Werner Contra Blasso
Werner Contra Blasso
C H A RY B D I S P R E S S new york
Published by Charybdis Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 15 14 13 12
4321
First Printing
Werner Contra Blasso is set in Werbedeutsch, Rockwell and Whitman, designed by Ken Lew. Book edited and designed by Jason Blasso Preface by Jason Blasso Zen Polemic by Jesse Werner
www.charybdispress.com
Werner Contra Blasso
Samsara contra Nirvana My friend, Jesse, came across an early copy of my Deathbringers manuscript when it was titled Gray Observations. I’m not sure how. I believe it was posted online before my friend, Mark, took up the design work. He’s a trickster though. So, anything’s possible. At a party, after much alcohol, he explained how singularly ignorant my views were. It was frustrating and funny at the same time because I was certain we were saying the same thing. I still do, as I know, without reservations, that Samsara and Nirvana are one and the same. The next day, he wrote the letter that follows. The title of this book comes from Nietzsche’s essay Nietzsche Contra Wagner. Jesse and I read through N. together many years ago, so it seemed fitting — as does the font and the cover, which is the negative image of the pages. Negative and positive, as Jesse says, “neither exists by its very own essence apart from the other.”
Here is just a taste as last night’s festivities have taken what was owed to them. Of course I am speaking here from the conventional (samsaric) point of view and not the ultimate (nirvanic) as I will begin now.
92 pages For your cousin Ginette Gray Observations pg 63
These statements clearly show the lack of understanding emptiness: “All beings exist...” (pg8) “Life exists” (pg8) The most delusional: “Our selfawareness SEPARATES us from other living beings and non-living things” (also pg8) No more examples are necessary. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interchangeable terms for emptiness: suchness, thusness and most shockingly- NON DUALITY. Suchness- “objects” of self-awareness. No “objects” exist eternal to nor apart from consciousness. Phenomena appears but has no independent existence. The intrinsic nature of phenomena is non-existence.
What appears to be apprehended does not exist by its very own essence apart from that which apprehends it. The apprehended has no independent existence. Since the apprehended is non-existent and never appears in isolation of the apprehender, the apprehender is also non-existent.
The apprehended is non-existent. The apprehender is non-existent. There is no distinction between apprehended and apprehender. The complete lack of establishment of duality is now established.
Phenomena appear but have no selfnature. Suchness is to see phenomena as it is, empty of self-nature. The dualistic “experience� of subject/ object, apprehended/apprehender, self/ other are all false distinctions. Just like a dream, phenomena appear but do not exist.
Appearances are nothing more that the self-appearances of one’s own inner mind. Because it is one’s own awareness that is the “object”, no “objects” exist external to consciousness.
In a dream you are everything and everyone. All the appearances are self-appearances of your own mind. Since self and other only appear in a relationship and in a dream there are no “others”, the meaning of “other” falls away as does the sense of “you”. Why do you think in waking consciousness non duality no longer applies?
What appears to be apprehended does not exist by its very own essence apart from that which apprehends it. The apprehended has no independent existence. Since the apprehended is non-existent and never appears in isolation of the apprehender, the apprehender is also non-existent.
Q. So then what is there? A. How penetrating!
Awareness is devoid of subject/object, devoid of duality. What appears to be apprehended does not exist by its very own essence apart from that which apprehends it. The apprehended appears but does not exist. If the apprehend is not existent how can the apprehender?
All phenomena are nothing more than mind. The apprehended is not observed. The apprehender is not observed. Rest in this Naked Awareness of Suchness.
Phenomena, persons, beings, things, change, and difference do not exist by their very own essence apart from that which apprehends it. They are all nonexistent appearances. Due to the misunderstanding of emptiness, because of habitual tendencies, that which is not true (phenomena, persons, beings, things, etc.) is imagined by thought. Ignorance of emptiness/ nonduality brings about the appearance of duality where there is none.
When the duality of apprehended and apprehender no longer appears, the intrinsic nature appears: NonExistence, Emptiness, Non Duality, Suchness. When no distinction between subject and object is observed, all appears as it is- ONE. This inherent self-awareness does not derive from anything outside of itself.
Unborn it is birthless. Unyielding it is deathless. Devoid of all stains. Unsupported, empty and still. Formless perfection. And even if you tried to assert one or the other, life or death, neither exists by its very own essence apart from the other. Life isn’t life because life doesn’t exist. Nor does death. There is no difference between them as the nature of both is the same, no self-nature, emptiness, NON DUALITY.
Q. If there is neither life nor death what is there? A. Correct!
The existence or non existence of anything depends on the mind. There exists no phenomena other than what arises from the mind, just as no waves exist apart from the ocean.
You can look for the mind but you won’t find “it”. The mind isn’t mind because the mind does not exist. The mind isn’t mind because the mind depends on form and form isn’t form because form depends on mind. There is no difference between them as the nature of both is emptiness. Neither exist apart by its very own essence. If it cannot/does not exist apart it is not apart; hence Suchness.
The root of samsara is a deeply ingrained habit to believe that “external objects� exist independent of Consciousness. The great deceiver is the mind. The great delusion is duality.
Q. Does a dog have buddha-nature? A. Mu! ( I am going to let the cat out of the bag here: he says Mu (Not) because independently existing beings do not exist. The monk is asserting the existence of phenomena which does not exist by its own essence apart from consciousness. Not existing apart it is not apart. A “dog” has no self-nature; empty of self-nature. A “dog” is an appearance of selfawareness forgotten as such).
Emptiness is the viewless view. You are only dreaming that you are awake, that there is difference, that there is a “you�. The phenomena of duality are the appearances of false imagination. Duality appears but does not exist, therefore all concepts are false concepts.
“When all the Buddhas manifest themselves in the world, they proclaim nothing but the One Mind. Thus, Gotama Buddha silently transmitted to Mahakasyapa the doctrine that the One Mind, which is the substance of all things, is co-extensive with the Void and fills the entire world of phenomena.“ (Huang Po)
Here is a link to “Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness�. It discusses emptiness from an order opposite of the above no apprehended, no apprehender. http://www.fodian. net/world/zzgse.html
There is neither self (X)nor other(-X), just this: