On the

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cept

of the

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tate o

f Mind

Shou-Y

ih W

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On the Concept of the "NO-TWO" State of Mind

Shou–Yih Wang

I. Introduction

No matter how complicated a phenomenon an observer may encounter there are only two

categories of existence. One is the category of all the phenomenal things which are

observed by the observer and the other is the category of the observer himself. The first

category of phenomenal things has been shown as nothing but what the observer's mind

emerges and displays to himself.

We remark here that this category should include all the invisible things such as the

thinker's (the observer's) notions, principles, doctrines, etc. because they are the

emergence of the thinker's mind just as visible objects are the emergence of the observer's.

The second category can not contain any thing except the true self of the observer or the

thinker. To simplify the terminology we prefer to name all things of the first category

as the being-knowns including those being observed, thought, etc., while the second

category is named as the knower, meaning the agent who knows, observes thinks, etc.

As has been illustrated by all the being-knowns including the whole universe are the

emergence of the knower's mind.

To search for the very original or the ontological existence we must proceed to carefully

investigate the state of the knower, which is a basic concern of this work. In section II

the "NO-TWO" state of mind is introduced as the limit of the knower. Some interesting

properties of the NO-TWO state are described in section III. In section IV some

simulations of the NO-TWO state are given through several examples. A trial

identification of the ontological existence as the NO-TWO state is shown is section V.

The immortality of the ontological existence is demonstrated in section VI. The concept

of the NO-TWO state is shown to be consistent with statements of Buddhist Sutras in

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section VII. Finally discussion and conclusion are given in sections VIII.

II. The NO-TWO state of mind

(a) The existence of the knower

Following the concept of the knower and the being-known just introduced above we first

try to ascertain the existence of the knower. Consider for example the situation of the

state of my mind when I am thinking to write the paper. Because the "thinking" is being

done by me or more precisely by "something" within me, the "something" within me

(called the agent for simplicity) must be present and therefore exists. If the agent did

not exist, then the process of thinking has no thinker (doer or knower in general) and

therefore thinking process could not be done. On the contrary, since the thinking

process is being done, the agent (thinker, doer, or knower in general) must exist. The

difficulty in ascertaining the existence of the knower is due to the fact that although we

have ascertained the existence of the knower we can not find the knower directly, as

shown below.

(b) The knower being not findable

The knower (thinker) by definition, is the agent who knows (thinks) the being-known

(the content of thinking, or the thought). Thus if the knower is found by another

(second) knower, then the knower (first knower) is no longer the knower because it (the

first knower) has been turned into the category of being-known by the finder (the second

knower). Similarly, if the second knower is truly the knower it (the second knower)

again can not be found; for if it is found by a third knower then it (the second knower)

has already been turned into the being-known and is by definition, no longer a knower;

thus by definition the knower can not be found.

(c) The state of knower without being-known

As illustrated above the knower is not findable. However, we may try to get around the

problem by using other methods. A very important method which is consistent with the

Buddhist approach is to remove all the being-known from the knower. As stated

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previously, since the world of any observer consists of only two categories, the knower

and the being-known, the state with all the being-known removed or detached must be

the state of the knower itself alone. This is an approach of letting the knower to stay

alone and thus to emerge itself. Suppose a person could succeed in removing all his

being-known. In this case only the knower exists and nothing else. But in this case the

knower can no longer be qualified as a knower because by definition a knower must have

being-known to know. Thus the state of knower without any being-known should

become, by definition of the name of a knower, the state with neither knower nor

being-known.

(d) The NO-TWO state of mind

The state of mind with all the being-known "completely" detached from the knower

should become, as just mentioned above, the state with "NO" knower and "NO"

being-known. It is most interesting to describe the state of mind as the NO-TWO state

because in the state there is NO trace of the TWO categories---the knower and the

being-known.

Question may arise as to whether or not the NO-TWO state is merely a hypothetical one.

The answer is no. The NO-TWO state of mind has been actually arrived by the sixth

patriarch of the Buddhist Zen sect Hui-Neng and several dozens of his disciples as will be

described in section VII of the following.

(e) The limit of searching knowers being the NO-TWO state

This argument stating that the knower is not findable as stated in (b) above can be

practically visualized by considering the following example. Suppose a person sits

there steadily and feels (or knows as the first knower) that "he" sits there. Now he asks

(or feels) who "he" is. Then there come out two individuals. One is the individual being

asked (the first knower) and the other is that who (the second knower) asks. Clearly the

individual being asked (the first knower) is no longer a knower because he has been

already turned into the category of being-known. Similarly, the person can go further to

ask (as the third knower) who is the one asking the question "who he is"? Then the

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second knower has been turned into the being-known and is no longer a knower. Since

this process of "asking" can be extended indefinitely the person simply can not find the

knower in this direct way since there always exists a hidden knower in behind. Using a

mathematical way of description, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, .... knowers form a sequence of

knowers and the sequence can be extended indefinitely. However, the limit of the

sequence of knowers does exist as ascertained in II. (a) above. Actually the limit is just

the NO-TWO state of mind because in the limit where infinitely many knowers have

been turned into being-known the person could not practically have the sense of

differentiation of the two categories (the knower and the being-known), i.e., in a state

with no knower and no being-known. In short, although the knower is not directly

findable, the limit of the knowers, i.e. the No-Two state of mind does exist and the

existence may be in different domain or phase.

