not
Moving from one bubble universe or state to
another
The background never changes

Transcended is not going beyond

Transcended is not a state where “I” will be or end
up
Transcended is, “It has nothing to do with me nor
is it mine
no longer is it, or the “I” who knows of it.”
There is no, “I”, “me”, “mine” or “it”

Absolute-Ultimate Subjectivity the point of view

dissolves
The subject dissolves
No subject-object
Absolute Subjectivity holds no point of reference
Absolute Subjectivity without
Realizing the two in the one
Neither

90
 Life and death are the same
Ocean-water
Not essential

Bodhidharma: When asked, “who are you?”

responded, “not knowing”

“It”
No “It”
MU

The metaphor of the five elements dissolve

and with them all you are and your universe
“Your” tree in the forest dissolves

The electrons change orbits

The old dies the new begins
Yet “I” am the changeless not knower
Without knowingness
Impossible to know
And un-be-able
Not essential

The ocean
Prior to, and the bubbles, the elements,
The illusion of change
Especially the hopeful illusion of changelessness
Are Not

The ever changing and the changeless

their appearances are “me” too
Yet, I know them not

91
 No knowingness
Un-be-able

Hanuman, (The mind) to Ram, (The Absolute):

“When I don’t know who I am I serve you,
When I know who I am I am you”

The distinctions between subject and object

belong to words and language

There is no true you

No fundamental reality
No essential reality to be or become
No not not you
Without a knower
Without knowingness
Un-be-able

The “moon” is “It”…”From” “where” “does” the

“moon” “arise”?”

92
 Wave Thirty-Six
Who or What Is
Without Sequence?
Zen Koan: “When you meet a man of the Way
on the path, do you meet him with words or with
silence?”

No words
No sounds
No silence
No stillness
Two sides
One mirror

Zen Saying: “It is not the tongue he speaks with.”

Transcend, has nothing to do with beyond as in a

place an “I” will go
Transcend has nothing to do with subject-object
Transcend: has nothing to do with anything.

Nothing comes
Nothing goes
The background remains

93
 Minus the knower minus the not knower
minus the not not knower

Zen Koan: (Variation), “What sees, hears and

thinks?”

No words
No silence
No self
No realization
“See” through form
“See” through emptiness

Abstracted-rippling events appear to be following

one after another

Koan: “Without a perceiver, What is sequence?”

Comparisons, judgments, evaluations, and,

significance,
concepts and ideas keep flowing
A water falls of emptiness, without empty
Without sequence

Crack

The perceptual illusion broken

An illusion of what?

Koan: “What assumption does “OF” bring?”

The mask of perception shattered

94
Mu minus Mu

Without sequence

95
 Wave Thirty-Seven
An Oak Tree.
Zen Koan: “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma
coming from the west?”
An Oak tree

Objects do not belong to the objective world

A perceptual illusion
Without inside or outside
The gateless gate

Who am I?
An Oak tree
A perceptual illusion
“See” through “form”

What is the meaning of this word?

The moon
Tear off the perceptual label
The Void

Neti Neti a perceptual illusion

The seer reverses itself
Utter meaninglessness
Nothing is permanent
Nothing is temporary

96
Koan: “Minus abstractions, what is?”

Life is called life

Life is a perception
A perceptual illusion

Koan: “Life is a perception, a perceptual illusion of

what?”
(Hint) Don’t fall for the “OF”

And This, And This ,(Utter meaninglessness)

There is nothing that is not the Oak Tree
No subject-object
“See” through “form”
“See” through “Emptiness”
The seer reverses itself
No seer
A perception
A perceptual illusion

Mu – Mu

Day-Night
Right –Wrong
Good-Bad
Love-Hate
Two positions with an interdependent nature
There are no opposites

Zen Koan: “What is the opposite of truth?”

Answer: “Truth”

97
 Utter meaninglessness

“I” is the name for a perception

A perceptual illusion
“You” is the name for a perception
A perceptual illusion
Nothingness is not nothingness it is a name of a
perception
Beingness is not beingness, it is the name of a
perception

Koan: “A perception, a perceptual illusion of what?”

