Being

In your moment of seeing the mountain as mountain again, unturned by the discriminating mind

Scripture

The mirror hangs amid the myriad scenes; the scene, in being, is suchness.

Suchness swallows ten thousand makeups; when the makeup is done, the original is seen.

Being is in adornment, is in nakedness; nakedness is itself suchness.

Being is in suchness, is in mirroring; nothing added, nothing removed.

Suchness at its extreme; the mirror’s iron, the throat, turn void.

Neither real nor unreal; the shadow-bones dwell of themselves.

Wenzi · On Being

You stand before an old full-length mirror. Its surface is a little blurred; the mercury at its edge is peeling faintly. You look at yourself in the mirror—that face, familiar yet strange, those lines carved by the years, that image called “I.”

Habitually, you begin to judge: this part is old, that part not good enough, this expression too serious…

At the very instant these judging thoughts rise, you suddenly realize: the mirror never judges. “The mirror hangs amid the myriad scenes; the scene, in being, is suchness.” A fact surfaces from this gap in consciousness: the mirror simply hangs there (the mirror hangs), mirroring the myriad scenes truthfully (the myriad scenes). And the mirrored image (the scene)—that it “is”—this is “suchness” (the scene, in being, is suchness). The mirror distinguishes no beauty or ugliness, chooses nothing to mirror. It simply “is mirroring”; the image simply “is being mirrored.”

This is “suchness”—being as it is.

Now, do an experiment.

Shift your gaze away from the face of “you” in the mirror.

Shift it onto the mirror-surface itself. Look at the peeling mercury, the grain of the wooden frame, the slight curve of the glass.

Then, the more crucial step:

Imagine yourself becoming this mirror.

“Suchness swallows ten thousand makeups; when the makeup is done, the original is seen.”

When you try to “become the mirror,” the scripture confirms your experience: “suchness” (this truthful state of mirroring) will swallow every makeup, mask, and role (suchness swallows ten thousand makeups). When all the makeups have been mirrored and made visible (when the makeup is done), you will see the “original face” beneath them (the original is seen). You are not looking at the mirror—you are becoming the mirroring itself.

Good. Now bring this sense of “becoming the mirror” back into your relation with the whole world.

You look at the tree outside the window. The tree sways in the wind.

You are not looking at “a beautiful tree” or “an ordinary tree.”

You are mirroring the phenomenon of “the tree swaying” itself.

The tree is simply “being tree”; the wind is simply “being wind”; the swaying is simply “being swaying.”

“Being is in adornment, is in nakedness; nakedness is itself suchness.” In your life there are moments of careful adornment (being is in adornment), and moments of total nakedness (is in nakedness). But whether adorned or naked, both are equally contained and mirrored by “suchness” (nakedness is itself suchness). Adornment is not false, and nakedness is not more true—they are only different “images,” appearing equally on the surface of “suchness.”

Sink deeper into this “mirroring.” You are not choosing what to look at—you are allowing everything to develop its image of itself on the mirror-surface of your consciousness.

A thought comes—mirror the thought.

An emotion rises—mirror the emotion.

A pain is born—mirror the pain.

“Being is in suchness, is in mirroring; nothing added, nothing removed.”

You are in this state of “suchness” and “mirroring” (being is in suchness, is in mirroring). The mirror gains nothing by mirroring a beautiful image (nothing added), and loses nothing by mirroring an ugly one (nothing removed). It simply mirrors—clearly, equally, neither grasping nor pushing away.

“Suchness at its extreme; the mirror’s iron, the throat, turn void.” When this “suchness” reaches its extreme (suchness at its extreme), a wondrous transformation happens: that “mirror” you thought solid (the mirror), along with its “iron frame” and “throat and tongue” (the iron, the throat), all turn to “void” (turn void). No more division of “mirror” and “mirrored”—only pure manifestation, underway.

“Neither real nor unreal; the shadow-bones dwell of themselves.” At last you find: there is no absolute “real,” nor absolute “unreal” (neither real nor unreal). All that seems solid is flowing image; all that seems illusory is truly manifesting. These images and shadow-bones (the shadow-bones) simply dwell at ease in their own places (dwell of themselves).

You step back from the mirror.

The image in the mirror is still there.

But you know: you are no longer the one nitpicking the image.

You are that mirroring itself—containing every image, defined by none:

the thus-abiding mirroring itself.

Being-Suchness is not turning numb.

It is your finally allowing the myriad things—including yourself—to exist as they are.

And this allowing is itself the deepest compassion,

and the most thorough lucidity.