The Problem of Knowledge Part 3:
A Peg in the Sky

The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror; it grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it receives, but does not keep.

Absolute truth. The ground of being. The unspeakable Tao. The Which than Which there is no Whicher. The irreducible datum of all experience. Existence is.

The third and final instalment in this series is something of a sea change, massaging the mind towards contemplation of its nature that may induce a shift of perspective that is as far from abstract or theoretical as anything can be. Articles one and two were no more than a sealed envelope and an accompanying letter blade. Here, the article cannot do the heavy lifting. I cannot open the letter for you. It is an invitation.

In some ways, this article is the most straightforward and shortest of the three to write, as there is little need for me to head off any sharp edges a the mind may stick to. Moreover, there are already volumes of transcribed talks and literature on mystical vision. Instead of an analytical breakdown, this article will directly illuminate what is already apparent.

It will have struck anyone who has sifted theological texts and mystical teachings that these paradoxical, self-referencing, navel-gazing pointers are almost deliberately obscure. As if it were all a multi-level marketing scheme to sell books and create a never-ending lineage of inscrutable persons who have "seen through it all."

It is impossible to understand because the words are pointers, like a finger pointing at the moon. There’s nothing lost that needs to be attained. Any revelation is the recognition of the nature of what already was. The difference between seeing through a pane of glass and, without changing your gaze, seeing the reflection.

Simplicity. That is where all of the reasoning and argumentation has been leading. In the same way that 1-1=? does not even require a morsel of conscious thought to deduce. It has become so obvious that no process needs to be worked through to arrive at the answer; it appears in the mind effortlessly. Likewise, our being is so immediate and effortless it precedes any effort to know it, any effort will only have the effect of seeming to obscure it. Nevertheless, to arrive at the self-apparent and obvious is sometimes a journey that is far less obvious than hindsight suggests. There is no axis or method to understand because it can’t be referred to in words or any form. What is pointed to requires no understanding. There is an alternative way that a message lands energetically that has a radically transformative effect.

There is a Zen Koan that illustrates the difference beautifully:

Fa-yen asked the monk Hsüan-tzu why he had never asked him any questions about Zen. The monk explained that he had already attained his understanding from another master. Pressed by Fa-yen for an explanation, the monk said that when he had asked his teacher, “What is the meaning of Buddhism?” he had received the answer, “Ping-ting comes for fire!”
"A good answer!" said Fa-yen. "But I’m sure you don’t understand it."
"Ping-ting," explained the monk, "is the god of fire. For him to be seeking for fire is like myself, seeking the Buddha. I’m the Buddha already, and no asking is needed."
"Just as I thought!" laughed Fa-yen. "You didn’t get it."
The monk said, “Well, how would you answer?”
"Go ahead, ask me." said Fa-yen.
"What is the meaning of Buddhism?" inquired the monk.
"Ping-ting comes for fire!"

If it must be put into words, there is only this, an appearance happening as itself, made from itself, occurring to nobody. I am not referring to something other than “your” eyes scanning this exact word now! THIS is all there is! Simply because what is happening is the only thing here, before the mind makes something of it, and even when the mind makes something of it, it is still simply an appearance arising. Time, continuity, memory is all arising timelessly from the formless now. Rock bottom reality is A=A because it must be, all explanation and description come later. You cannot have an explanation without the substrate that allows explanation, cause or reason preceding it. Causal explanations like A=B+C is just A=A appearing as A=B+C.

Imagine a sheet of paper stretching out in all directions, this paper boils and froths with all sorts of origami forms, some of which seem to persist and live in their own little environment for a while. These semi-persistent forms we have taken to be ourselves (plural) rather than the paper (singular), but when the origami swan sees that it is paper, it is the paper that sees. This is not an event, like the motion of the paper, but a recognition of what always was.

The solution or the end of the seeking isn't a finding. That need to find something is never satisfied; it never happens. If it does, it's very temporary. I find something and I'm afraid of losing it; I find something and I'm trying to hold onto it; I'm trying something and I'm trying to maintain it. It's never satisfied. The end of the seeking is the end of the seeker, is the end of the experience, that 'this' is real.

What's left is everything: THIS. This doesn't need anything else, this is already all there is. Whatever is happening—whatever feelings, thoughts, experiences are happening—that is the wholeness that is looked for.

By dismissing what is for what we imagine to be, we create a subtle sense of dissatisfaction and longing, the power of accessing what is available and true seems to be lost, and life is a boat rocked by the energies of pleasure and pain.

The narrative self is a dream. There is no solidity or centre to appearances. To do or not to do something about your situation makes no difference, like a shadow looking for the light switch; there is no surface to grasp; it is free.