This mantra is a very unusual sound for us. “Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate!” The advance of truth is expressed in these words. This mantra is the mantra which relieves all sufferings, which are caused by delusion. In this mantra, whatever we experience takes this form of “gate, gate…” When you listen to your heart, when you touch your body, you feel something going on. Each heartbeat is another sound of “gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate.” Whatever we experience, however we feel this experience, this is our perception of existence, itself, constantly changing, uttering in a silent voice, “gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate.” Like a dream, appearing and disappearing at the same time, constantly this mantra frees you from your dream. You dream, but you are freed from your dream. Each moment we sense something new, experiencing our existence in many phenomenal figures. It is the same situation as a dreaming person, whether awake or asleep, daydreaming or reaching a clear understanding of something. When you say, “enlightenment, awakening” it seems to refer to a substantial being which is experiencing this awakening. But if a substantial, permanent knower existed, awakening would never appear. There would be nothing but continuous illusion.
Bodhi! Satori! Prajna! These are ourselves, our existence which has no self, which is no self. So this word, “no”, is another term of maha. Maha means “boundless, limitless, measureless.”
These words, “gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate,” are like sounds of birds, high voices, low voices, sharp voices. If you wish to get the meaning, listen to birds, their sharp eyes and sounds, hear what they are saying, how they are feeling. Or “gate, gate…” can be heard as the sounds of violin strings, or the snoring of a sleeping man. If you know what it is, saying, “I, I am, you are,” there is no dirt on the ground, no green in the leaves. You understand your mind is everything, which is yourself. And everything exists as it is, and there is no “knowing,” no need to know, because you know it already.
If we try to know how we can be freed from things, how we can be free, we become so busy. But the experience of freedom cannot be known, because we are experiencing it constantly. This “gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate,” is the sound of freedom and the sound of freedom from delusion, too. When leaves fall from the tree there is a sound. Maybe the branch makes the sound, or the stems of the leaves make the sound. You cannot tell which. But the sound tells you of freedom. Leaves fall. You may say they are freed from the oak, from the summer, showing the color of autumn. They are calling to the snowflake. The sound of falling leaves can be echoed in spring rain. It can appear in the middle of falling snow.
In English, you say, “go, let it go, let him go, let me go.” This is why I talk about freedom, things being freed, an expression of “no permanence.” By increasing speed, you cannot reach to permanence, but humans try to reach permanence by increasing speed. This is suffering. By stopping, you cannot reach to permanence, because no permanence is there. It’s like breaking out of a nightmare and going into a harder nightmare. Striving hard, you see you are advancing in the opposite direction. It’s like trying to believe that all existences have Buddha nature. You say, “I have been taught that everyone has Buddha nature, but at this point I can’t feel that everyone has Buddha nature.” So you try to believe it. This kind of “faith” exists.
And there is another kind of faith which appears from exact experience of Buddha nature. As ordinary knowledge you keep this faith. Whatever you see is the myriad forms of Buddha nature. Even in the eye of a blind man, you see Buddha nature. In one hundred repetitions of a lie, you see Buddha nature.