(Hint) Don’t Fall for the “OF”

Its all an Oak Tree

Scrambled eggs

Nothing is true
nothing is false
MU-MU

Life is the name for a perceptual illusion

98
 Wave Thirty-Eight
Why Is There
An Essential
Nature?
Thoughts, memory, emotions associations
perceptions and the body concept dissolve
All disappears and then might return

Koan: “What is prior to consciousness?

See with one eye

Koan: “Why is consciousness?”

The self reverses itself into oblivion

Either the amnesic Void, or the other side of the
mirror?

Koan: “Does the essential nature remain?”

Upon disappearance the uncooked seeds might

spout

99
 The self returns

Koan: “Why uncooked seeds?”

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Spiritual practice is

searching for what has not been discarded and then
discarding it.”

“It” has no name and form

Koan: “Why is there an “it”?”, as in “This is “It.”

There is no place where the “It” is not”

No place
No “It”

Without form
Without Emptiness

Koan: “From where does the essential nature

appear?”
Koan: “Why does the essential nature appear?

The wetness of water is still a mirage

100
 Wave Thirty-Nine
Sri Shankara,
“All that is heard
is nonexistent”
Zen Koan: (Dialogue shortened), “The Buddha
pervades the universe.”

No Buddha
No universe

Master Baso: No Mind-No Buddha

Buddha-No Buddha-Buddha-No Buddha Buddha-

No Buddha is Mind
Mind is Buddha

Before-after
Beginning-end
Buddha- No Buddha
A dream within a dream
All practice invites delusion, re-enforcing the “is”
of “I”

101
Zen Koan: (Dialogue shortened) “You have
misspoken.”

Discarding concepts and seeking the Absolute

“increases” delusion

Enlightenment-delusion a dream within a dream

Birth-death
Arising-subsiding
Nonduality-duality
Similarities-differences
Subtle visions within the Mind
The Buddha-Mind
All are part of the illusion

Zen Koan: (Two Zen Koans joined together), “The

Mind is Buddha-No Mind, No Buddha.”

Sound is an illusion
Silence and stillness are an illusion
A dream within a dream
The Mind
The Mind-Buddha

The knower and all knowledge are illusions

Nisargadatta Maharaj “Question everything don’t

believe anything.”

The Supreme does not pick and choose

All perceivables are in the dream
All conceivables are in the dream

102
 I am not
You are not
Subtle perceptions are still(ness) perceptions
Subtle perceptions are still perceptions

Baso’s Koan: “Who is hearing this sound?”

Sri Shankara, “All that is heard is nonexistent”

Koan: “Who understands these words?”

Koan: “Why am “I?”

The Knower is a state

The known a perception

Buddha: The Diamond Sutra: “Give up all

perceptions.”

No knower
No not not knower
All that is spoken is misspoken

Sri Shankara, “All that is heard is nonexistent”

103
 Wave Forty
What Do You
Call It?
Zen Koan, (with slight variation), “What do you
call it?”

All perceptions have names

like chair, car, love, enlightenment-delusion
All perceptions are not

Nothingness is not a thing

It is the name for a perception
A chair is not a chair
It is the name for a perception
A perception

“I” am not “I”

“I” am a perception
The name of a perception

The body is not a body

The body is a perception
The name of a perception

104
 The Mind is not the Mind
The Mind is a perception
The name of a perception

A perception of What?
“What is It?”

No Mind, No Dharma
Names solidify perceptions
Labels solidify perceptions
Descriptions solidify perceptions
Approach all Koans from the essential
Approach “All” from the essential
Without

There is not a thing in the universe

Nor a universe

Buddha: The Diamond Sutra: “…We refer to it as a

world, but there is no world…”

There is no essential

“What is it that is prior to names-descriptions-

labels?”

