The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist

THE INNER ALCHEMY
special sounds capable of revealing to a human-being his Buddha-nature. Or
again, leaving aside this infantile interpretation, I may believe that the sound
of the bell has played no part and that the Zen master has perceived it entirely
independently of what was then taking place in his inner world.
In reality the perception of the outer world plays a necessary role at the
instant of satori, but as perception of the outer world in general without the
particular kind of perception being of the slightest importance. In fact, every
perception, at every moment of our lives, contains a possibility of satori. A
Zen disciple one day reproached his master for hiding from him the essence
of the doctrine. The master led the disciple into the mountains; the oleanders
were in flower there and the air was embalmed by them. 'Do you smell
them?' asked the master; then as the disciple answered in the affirmative, he
added: 'There, I have kept nothing hidden from you.' Every perception of the
outer world contains a possibility of satori because it brings into existence a
bridge between Self and Not-Self, because it implies and manifests an
identity of nature between Self and Not-Self. We have said many times that
our perception of an outside object was the perception of a mental image
which is produced in us by contact with the object. But behind the exterior
object and the interior image there is a single perception which joins them.
Everything, in the Universe, is energy in vibration. The perception of the
object is produced by a unitive combination of the vibrations of the object
and of my own vibrations. This combination is only possible because the
vibrations of the object and my own vibrations are of a single essence; and it
manifests this essence, as one under the multiplicity of phenomena. The
perceptive image is produced in me, but this image has its origin in the
Unconscious, or Cosmic Mind, which has no particular residence, and dwells
as much in the object perceived as in the Self who perceive it. The conscious
mental image is individually mine, but the perception itself which is the
principle of this conscious image neither belongs to me nor to the image. In
this perception there is no distinction between subject and object; it is a
conciliating hypostasis uniting subject and object in a ternary synthesis.
Every perception of the outside world does not, however, release satori
in me. Why not? Because, in fact, my conscious mental image occupies all
my attention. This purely personal aspect of universal perception fascinates
me, in the belief in which I live that distinct things are. I have not yet
understood with the whole of my being the declaration of Hui-neng: 'Not a
thing is.' I still believe that this is essentially different from that; I am partial.
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