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232 pages, Hardcover
First published May 12, 1987
In the next moment the universe shrank, and the room was transformed into its essence and appeared at my feet. “Ah! The beginning of the universe—right now!... Ah, there is no beginning.”
The next moment, the universe became a deep blue, glowing and rippling, magnificent whole. “Ah! I gave birth to Buddha and Christ! ... The unborn, first parent…that’s me! I gave birth to me! I was what I am before my parents were born!”
I was dead tired. That evening when I tried to settle down to sleep, the instant I laid my head on the pillow, I saw: “Ah! This out-breath is Mu!” Then: “The in-breath too is Mu!” Next breath, too: Mu! Next breath: Mu, Mu! “Mu, a whole sequence of Mu! Croak, croak; meow, meow—these too are Mu! The bedding, the wall, the column, the sliding door—these too are Mu! This, that and everything is Mu! Ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!
Since kenshō I have been working with kōans, one after another. Every time I penetrate a kōan, a thin skin peels off my mind. Layer by layer, the mind’s foundation is gradually becoming clear. Thus the more I enter into the ocean of Buddha Dharma, the more I understand how deep it is. And yet its content is nothing at all. A human life filled with this “nothing at all” is a marvelous thing.