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A Glimpse of Nothingness: Experiences in an American Zen Community
by Janwillem van de Wetering
A Favorite of 0, Read by 3, Owned by 3, Reviewed by 1, Quotes 2
The description of a Zen path of one Westerner who began by seeking for the sense of it all, and who came to realize at least a part of it.
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Recent Quotes:
Tue Aug 19 14:04:04 UTC 2008
Source: A Glimpse of Nothingness: Experiences in an American Zen Community, Page: 180
Contributed by: bert.
Janwillem van de Wetering said

A Chinese allegory tells how a monk sets off on a long pilgrimage to find the Buddha. He spends years and years on his quest and finally he comes to the country where the Buddha lives. He crosses a river, it's a wide river, and he looks about him while the boatman rows him across.
There is a corpse floating on the water and it's coming closer. The monk looks. The corpse is so close he can touch it. He recognizes the corpse, it is his own.
The monk loses all self control and wails.
There he floats, dead.
Nothing remains.
Anything he has ever been, ever learned, ever owned, floats past him, still and without life, moved by the slow current of the wide river.
It is the first moment of his liberation.

To see what isn't true is easy. But to see what is true will take some doing.