Translated by GPT4 (ChatGPT) engine, which is really fantastic and far supercedes all other translation services like Google.

On: I AM, One Mind, No Mind, Anatta, View vs Experience, etc

Dear Teacher XX,

May you be well and with the Buddha. I hope your health has improved and that you recover soon.

I understand that you prefer listening instead of reading from a computer, so I have added a computer-generated audio recording (from Free Text to Speech Online with Realistic AI Voices (naturalreaders.com)) attached to this email for you to listen to. The technology is fantastic now, you just need to copy and paste the text into the software, and it can generate an audio file almost instantly.

First of all, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my experiences and insights in your class.

However, I have recently been thinking about whether it is appropriate to share my insights in a layman's context (Soh’s comment: should be simplified manner rather than layman’s context). I originally intended to share my experiences and insights of my practice in a more straightforward and understandable way, including some of the following details:

Over the years, I have gradually realized that many people have misunderstood the concept of no-self (Anatta) in Dharma. I have observed that most people progress from realizing the true self/I AM, then to non-dual experiences, and finally to the state of no-mind, instead of directly realizing the original no-self insight/prajna wisdom of Dharma. My definition of "no-mind" here may be different from the terms in ZZ Buddhism. Specifically, I refer to a state where all subjectivity/self/ego/observer, etc., are completely forgotten, leaving only the pure world of phenomena, the pinnacle of non-dual experiences.

I regard "no-mind" as an experiential stage, which is different from the original no-mind wisdom of Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism. The latter refers to the inherent wisdom of Anatta, not just a peak experience. Those who have experienced no-mind (as an experience/stage, not prajna wisdom) know that such experiences exist and strive to achieve them again, trying hard to practice "forgetting the self" but not realizing the original no-self. The duality between the knower and the known disappears in the brilliance of colors, sounds, and scents, but this is an experience, not the realization of prajna wisdom.

There are two types of wisdom: "original wisdom" and "prajna wisdom." "Original wisdom" is the wisdom of the natural state of inherent purity and suchness, the true reality. "Prajna wisdom" is the wisdom of dealing with the emptiness of inherentness/inherent existence. Both types of wisdom are equally important. However, without a stable realization/insight of no-self, dependent origination, and emptiness, we will be unable to directly realize the true, suchness of the original wisdom that is beyond all elaborations. In the process of practice, practitioners need to balance these two types of wisdom to continually break through the view of self-nature and ultimately realize the freedom and purity of the mind.

Moreover, the prajna wisdom of no-self is a direct experiential realization that many people find difficult to understand. So this point is crucial; prajna wisdom/insight is different from merely non-dual experiences because it is a direct and experiential realization: "It has always been like this." (There is no knower or agent outside or behind the luminous phenomena; it has always been like this). The wisdom of no-self is critical for attaining/achieving a non-dual state where the background is completely irrelevant and inherently non-existent, without any tendency to subsume.

In the stage I call "the initial awakening" of what I call the "True Self", although awareness is nondual and nonconceptual at the moment of pure authentication, the understanding that follows is still dualistic— the nature is seen as (mistakenly believed to be) the formless aspect of the Witness behind all phenomena (including all other five aggregates), with the Witness and the witnessed being two separate entities. In daily life, awareness is seen as the ultimate background behind phenomena. However, even after the next stage, where the observer and the observed merge into a nondual state, it is far from the end. In fact, in my experience, there are several stages within nonduality (which I call One Mind, No Mind, and Anatta). Here, I will elaborate on my so-called experiences of One Mind, No Mind, and Anatta, and the differences between them. The unification of emptiness and form, as in One Mind, is not the same as the emptiness and selflessness of awareness. The complete absence of distinctions between thinker/thought or listener/sound, etc., is a stage of nondual experience and insight, which I call the nonduality of One Mind, but it is different from the nonduality of Anatta.

