The Natural Stripping Away of Non-Existence
This section was another of those that it was difficult to decide whether to teach or not. The fear is that it is the natural contemplation which is really the ultimate signal of his "coming home" can quite easily be duplicated by a mind that is still too far away from dwelling with the Presence.
In other words, when one is not walking every moment of the day with a background setting of clarity and comprehension with regard to Vacuity, Oneness, Impermanence, Clear Comprehension and the Life Force then the mind in a state of dissonance can slip you into an an unfortunate approximation to this contemplation. You will believe that you are there when really you have not even started.
The fail-safe is the clarity with which you dwell with the Presence of the Four Sublime States, which need not be in such an advanced state that you become another Huineng. However, you must be aware where you are treading without placing the footsteps in the correct place cognitively.
It is a contemplation of the "twilight zone" because although its penetration is profound it does not occur with the non-consciouness of the Becoming of Consciousness and neither does it occur with normal cognitive cognition.
It can best then be described as an extrasensory state.
It occurs spontaneously when dwelling in full tranquility in the state of attention which we call Repose, which is before any irritation strikes the mind with alertion. It resembles then dream state in many ways, and that is why one must be aware of the trap of a deception by the subconscious mind of dissonance.
Why is it important that those upon the Dharma Path know of this before they have even perhaps been able to develop the organization of a basic trance, correct breathing, the Defensive Qi, or access to the Becoming of Consciousness?
The answer is, because it may serve to stop the most common impediment to all Contemplation and correct daily comportment: the cognitive idea about what Contemplation and the Buddha Dharma Path can eventually bring.
Awakening is rather like placing one of those wax candles on a perfectly baked cake which has been perfectly iced. Enlightenment is rather like lighting the candle, which you then have to blow out.
Then comes the important part, which is eating the cake.
In Buddha Dharma eating the cake is the Unstained Mind equivalent of Becoming an Ordinary Man. If you carry with you the mistaken belief that at the end of the Dharma Path you will be anything more than an ordinary man, then forget it.
You will not be infused with the light of great Truths. At best you will have internalized what the Masters have taught. Those teachings and the fine contemplations are designed to bring you here, not to some impressive state of "being" and "knowing."
If you don't believe that, then take the trouble to read what the great masters of the Golden Age have said with regard to that matter.
This Contemplation is called a Contemplation of the "Twilight Zone" because although its penetration is profound it does not occur with the normal non-consciouness of the Becoming of Consciousness and neither does it occur with normal cognition.
It can best then be described as an extrasensory state.
It occurs spontaneously when dwelling in full tranquility in the state of attention which we call "repose", which is before any irritation strikes the mind with alertion. It resembles then a dream state in many ways, and that is why one must be aware of the trap of a deception by the subconscious mind of dissonance.
You cannot plan to get there in any way. When the moment is ripe and you dwell in wakeful repose then it just arrives. It needs no organization or preparation and I suppose you can call it a symptom rather than result of anything.
The Contemplation is a symptom of the apparent existence of the question, "What?", when the stimulus for the question is paradoxically empty.
The contents of the Contemplation, which are conscious but quickly forgotten, solve the empty question.
Now that is a close approximation of what actually occurs, but to prevent that from being too mysterious or confusing, I will try now to simplify the explanation. But you must understand that this explanation is far from being an adequate explanation of what you will encounter, so do not cling to it.
IN CONSTRUCTION
THE CONTEMPLATION
Suddenly, from Repose in a state which resembles closely the Becoming of Consciousness, without either the presence of the Breathing in and out or Defensive Qi, one finds oneself in a state of Non-Existence.
That state cannot be explained, one just has to experience it.
First I would like you to really understand what Huineng declared and what Master Dogen declared in his great text Shobogenzo:
"I say, if you think that the Samadhi of the Buddhas, the supreme and great Dharma, is to sit like a lazy one without doing anything, then you are a person who insults Mahayana Buddha Dharma.
"A confusion like this is like being in the ocean and saying that there is no water.
"We are now seated, stable and full of gratitude, in the Samadhi of the Buddhas, the Samadhi of receiving and using the "I". Does this not constitute an ample and great virtue?
"It is lamentable that your eyes are not yet open and that your mind remains in an alcoholic stupor. In general the state of the Buddhas is unimaginable: intelligence is not able to reach it.
"How is it possible to know the "doubt" and the "wisdom"?"
Let us start fom that phrase.
How is it possible to know the DOUBT and the WISDOM?
Clearly it is not. But with the constant dedication to walking with the presence and observing correct meditation, the DOUBT falls away revealing what lies beneath. But consciousness only knows that the doubt has gone and that Wisdom remains. How does one know that indeed Wisdom is what remains? Perhaps Cognition with Mara is playing yet another advanced mind-game with you?
It is the spontaneous Contemplation of the Twilight Zone that confirms the state.
When I say that you will discern yourself in a state of non-existence there is no consciousness of body or the self of mind. Yet at the same time there is an experience of Non-existence itself being stripped away. Existence has already been revealed as a great deceiver.
It is not, as one might suppose in this Contemplative state, a sudden revelation of what is behind Non-existence, but a gradual moment-by-moment stripping away, rather like old paint being stripped from a wall.
You cannot determine what is being stripped away, but you sense and experience a cleansing. What remains is nothing except a rare experience of neither being nor non-being.
This is neither Nirvana nor Awakening. You are not aware of what has been stripped away, but you are aware that a painless and exhaustive stripping away occured.
Consciousness knows that there is mind-body conditioning for survival, but there is no mind-body to survive. Similarly there can be no self-determination of any kind since there is neither being nor non-being.
Accompanying the illusions of being and non-being you know that there is just the conditioning and random action. As such, there can be no self-determined action at all.
Digest this small passage from the Shobogenzo of Dogen:
"The bhiksu's secretly working concrete mind at this moment is, in the state of bowing in veneration of real dharmas, prajna itself - whether or not they are without appearance and disappearance - and this is a venerative bow itself.
Just at this moment of bowing in veneration, prajna is realized as explanations which can be understood: from precepts balance, and wisdom, to saving sentient beings, and so on.
This state is described as being without (emptiness). Explanations of the state of being without (emptiness) can thus be understood.
Such is the profound, subtle, unfathomable prajna-paramita."
You might now be able to intuit what this experience accompanying this stripping away of Non-Existence might be. It is the experience that arrives with a bowing to the profound, subtle, unfathomable prajna-paramita, known as "the Perfection of (Transcendent) Wisdom."