Trace backward
Prior to descriptions-labels-names-the self-the
body
Subtle layers of the non-existent mind

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “…Reverse…”

105
 Nothing to depend upon
No reference point
No frames of reference
no references to frame

The illusion vanishes

The knower remains
The glue like state between the Supreme and the
---------------
No knower
No not not knower
An infinite number of negations

Approach “All” from the essential

There is no essential

106
 Wave Forty-One
Bodhidharma,
“Show Me Your
Mind.”
Koan Enquires:
Where is your Mind?
What is your Mind?
Why is your Mind?

Bodhidharma: “Show me your mind?”, or

“Give me your mind.”

Ramana Maharishi: “…Show me your mind…give

me your mind…”

Koan Enquires:
What is the size of the knower-looker?
What is the shape of the knower-Looker?
Where is the knower-looker?
Why is the knower looker?
What is the knower-looker made of?
Where does the knower-looker arise from?
Is there a knower-looker?
107
Koan: “What happens if the knower-looker looks for
itself”

A perception
A perception of a perception
No perceptions
No not perceptions

Zen Saying: Bodhidharma never came from the

west

No not perceptions
No Mind
The universe vanishes

No transmission(s)

Don’t be mindful
Non-minding
Without

No perceptions
No not perceptions
No Mind
No positions
Non-binding
No interdependence
No dependent arising
No independent origination
No non-duality

108
Nisargadatta Maharaj: “…No me no you, No me
no you…”

Tracing the currents in reverse

A description of everything
Mind a word-perception signifying nothing

Koan: “Prior to words and perception is there a

mind?”

Without localization

Who is meditating?
Mantras
A stuck pointer

A perception
A perception of a perception
No perceptions
No not perceptions

Zen Saying: Bodhidharma never came from the

west

109
 Wave Forty-Two
The Essential
and Differences
Phenomena reveal differences
The Essential is equality without differences
Differences and Equality are two sides of one coin
There is not two, nor one

The Yoga of Differentiation

Each reveals a perceived picture of reality
Not reality

Nagarjuna: “…There is no unity, (non-duality),

there is no duality…”

Form is no form
Body is no body
Being is no being

Dualistic ideas are just idea-perceptions with a

knower
Non-dual ideas-experiences are just idea-
perceptions with a knower
The body is a perceptual idea-experience with a
knower
110
 Without a knower-perceiver are they?

The perceiver is a perceptual-idea-experience

Ideas and perceptions are not

Enlightenment-delusion are thoughts

Part of the bubble dream

Samadhi is no me
No dream

Koan: What does Samadhi “show”-“be”?

It is what it is
Things are as they are
No knower-perceiver
No not knower-perceiver
No not not knower-perceiver
No things
no is-are
One without duality
One without non-duality
Neither duality nor non-duality
The two are one and are not
No One

111
 Wave Forty-Three
No Appearance Of
Zen Koan(Story): “…What is this Staff?
If you call it a staff you are committed to names.
If you call it not-a-staff you negate the fact
Tell me, what do you call it?...”

Names are perceptual-transduced-abstractions

Appearances of what?
MU

There is no what that there is an abstraction or an

appearance of

Essential Is zero

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “…All is plus and minus

. . . zero . . .”

In-between two mirrors

Two sides of one mirror

The form is not

The essential is not
Without words-perceptions-abstractions-
transductions

112
 No are
no is
no “I”
no you
No sentient-insentient
No Boddhisattva
Without naming or discarding
no Mu
No not Mu

There is no what that there is an abstraction or an

appearance of

113
 Wave Forty-Four
Staff, Your Essential
Buddha Self
MU

The self is a perception

The perception of no “I” or no Self is a perception,
a subtle Identity
Your essential self, or emptiness contains a knower

As form is emptiness
Emptiness is form
First form is a subtle emptiness
Emptiness a subtle form
A wonderful continuum

As form is emptiness, emptiness is form, the

essential is still a known
And although the enlightened side of delusion
It is still delusion