In the initial nondual or One Mind stage, although awareness is seen as inseparable from phenomena, it is still considered unchanging, independent, or having inherent existence. At that stage, you would feel that you are an unchanging, open, and empty field of awareness (as is the initial awakening of the True Self). However, by the time you reach One Mind, when you hear a sound, the sound and the (empty-like) field of awareness seem to be one and the same, difficult to distinguish, but you cannot fully experience the absence of a listener, with only the sound present. In the nondual stage of One Mind, you will find that awareness and all forms are inseparable, but even though at this point you would also experience that awareness and the objects of awareness are originally nondual, awareness is still considered unchanging, special, and essentially different from phenomena (for example, awareness is unchanging and independently existing, while phenomena are subsumed into a vast, boundless, empty-like unchanging awareness that rises and falls, although this awareness contains and is inseparable from all phenomena, and the objects and the subject are one). The former (sound and the (empty-like) field of awareness seeming to be one) is the nonduality of One Mind— everything is included in a larger, unchanging field of awareness that is indivisible, with all aspects of body and mind being part of this field, but the field is not all aspects of body and mind, and this is "One Mind". The latter (only sound, no listener) is No Mind to Anatta. No Mind is precisely when the listener disappears, and there is only the sound, the awareness at the moment when only the sound is present, but this is a stage of experience where the "One Mind" of "all unified field of awareness" is forgotten and only the luminous phenomena remain. Anatta (non-self) is the realization that has always been: sound is awareness, awareness is just sound, there has never been a listener, and there has never been a knower, apart from the luminous phenomena of sound, color, and so on. Like the wind and the act of blowing, awareness is not some unchanging basis but rather an alternative name for luminous and dynamic manifestations/appearances.

Even when one experiences the collapse of observer and observed duality into a single field where awareness and phenomena are not divided in "one mind", one still cannot overcome or break through the deeply ingrained pattern of treating awareness as more ultimate, special, unchanging, and independent than the fleeting, impermanent phenomena. When this insight and paradigm are not overcome, the experience of no-mind can only be intermittent/temporary, rather than an effortless, natural, and seamless state, because the insight is unclear. One cannot effortlessly and fully comfortably settle in the brilliant/momentary/impermanent dharma (as Master Huineng and Zen Master Dogen once said, "Impermanence is Buddha-nature") and will habitually revert to a view of an inherent/unchanging source or foundation. When this stage progresses to a certain extent, the experience of no-mind will also occur when the knower completely disappears, with no separation between mirror and reflection, there is only that. However, despite having this experience, one still insists that the reflection (phenomena) and the mirror (pure awareness) are not the same. It is like the sky (awareness) is not the flowing clouds (phenomena), because the view of inherent existence is still very strong-- one does not have the wisdom of prajna to see through and overcome the view that awareness is an unchanging and inherently existing source, substratum, and substance of all phenomena that is nevertheless inseparable from all phenomena. Therefore, a practitioner may have clear no-mind experiences but have a one-mind view: there is still a desynchronization between view and experience. One may feel that the reflections come and go, are inseparable from the mirror, but the mirror is unchanging and thus more special, with a subtle difference from the reflections. While everything is indeed awareness, this is correct; the problem lies in the view of "everything shares a single unchanging awareness body," which is a mistaken view. Therefore, no-self must be a realization and insight, not merely a "no-mind" experience; otherwise, the experience will be mistaken for prajna wisdom.

Crucially, it is the prajna wisdom of no-self (anatman) that helps us overcome this obstacle in view. The awakening and practice of Anatta (no-self) are not achieved by merely practicing non-grasping or non-identification (in the initial "original self" stage, also maintaining an unaffected mirror, the mirror does not grasp its reflections nor identify them as oneself) but through realization/awakening-- realizing that besides the constantly presenting brilliant reflections, there is no other mirror, and the reflections themselves are the mirror. Without the awakening of no-self, it is impossible to have a permanent, seamless no-mind experience. If there is still a view of inherent existence and belief in self, will the no-mind experience be intermittent or permanent? Clearly, it can only be intermittent. At this time, the practitioner will constantly shuttle back and forth between "original self", "one mind", and "no-mind". Without the clear insight/prajna wisdom and achieving complete, doubt-free understanding of the no-self Dharma Seal, how can there be a permanent, effortless, selfless experience of all the six senses? It is impossible, and only after the insight of prajna wisdom is inspired will it naturally become effortless to realize one's nature in everything, and one will naturally extend this prajna wisdom in all interactions, whether in daily activities or meditation.

Merely maintaining a state of no thought, no concept, or cultivating a non-dual experience is not enough to realize/awaken to the selflessness. Instead, one must explore and challenge the deeply rooted insights in experience, exploring and challenging the perception of being an independent observer or having an independent existence of the "perception" itself, and exploring and challenging them by deeply perceiving the essence of the phenomenon until these constructs are seen through, realizing that perception is just these sceneries, sounds, mountains, and rivers, and has always been so, originally without an "I," without the ability to perceive behind it, and without a subject-action-object structure. This wisdom is not just about a state without concepts or a state without a mind, but crucially, it is about seeing through the inherent existence/self-nature misconception. This is why I had some insights after deeply contemplating the Bahiya Sutta - it is not just about extending a state without thought, without concepts, and non-duality, but "in what is seen, there is only the seen," realizing that there has never been a seer, a listener, an observer, nor has there ever been a "you" in any way or form that could have existed outside or behind all that is seen and heard, so when seeing, there is only the seen, when hearing, there is only the sound, when thinking, there is only the thought, originally without self, just like this.

