A famous monk named Seng-chao (374-414) wrote a sastra on the Vimilakirti Sutra.  He quoted the sutra as follows:  “ I see that the Tathagata has no beginning and no end.  The six entries have been left behind, the three realms have been transcended.”  This verse describes the Zen experience.  An enlightened being clearly perceives the four elements, yet he realizes that the four elements do not have genuine existence.

The six entries refer to the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mental consciousness, and the three realms are the same as the five skandhas (matter, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness).  To transcend them means that one does not perceive the six senses or the five skandhas as having true existence.  Realizing the underlying emptiness of phenomena, however, does not mean that one ignores them or abandons them.   They see that emptiness, and the phenomena that arise from emptiness, are not separate or different.  The Heart Sutra says:  “Form is not other than emptiness, and emptiness not other than form.  Form is emptiness, and emptiness, form.”

Enlightened beings see both the existence and non-existence of phenomena.  They see that all pehneomena are forever in motion, and at the same time, they see that they are unmoving.  Seng-chao wrote the following lines:

Great winds are strong enough to tip over tall mountains,
But, in fact, nothing changes, nothing moves;
All rivers forever run toward the ocean,
Yet, they do not move;
Wild horses run fast, as if they are storming the enemy in battle,
But they are not moving;
Sun and moon revolve around the earth,
But actually they never move.

The motion described in these lines refer to the four elements.  Enlightened Zen practitioners do not deny the movement of the four elements, but in motion they see non-motion – the unmoving state.

A Zen saying states, “It is raining on the eastern mountain, yet the western mountain gets wet.”  This can be understood from two perspectives:  the one-mind state and the no-mind state.  There is no discrimination in the one-mind state.  One sees that the eastern mountain is the same as the western mountain.  Thus, when it rains in one mountain, the other gets wet.  In the no-mind state, or the Zen state, neither the eastern nor the western mountain has any self-nature.  There is no such thing as western mountain, the eastern mountain, or even rain.  It makes no difference what is rained upon and what is wet.  On one level, you can say “this is this” and “that is that” – phenomena and the four elements do exist.  However, essentially, they have no genuine existence.

There are three levels of viewing phenomena.  The first level includes ordinary sentient beings, who are deluded by phenomena.  They do not know themselves, neither can they control themselves.  The second level includes practitioners who have a better understanding of phenomena.  They and phenomena have become one.  Hence they make no distinction between subject and object.  The third level includes enlightened beings.  They have freed themselves from phenomena, yet they do not deny the existence of phenomena.

This is likened to going a full circle.  At 360 degrees, all things are just as they are; everything is truth, and the truth is just like this.  We arrive at where we started, where we have always been.  The difference is that 0 degrees is attachment thinking, whereas 360 degrees is non-attachment thinking.  There is no subject and no object.  Inside and outside become one.  When you see the sky, you and sky become one.  When you see, when you hear, when you smell, when you taste, when you touch, when you think – your mind and this whole universe completely become one.  You are infinte in time and space.  We sometimes call this moment life.  In one moment, there is infinite time and infinite space. In moment there is always correct situation, correct relationship and correct function.

So therefore, sky is blue, roses are red . . . . .