It is very important to know the domain or phase where the No-Two state of mind exists.

While the sequence of knowers exist in our human phenomenal domain or phase the limit

of the knowers could be in the Buddhist supernatural domain or phase. There is a phase

transition between human phenomenal domain or phase and the Buddhist supernatural

domain or phase. Concerning the different domain or phase for the limit an analogy

may be cited from mathematics. It is well known that √2 is an irrational number.

However, it is true that √2 is the limit of the sequence of the rational numbers 1.4, 1.41,

1.42,---.

III. Some transcendental features of the NO-TWO state of mind

Since the NO-TWO state can be seen as the ontological existence of philosophy or more

precisely the Buddhist Nirvana it has transcendental properties and some other features.

(a) Transcendental over time

A person, if he is in the NO-TWO state, is transcendental over the time. That is, he

transcends the differentiation of being early or being late. If he feels some-thing

occuring earlier or later than another, he already has being-known (earlier, later). Then

he is no longer staying in the NO-TWO state because there is neither knower nor

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being-known in it. In another kind of description the time situation in the NO-TWO

state can be said as having infinitely long time interval in scale and consequently the

person in this state of mind can be glorified as having infinitely long life(a).

(b) Transcendental over space

A person, if he is in the NO-TWO state, is transcendental over space. That is, he

transcends the differentiation of spatial locations such as up or down, front or behind, etc.

If he feels something lying up or down relative to another, he already has being-known

(up, down). Similarly for front or behind, etc. Then he is no longer staying in the

NO-TWO state because there should be neither knower nor being-known in the state. In

another kind of description the space situation of the NO-TWO state can be said as with

infinitely long length scale and consequently the person in the state of mind can be

glorified as having infinitely large size of his existence or the Buddhist dharma

embodiment described as filling up all the space.

(c) Transcendental over all relative concepts

In the NO-TWO state there should be none of any relative concepts. For example, there

is no such feelings like good or evil, right or wrong, beauty or ugliness, gain or loss, etc.

If there is such feeling then the feeling is a being known and the state of mind is no

longer NO-TWO. Furthermore, instead of relative concepts if there exists some

absolute concept, the absolute concept is still a being-known and therefore should not

exist in the NO-TWO state. A very famous Buddhist statement is: "The state of mind

should be free from anything including even the image of Buddha".

(d) Transcendental over languages and thoughts

A person in the NO-TWO state should be free from using languages and thoughts. This

is clear because languages and thoughts are being-known which should not exist in the

NO-TWO state. A well-known description of Buddhist Zen Sect is its special

cultivation feature" NO talking NO thinking". In fact the sixth and the most

distinguished patriarch of Zen Sect, Hui-Neng, did not go to school and could not read.

To be more specific, one should stay free from any sense of differentiation.

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IV. Simulation of the NO-TWO state

We have just described some transcendental features of the NO-TWO state. We note

that the features are transcendental which are not accessible by persons in the

"relativeness" world. By relativeness world we mean the domain of the states of mind

where knower and being-known exist. Clearly, the knower and the being-known are

"relative" to each other, just like the subject and the object in the language of English

grammar. On the contrary, the "transcendental" characteristic of the NO-TWO state

allows no relativeness. Now the question is whether the transcendental NO-TWO state

is only a hypothetical one and whether it can be felt to some degree by an ordinary

persons? It is not hypothetical and the NO-TWO state has been achieved by many

people as will be mentioned below.

Let us now give some simulation examples to attain an approximate feeling of how the

NO-TWO state of mind is. A good simulation practice would be the Chinese

Tai-Chi-Chuan (the so-called shadow-boxing) in which a good practicer in his practicing

exercise can be in a state of mind almost somewhat like unconscious of both the

environment and his existence. The tranquilly enjoying state of mind of a Tai-chi-chuan

player is that in which knower and being-known are "almost" not being felt or

differentiated. This is only a preliminary simulation of the true NO-TWO state as just

mentioned. Another similar case would be a fully concentrated dancer who might be

completely absorbed such that he/she has totally forgotten the existence of self and the

surroundings. An artist who would make a drawing for many hours at midnight could

possibly attain a state of mind close to the NO-TWO state. Meditation practicers may

tranquilly approach the NO-TWO state very closely. A number of Zen masters have

actually achieved the NO-TWO state.

