Explore — Taoverse

A monk said to Joshu, 'I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.' Joshu asked, 'Have you eaten your rice porridge?' The monk replied, 'I have.' Joshu said, 'Then go wash your bowl.'

Mumonkan, Case 7

emptiness awakening everyday-life zen-koan

Tokusan went to the dining room holding his bowl. Seppo said, 'The bell has not yet rung, where are you going with your bowl?' Tokusan returned to his room. Seppo told Ganto about this. Ganto said, 'Great as he is, Tokusan has not yet grasped the last word of Zen.' When Tokusan heard this, he sent for Ganto and asked, 'Do you not approve of me?' Ganto whispered his criticism. Tokusan said nothing. The next day Tokusan gave an entirely different kind of lecture. Ganto laughed and said, 'The old man has finally understood the last word of Zen!'

Mumonkan, Case 13

emptiness teaching beyond-words void

Joshu asked Nansen, 'What is the Way?' Nansen answered, 'Everyday mind is the Way.' Joshu asked, 'Should I try to direct myself toward it?' Nansen said, 'If you try, you miss it.' Joshu asked, 'If I don't try, how can I know it is the Way?' Nansen replied, 'The Way does not belong to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is illusion, not knowing is blankness. If you truly reach the genuine Way, you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space. How can this be discussed at the level of affirmation and negation?'

Mumonkan, Case 19

emptiness mind inquiry everyday-life

A monk asked Nansen, 'Is there any teaching that has not been taught to people?' Nansen said, 'There is.' The monk asked, 'What is the teaching that has not been taught?' Nansen said, 'It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things.'

Mumonkan, Case 27

buddha-nature emptiness mind zen-koan

Nansen said, 'Mind is not Buddha. Learning is not the Way.'

Mumonkan, Case 34

buddha-nature emptiness mind zen-koan

When Isan's teacher wanted to choose a successor, he asked who could answer correctly. He put a water vase on the ground and asked, 'Without calling it a water vase, what is it?' The head monk said, 'You cannot call it a wooden sandal.' Isan kicked the vase over and walked away. He became the teacher's successor.

Mumonkan, Case 40

emptiness inquiry teaching beyond-words

Bankei said, 'If you try to stop your thoughts they will only multiply. Better to let them arise and pass away in the Unborn Mind.'

Traditional Zen

emptiness mind beyond-thought zen-koan

A monk asked Tiantong, 'What is the essence of Buddha's teaching?' Tiantong said, 'No essence.' The monk asked, 'Then why do we sit in meditation?' Tiantong said, 'Because there's no essence.'

Traditional Zen

buddha-nature emptiness void zen-koan

Yunmen said, 'I don't ask you about fifteen days ago. But what about fifteen days hence? Come, say a word about this!' Since none of the monks answered, he said, 'Every day is a good day.'

Blue Cliff Record, Case 6

emptiness inquiry beyond-words present-moment

Fayan said, 'When there's a hair's breadth of difference, it is like the distance between heaven and earth.'

Traditional Zen

emptiness seeing beyond-thought no-self

The space between Heaven and Earth is like a bellows; it is empty, yet has not lost its power. The more it is used, the more it produces; the more you talk of it, the less you comprehend.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 5

emptiness heaven-earth virtue tao-te-ching

It stands alone and empty, solitary and unchanging. It is ever present and secure.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 25

emptiness tao-te-ching

The greatest fullness seems empty, yet it will be inexhaustible.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 45

emptiness tao-te-ching

There is no Bodhi-tree, nor stand of a mirror bright. Since all is void from the beginning, where can the dust alight?

Zen Poem – Hui-neng (Sixth Patriarch) (638-713)

emptiness void zen enlightenment

We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the wheel depends. We turn clay to make a vessel; But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends. Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not.

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 11

emptiness usefulness void nothingness

Therefore the Sage rules by emptying their hearts and filling their bellies, weakening their intelligence and toughening their sinews, ever striving to make the people knowledgeless and desireless. Indeed he sees to it that if there be any who have knowledge, they dare not interfere. Yet through his actionless activity all things are duly regulated.

