The Sutra
"Suppose you contemplate something beyond perception, beyond grasping, beyond not being, you."
Paul Reps translation, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (1957)
Understanding
This technique asks the impossible - to contemplate something beyond perception. You cannot perceive it. You cannot grasp it conceptually. And it is not simply "nothing" either - it is beyond non-being too. What is left to contemplate? The contemplation itself collapses. And in that collapse, YOU remain - the one who was trying to contemplate. That "you" beyond all categories is the discovery.
Original Sanskrit
एकवारं प्रबुद्धो वा प्रबोधयति सर्वदा ॥
ekavaaram prabuddho vaa prabodhayati sarvadaa ||
Vijnanabhairava Verse 102 (Technique 79 of 112)
How to Practice
Sit in silence and try to contemplate something you cannot perceive with any sense.
Go further: try to contemplate something you cannot even think about or conceptualize.
Go even further: it is not simply "nothing" or "void" either - it is beyond even non-being.
Notice: the mind cannot do this. Every attempt fails. Good. That failure is the technique.
In the total failure of the mind to grasp the ungraspable, what remains?
YOU remain. The one who tried. The one who failed. That irreducible you - before thought, before perception, before being and non-being - is what is being pointed to.
Duration
20-40 minutes
Best Time
Late night or early morning in deep silence
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