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Chang-yen King asked Shen-hui: 'You discourse ordinarily on the subject of Wu-nien ("no-thought" or "no-consciousness"), and make people discipline themselves in it. I wonder if there is a reality corresponding to the notion of Wu-nien, or not?

Shen-hui answered: 'I would not say that Wu-nien is a reality, nor that it is not.'

'Why?'

'Because if I say it is a reality, it is not in the sense in which people generally speak of reality; if I say it is a non-reality, it is not in the sense in which people generally speak of non-reality. Hence Wu-nien is neither real or unreal.'

'What would you call it then?'

'I would not call it anything.'

'If so, what could it be?'

'No designation whatever is possible. Therefore I say that Wu-nien is beyond the range of wordy discourse. The reason we talk about it at all is because questions are raised concerning it. If no questions are raised about it, there would be no discourse. It is like a bright mirror. If no objects appear before it, nothing is to be seen in it. When you say that you see something in it, it is because something stands against it.'

.....

'We talk of illumination because the mirror is bright and its self-nature is illumination. The mind which is present in all things being pure, there is in it the light of Prajna, which illuminates the entire world-system to its furthest end.'

'That being so, when is it attained?'

'Just see into nothingness.'

'Even if it is nothingness, it is seeing something.'

'Though it is seeing, it is not to be called something.'

'If it is not to be called something, how can there be the seeing?'

'Seeing into nothingness - this is true seeing and eternal seeing.'

The Sayings of Shên-hui