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 3

wu-wei non-action emptiness desires

We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 11

emptiness non-being usefulness paradox

Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub; it is on the hole in the centre that the use of the cart hinges. Shape clay into a vessel; it is the space within that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows for a room; it is the holes which make it useful. Therefore profit comes from what is there; usefulness from what is not there.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 11

emptiness non-being usefulness paradox

Return is the movement of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao. The ten thousand things are born of being. Being is born of not-being.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 40

emptiness non-being return tao

Great perfection seems incomplete; yet its use is not impaired. Great fullness seems empty; yet its use is inexhaustible. Great straightness seems crooked. Great skill seems clumsy. Great eloquence seems silent.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 45

emptiness paradox perfection non-action

The Tao is empty but inexhaustible — the ancestor of all things. Blunt the sharpness, untie the knots, soften the glare, settle the dust. Deep and still, it seems to have existed forever. I do not know whose child it is; it is older than the concept of God.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 4

emptiness tao origin stillness

The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows — empty yet inexhaustibly generative. The more it moves, the more comes out. Better to hold to the centre than to talk too much and too often lose the thread.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 5

emptiness centre silence non-action

Know the masculine, keep to the feminine, and be the valley of the world. Being the valley of the world, eternal virtue will never leave you, and you will return to the state of the infant.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 28

emptiness receptivity return virtue

Attain complete emptiness. Hold firm to stillness. The ten thousand things arise together; in their arising I see their return. They flourish and each returns to its root. Returning to one's roots is known as stillness. Stillness is the return to one's destiny.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 16

emptiness stillness return tao-te-ching

If you listen not with the ear but with the heart; not with the heart but with the breath — then the breath itself is empty and waits on all things. The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the heart.

Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4 – The Human World

emptiness mind tao chuang-tzu

Everyone knows the usefulness of what is useful, but no one knows the usefulness of what is useless.

Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4 – The Human World

emptiness usefulness paradox chuang-tzu

If a man crosses a river and an empty boat collides with his, even if he is bad-tempered he will not be angry. But if there is a man in that boat, he will shout at him to steer clear. Anger arises when there is someone to blame. Empty your own boat as you cross the river of the world, and nothing can oppose you.

Chuang Tzu, Chapter 20 – Mountain Trees

emptiness ego non-self chuang-tzu

The old pond — a frog jumps in — sound of water.

Matsuo Basho (1686)

emptiness ma japanese presence

Such silence — the voice of cicadas seeps into the rocks.

Matsuo Basho

emptiness ma japanese silence

Ma is not simply empty space. It is space made present, charged with potential. In Japanese art, what is left out carries as much meaning as what is included. The gap between notes is not a rest — it is where the music breathes.

Ma (間) – Japanese Aesthetic Principle

emptiness ma japanese space

The flower of Noh is found not in what is shown but in what is withheld. The actor who reveals everything leaves nothing for the audience to complete. The art lives in the space between performance and imagination.

Zeami Motokiyo – Fushikaden (The Transmission of the Flower), c. 1400

emptiness ma japanese art

In the tea room, nothing is placed without purpose and no surface filled beyond necessity. The empty wall is not bare — it is open. The silence between host and guest is not awkward — it is the ceremony itself.

Sen no Rikyu – Principles of Wabi-cha, 16th century

emptiness ma japanese wabi

The valley spirit never dies. It is called the mysterious female. The gateway of the mysterious female is called the root of heaven and earth. Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there, yet use will never drain it.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 6

feminine valley mystery tao-te-ching

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

zen emptiness shunryu-suzuki openness

Cold Mountain is a house Without beams or walls. The six doors left and right are open, The hall is blue sky.

Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems

emptiness nature han-shan freedom

Sitting alone beside a cliff, The full moon a lantern before me. Not a thought about the universe: This quiet illuminates everything.

Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems

stillness nature han-shan silence

Spring water in the green creek is clear, Moonlight on Cold Mountain is white. Silent knowledge — the spirit is enlightened of itself. Contemplate the void: this world exceeds stillness.

Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems

nature stillness han-shan emptiness

Before thinking good and evil, what is your original face?

Blue Cliff Record — Huineng

zen-koan blue-cliff-record no-self inquiry

A monk asked Zhaozhou, 'Does a dog have Buddha nature?' Zhaozhou said, 'Mu.'

Book of Serenity, Case 18 — Zhaozhou's Dog

zen-koan book-of-serenity inquiry emptiness

All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists.

Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld

non-duality mind huang-po unity

To use the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not to use the mind to look for reality is awareness.

Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld

mind awareness huang-po inquiry

Our original nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any atom of objectivity. It is void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy — and that is all.

Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld

emptiness no-self huang-po stillness

The void is not really void, but the realm of the real Dharma. This spiritually illuminating silence is without beginning or end.

Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld

emptiness silence huang-po non-duality

Beginners in Zen are afraid of the void. They run away from it and do not realize that the void is themselves.

Huang Po

emptiness no-self huang-po inquiry

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