The absolute medium is the message For a number of years I have been intrigued by the thought that with

an absolute identity such as A = A, without contrast or antithesis, A = A might as well appear to be nothing. I have brought this idea to Buddhism and specifically the Lankavatara Sutra under the idea of an absolute, selfidentical medium. It turns out that there is a gnosis in which Mind recognizes itself in which, paradoxically, it beholds an utterly empty, spacelike field which, nevertheless, is real and dynamic in every way. I am confident to say that the Buddha was aware of this paradoxical problem but also of the solution which may explain why he was so hesitant to teach his Dharma. When we agitate a medium such as a body of water, ripples or waves appear. With the cessation of agitation the waves cease but not the water. There is now water-only, or the same, medium-only. Waves, we can say, are attributes of water. They appear whenever water is disturbed. In addition, waves have no existence apart from water. In this respect, they don't actually existent independently. So far, all this sounds quite simple. This analogy fits well with Mind which is used in the Lankavatara Sutra. Mind is a universal medium. It is like a great ocean in the sense of being like water, i.e., HOH, to use its chemical name. According to the Lankavatara Sutra when, the waves of consciousness [vijna] are no more stirred in the Mind-ocean [cittodadhi] and the Vijna functions are quieted, the bliss of which is enjoyed by him; and when he thus recognised the non-existence of the

external world, which is not more than his own mind, he is said to have the will-body [manomaya-kaya] (trans. Suzuki). In the above example, Mind or citta is the absolute substance and medium which is utterly ubiquitous and self-identical. It is also the absolute criterion nothing else can be the measure without running headlong into the problem of relativism which tends to be the worldly way of thinking. The Lankavatara says: [Mind] is the measure [of all things], it is the abode of their self-nature, and has nothing to do with causation and the world; it is perfect in its nature, absolutely pure (trans. Suzuki). Now, in order to begin to see this oceanic Mind we first have to consider that we are already Mind. In a word, it doesnt have to be established. It is hereit has never not been here. Yet, while this sounds nice, we are completely unable to detect and apprehend it notwithstanding that we are Mind! Next, we have more to consider that with such a primordial substance as Mind, there are no marks by which it can see itself. With such a perfect identity as: M (mind) = M, it is important to realize that Mind will always be perfectly and totally emptyyet, dynamic and real. Only when Mind (which is dynamic) agitates itself does something appear out of it which then is mind-made. And only when Mind penetrates through its own mindbegotten phenomena, in deep meditation, does Mind contact the true nature of itself which renders its phenomena illusory. Of the actual engagement with Mind such as with Bodhicitta which, incidentally, is an earthshaking, dynamic experience, it amounts to a conversion or rather, a radical reorientation. Phenomena are no longer the

measureincluding even my carnal body (svakaya). All former criteria have been rendered illusory, or the same, relative. Going back to the water analogy, by engaging with Mind we have suddenly become the water, moreover, we can now distinguish (praj) water from wave or the same, the absolute, substantive medium from its wave-like phenomena. This leads me to mention that the importance of Prajnaparamita literature is for making the Mind, after Bodhicitta, more outstanding and dominating over the illusory. The matter is like a large box with particles of gold and brass mixed together. The Prajnaparamita process then becomes one of distinguishing the gold from the brass such that we eventually have one pile of pure gold and the other of brass. The implications of this process are profound since the more we are Mind as accomplished, the more we can save sentient beings, even initiating them into a partial gnosis of Mind.