Form-emptiness
Delusion-enlightenment
Must go

114
 As neither are

Perceived-named-described-labeled form must go

Perceived-named-described-labeled Emptiness-
Essential-satori-samadhi too must “go”
As soon as there is a “you” or a perceiving-naming-
describing-labeling even Emptiness, oneness, non-
duality, enlightenment, satori, realization, samadhi
all become a fixed obstacle.
Without Without
Zen calls leaving no trace behind

The essential-emptiness as well as form are both an

abstracted representation; a picture of what is not

The essential, although appearing as form or

emptiness can give the illusory glimpse of THAT,
with the illusory power to make the world vanish
But it returns
Why?
Because the two are one, and are holographic in
nature

Words yield more words

Explanations attempt to pacify the mind

With the death of perception

There is no self
All perceptions are illusions
The path and spirituality are a lifestyle illusionary
trap

115
 No perceptions
No “I”
No knower
No dream

Form-emptiness
Emptiness-form
The essence of both is one without one

The wetness of water which underlies hot and

cold is still the water of a mirage in the desert

The wetness of water which underlies hot and

cold is still the water of a mirage in the desert

The wetness of water which underlies hot and

cold is still the water of a mirage in the desert

116
 Wave Forty-Five
Who is He?
Zen Koan: “Who is He?”

The “Essential One”

The only “One” in the universe
No other
no self
No you
no me
No One

The Eternal Subject has “no-I”

No Subject-Object
No Subjectivity
Essential with a no(er)
Without Object or Subject

Crack the mask

Crack the mask, the mask of perception

Go “in”

Krsna: “It is better to do your own path imperfectly

then another’s perfectly”

117
 No triangulation
Oneness is practice

The “Essential One”

The only “One” in the universe
No Essential One

118
 Wave Forty-Six
Free To,
Free Not To:
Emptiness-Form,
Essential,
Absolute(ly)
Zen Koan: “How do you proceed from the top of a
100 foot pole?”

Once “established” in the emptiness

Realize its impermanence as subtle consciousness
that “proceeds” form

Free to
Free not to
Form-emptiness-consciousness
Consciousness-emptiness-form

119
Zen Saying: (Variation), “If you build a nest in any
state, even satori, you fall into poison.”

Zen Saying: (Variation), “If you build a nest in any

state, even satori, you fall into poison.”

Zen Saying: (Variation), “If you build a nest in any

state, even satori, you fall into poison.”

As form is not it
So too emptiness is not it
Your essential nature underlies form as form
and emptiness as emptiness
Yet, as an “experiential” known it is not it
Be free of all states, no matter how beautiful=ugly
High=low

The essential nature without a seeing seer

A hearing hearer
A knowing knower
Mu

Salutations to the
essential wonder

The !000 Negations of the Essential Nature

Absolute(ly), no no, no no no
Absolute(ly), neither satori-ignorance

Zen Saying: “Cast off the stink of Buddhism.”

120
 Blend like a flower in a field of flowers
A tree in a forest
Shit in a sewer

The concept of someone is not there

The concept of other or self is not there
Nothing special
There is no one
no self to know a someone
no self to know an isness

In every part lies the w(hole)

In every w(hole) lies the part
One hole-o-graphic illusion
Without a knower to know it
MU

The !000 Negations of the Essential Nature

Absolute(ly), no no, no not no
Asolute(ly), neither satori-ignorance

121
 Wave Forty-Seven
Three Barriers-
Three Koans
Zen Koan: “Where, (what) is the (your) self nature
at this very moment,(the present)?”
Ocean

At this very moment (The present)

Without a self-nature
Who finds what?
Who goes where
No Location
No not location

Do not confuse Now with Now

There is no label for Now
Therefore there is no Now

There is no way to catch the present

The present, by the time you get there dissolves
into the void of the past

As anything can be divided into an infinite number

of smaller and smaller particles
122
 As an atom is 99.999999999999% empty
As we see only .000054% of what is there

Time exists only in ones own consciousness-the

foam

Consciousness is unconscious of itself

Consciousness is unconscious of itself
Consciousness is unconscious of itself

And words appear “unconsciously” at the top of

the ocean

See through the consciousness-foam

See through the seer of the consciousness-foam
The void of past
The void of present
The void of an imagined future
The seer-knower is void

