Suddenly I stood still,
filled with the realization that I had no body or mind.
All I could see one one great illuminating Whole -
omnipresent, perfect, lucid and serene.
It was like an all-embracing mirror
from which the mountains and rivers were projected...
I felt clear and transparent.
-Han-shan
Just for the moment I stopped thinking.
Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down.
For once, words really failed me.
I forgot my name, my humanness, my thingness,
all that could be called me or mind.
Past and future dropped away.
it was as if I had been born that instant,
brand new, mindless, innocent of all memories.
There existed only the Now,
that present moment and what was clearly given in it...
Here it was, this superb scene, brightly shining in the clear air,
alone and unsupported, mysteriously suspended in the void,
and (and this was the real miracle, the wonder and the delight)
utterly free of "me', unsustained by any observer.
Its total presence was my total absence, body and soul.
Lighter than air, clearer than glass, altogether releases from myself,
I was nowhere around...
I had lost my head and gained a world.
-Douglas E. Harding
Dropped off! Dropped off!
-Dogen
All of a sudden you find your mind and body wiped out of existence.
This is what is known as letting go of your hold.
As you regain your breath it is like drinking water and knowing it is cold.
It is joy inexpressible.
-Hakuin