Therefore, the subject-action-object (subject-action-object) is considered an illusion. Selflessness is always the Dharma seal, and this wisdom can break through the self-nature misconception of awareness, allowing one to recognize: when seeing colors, seeing itself is just the brilliant colors, there has never been a seer. When listening to sounds, there is only sound, and listening is only sound, there is no listener, always so. No effort is needed, and there has never been an "I," always just like this, not just an experience, but to realize this inherent nature. Awareness is like "weather," merely a label attached to constantly changing phenomena such as lightning, rain, snow, wind, and sunlight, and there is no real entity that can be found anywhere outside of them. Just as awareness is a label for the brilliant scenery, sounds, tactile sensations, scents, and thoughts, because it is these that are Buddha-nature, nothing else - Buddha-nature is not an entity, and it is not inherently existing outside of the five aggregates (otherwise it would become the eternalism view of non-Buddhist traditions).

Selflessness is not only about the peak experience of non-duality, and it is not only about merging the perceiver and the perceived, just as it is not about merging fire and burning (there is no fire outside of burning from the beginning) or merging lightning and the flash (there is no lightning outside of the flash from the beginning, the two are just synonyms), or merging the perceiver and the perceived, but realizing that they have never existed in themselves - the perception and the phenomenon itself have never been able to exist in themselves, so this is not the union of subject and object, but the realization that subject and object have never been born, empty by nature and without birth. Knowing and the known are inherently empty, so the nature of mind is the inseparable clarity (luminosity) and emptiness.

Although realizing no-self is just the beginning of truly stepping into Buddhism and the path of liberation, and there are more insights and breakthroughs during the journey, without this key milestone, it is really difficult to delve deeper into the nature of mind and phenomena, and ascend to the emptiness of both person and phenomena. Here, I am only focusing on no-self and not discussing dependent origination emptiness in depth, because it is beyond the scope of a single email. The realization of no-self is crucial for all sects within Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana, and here Mahayana also includes Tibetan Buddhism), regardless of whether they are Theravada or Mahayana, and it is not only about the sudden enlightenment of Zen. Although practitioners initially go through a gradual process, they also need breakthroughs in wisdom (realizing the innate no-self and dependent origination emptiness). The bodhisattva's understanding of emptiness is deeper than that of Theravada because it encompasses the emptiness of both person and phenomena. Other (non-Buddhist) religions also lead people into a non-dual stage, but they concretize it as the unchanging Brahman and the Atman (they teach: the small self is illusory, the world is also false, only the cosmic self is the true self - Brahman is pure awareness, and ultimately realize that "the world is Brahman", without subject and object, so they also have the experience of the stages from the innate self to oneness and no-mind, but these are not the Dharma seals of no-self or dependent origination emptiness emphasized in Buddhism). In Buddhism, no-self as the emptiness of 'awareness' is crucial, which is different from other religions, but there is another important point: this emptiness is not about awareness as the all-encompassing void (this will be experienced in the 'innate self' or oneness stage, even if this "void" is completely "non-dual" with all phenomena, it can still remain at the level of oneness, without breaking through the view of inherent existence). The awareness-like void should not be interpreted as Buddhist emptiness but is just one aspect of spiritual awareness. This "emptiness" is actually just experiencing one aspect of spiritual awareness, and this void is almost always mistaken for having inherent existence (from the innate self to oneness), which is actually the opposite of Buddhist emptiness and falls into the common views of non-Buddhist paths. Buddhist emptiness refers to the consciousness empty of inherent existence.

I have been thinking about how to share all of the above content, especially about the realization of no-self, the differences between the innate self, non-duality, and no-self, etc., and I actually started designing a PowerPoint. But later I felt that it might not be suitable to share in the lecture because my views might be different from yours regarding the teachings of ZZ. Since the views are different, it is difficult to share, otherwise, I might inadvertently refute the teachings of ZZ during the sharing. I do not want my sharing to cause confusion or cognitive dissonance for your students, who may have learned different views from you. You may need to find another layperson to replace me on that day to share, and I am very sorry for my short notice. I also want to express my intention to withdraw from the Wonderful Sound Group.

With deep respect and gratitude,

In the Dharma,

Wei Yu