As the Void opens

Absolute(ly)

When the “I” that wishes to experience “it”

dissolves
Without any awareness of the “I”
There is no here prior to
There is no now prior to
There is no knowingness prior to

When ideas vanish like the delusive prior to, or

beyond

123
 The eternal now with no subject-object
Is not now
The eternal here with no subject-object
Is not here

Seeing through consciousness

Seeing through the seer of consciousness

Awareness of the “I” dissolves

Without form

The Void breaks open

The Void breaks open
The Void breaks open

No more “awareness” of void

Keep enquiring with this Zen Koan:
(shortened)”…Who hears…?”
The Ocean Without

Zen Koan: “When you have realized your self

nature how can you be free of life and death, how
can you free yourself of life and death when the light
of your eyes is falling to the ground,(When you are
facing death)?”

Nonexistent-life-death
No boundary between life and death
One and the same

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “…There is no birth there is

no death…”

124
 For your essential nature there is no birth
there is no death
Life and death are merely superficial changes in
the foam-wave
While the ocean, as the ocean remains as it is

Zen Saying: “Without me there, there is neither life

nor death.”

We refer to it as life, but there is no life

We refer to it as death, but there is no death
The boundary between life and death dissolves
An illusory perception from a droplet on foam in a
wave to a droplet on foam in a wave
There is no difference between them

There are no-beings in the essential world-also

called the Dharma world

The void breaks open

Absolute(ly)

The void breaks open

Absolute(ly)

The void breaks open

Absolute(ly)

Zen Koan: “After your four elements have

decomposed,(separated) where will you go?”

Answer: Nowhere

125
Zen Saying: “Bodhidharma did not come to
China.”

Without a self-nature
Who finds what?
Who goes where
No Location
No not location
Do not confuse Now with Now
There is no label for Now
Therefore there is no Now

There is no way to catch the present

The present, by the time you get there dissolves
into the void of the past

As anything can be subdivided in an infinite

number of smaller and smaller particles
As an atom is 99.999999999999% empty
As we see only .000054% of what is there

Time exists only in ones own consciousness-the

foam

Consciousness is unconscious of itself

Consciousness is unconscious of itself
Consciousness is unconscious of itself

And words unconsciously appear at the top of the

ocean
“See” through the consciousness-foam
“See” through the seer of the consciousness-foam

126
 The void of past
The past is in the void
The void of present
The present in the void
The void of an imagined future
The seer-knower as void

The Void breaks opens

Absolute(ly)

The Void breaks opens

Absolute(ly)

The Void breaks opens

Absolute(ly)

127
 Wave Forty-Eight
Here It Is
Zen Saying: “Here it is”

The Way is not a way

The Way-Nirvana-Here it is
Essential without a knowing knower
Phenomena with a knowing knower

In the essential world

One can point to the phenomenological

Watch for the w(hole) between the Two

A straight shot
Its all it
Two no places at once

Some people claim to know the Way

Others claim to know a way
There is no way
Nobody knows the Way

The w(hole)
One straight shot

128
 Holding on-Letting go
Knowing-Not knowing
Nothing can enter here
Two aspects of the essential in foam-waves-it

No Knower
No Knowing
No not Knowing
No Not no(ing)
No Nirvana eye(“I”)

Watch for the w(hole) between the Two

A straight shot
Its all it
Two no places at once

Nisargadatta Maharaj: “…Zero…”

There is no such thing as zero

129
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1982
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by Jeanne Dunn Acorn Press 1985
Nisargadata Maharaj The Ultimate Medicine
Edited by Robert Powell North Atlantic Books
2006
Nisargadata Maharaj The Experience of
Nothingness Edited by Robert Powell North
Atlantic Books 1996
Nisargadata Maharaj Their Nectar of Immortality
Robert Powell
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Stephen Wolinsky Quantum Consciousness
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132