Nought is

This poem struck me as significant for the reason that it can be so easily misunderstood.  It should not be read so as to draw the conclusion that when one "sees nought" there is really nothing beyond phenomena.  It would be a huge mistake to believe so. Here is the poem in question.  It is from Garma Chang's book Teachings of Tibetan Yoga. The lines go as follows:

If one sees nought when staring into space,
If with the mind one then observes the mind,
One destroys distinction
And reaches Buddhahood.

This poem, to put it so we can readily grasp its essence, is saying that when one sees that which is utterly absent of phenomena which, of course, is pure Mind, then with the primordial pure Mind one observes the pure Mind.  

To be sure, there is direct apprehension of a fundamental reality, but the reality is completely empty of determination in the way of perceiving things normally—or any 'thing' for that matter!  Nevertheless we cab behold this reality in a real way.

To appreciate this perspective (not to mention its subtlety), sit in zazen in a fairly dark room then close your eyes. While you are doing this observe the eyes understanding that what you are perceiving, at the moment, are the eyes being neurologically excited so that you are not actually seeing the nought but the something—something of the eye.  And try as you might to see the nought—you only manage to see something because you are habituated to doing so.  

But from the angle of a Bodhisattva, they have passed through all somethings which is analogous to being in a plane passing through clouds when all of a sudden it enters  the cloudless sky.  As the Bodhisattva meditates in the dark, like you, he sees the eyes being neurologically excited—but sees more.  The Bodhisattva sees positive not-thingness which is pure Mind.  Thus, he sees pure Mind with pure Mind which is absolute confirmation (samyaksambodhi), i.e., Buddhahood.

While this all sounds terribly subjective it is a fact of reality for the Bodhisattva who, from his spiritual vantage point, looks upon humans as being vexed by their unbroken and fettering habit of having to see something (in fact, wanting to see something) failing to grasp that they can perfectly perceive the nought as a positive.  Whereas they remain bound owing to the strength of habit, the Bodhisattva has undergone a conversion (parâvritti) of his former attachment (âshraya) to mind-phenomena.  This amounts to deliverance (moksha) from the former condition.  

The difference between the Bodhisattva and ordinary beings is that the latter have not made a thorough inventory of their being.  Instead, they stubbornly cling to their prejudices and presupposition thereby limiting what they can perceive which is sensory.  But there is more to human perception than sensory perception.

Comments

[anonymous]

American wild west zen at its best. Knuckle dragging cowboys trying to comment on the Buddhas dharma is always a blast.

[Capt.Knuckle&Flapjack]

It seems your vocabulary is such that you think the word unspooled is a TYPO for unspoiled.

unspooled, as pertaining to unwinding (thread, tape, etc.) from a spool.

come visit me and my mental midgets over on amazon.com's 'buddhism discussion' board.

My venom there flows freely.

[Capt.Knuckle&Flapjack]

At last,...a brilliant, intelligent and well unspoiled train of logic in this article, as relavent to liberation & its methodology.

Or, as has been said: "Even a blind Kentuckian squirrel can smell his own nuts!"