V. An identification of the ontological existence

We are now in a position to identify the ontological existence with the NO-TWO state in

the following.

By ontological existence we mean the very original existence or being from which all the

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phenomenal things and mental affairs are derived. To search for the ontological

existence we first notice that all the phenomenal matters of the universe are just the

images displayed in the observer's mind. They are of subjective existence, not objective

existence. Even if they were of objective existence they should still be the being-known

of the knower. In addition, all the mental affairs including concepts, random thoughts,

etc., are again the emergence of the mind and are also the being-knowns of the knower.

The mind is used literally as a general term while the knower is the basic role of the mind.

So all the world affairs, phenomenal or mental, can be traced back and reduced to the

knower.

As analyzed above the knower is not findable directly because once it is found it has been

already turned into a being-known. However, the knower can be left alone by removing

away all the being-knowns. The interesting point is that when the knower is left alone it

is no longer a knower because a knower without being-knowns is by definition not a

knower. This is the limiting case of the knowers or the case of the NO-TWO state as

illustrated previously. Thus we search for the ontological existence and finally get to

the NO-TWO state. This NO-TWO state is the farthermost state of mind we can go

because going any further would be to depart from the NO-TWO state and return to the

relativeness world where the relative relationship of knower and being-knowns

re-appears. It is therefore reasonable to identify the NO-TWO state as the ontological

existence which is the "very" original being for developing the world of all the

phenomenal matters as well as the mental affairs. The ontological existence or being as

just identified as the NO-TWO state, is accessible and achievable and is not hypothetical

as discussed previously.

VI. An example demonstrating the immortality of the ontological existence

In III(a) we described the NO-TWO state as being the infinitely long life. Now since

we have identified the ontological existence as the NO-TWO state, the ontological

existence of a person is thus of infinitively long life. This long-life feature is very

difficult to visualize by an ordinary person because an ordinary person has not achieved

the NO-TWO state or the ontological existence although the ontological existence is

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always existing there. That is, a person who speaks, thinks or knows must have his doer

or knower existing in hidden way. Now the ultimate (or limit of) hidden knower (the

ontological existence) is said to possess an infinitely long life. To demonstrate this we

re-state with explanations in the following the example in which Buddha Sakyamuni gave

in a discussion with his disciples and the host king Bosni who provided the hospitality for

the gathering.

The story was begun by a question from the host king Bosni. Since he was about 62

years old and felt so old and so decaying gradually with age that he worried about that

everything of his would vanish after his depth. He was so sensitive to the decaying that

he could feel the differences of his decaying hour after hour. Then he asked Buddha if

all of his possessions physically and spiritually should all vanish after his death. The

answer from Buddha was that there was something in him which had never changed nor

decayed even slightly while he had been growing up to 62 years old. Then Buddha

asked the king to pay most attention to his power of seeing some object, e.g., the water of

Ganges river in India. The key point was whether the basic part of the seeing power had

been weakened and decayed. Then the king answered in the negative, i.e., the basic part

of his seeing power had not been weakened, decayed, nor even slightly changed

compared to that when he was young. The king did not give explanation for his statement.

To see how and why the king gave the negative answer we give in detail the explanation

due to a Chinese Monk Yuan Ying(g) much later in about the 1960’s when the

presbyopic glasses are available. The explanation is as the following.

Suppose an old man of about 62 years old looks at the lines of his palm, such as the life

line and some very fine lines. He normally could not see them very clearly because of

his presbyopia of old age. He would suspect whether his basic power of seeing had

been decaying ever since his childhood. To resolve his suspicion he could choose to

wear a pair of properly fitted presbyopic glass. The result is that he can see the lines as

clear as he was young when he wears the glass. Now it can be concluded from this

result that the basic part of the seeing power had not changed at all; for if the basic power

of seeing had changed any device from external arrangement like the presbyopic glass

could not remedy it.

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Buddha continued to point out that as the basic power of seeing could not change, it

could not decay nor annihilate with the age. The basic "thing" of the seeing power is

therefore neither annihilated nor created because any annihilation or creation must have

"change" in it. Thus it is immortal. From our discussion of the knower and

being-known the most basic part of the mind should be the ultimate (or the limit of)

knower or the ontological existence. As the basic "thing" of a person's seeing power can

be drawn only from the basic part of the mind which is just the ontological existence it is

consistent that the immortal ontological existence supports the immortality of the basic

part of seeing power. This consistency provides basic relation based on which Buddha

could point out the immortal feature of the basic seeing power to the king Bosni.

VII. Consistency with Buddhist Sutras

Recall that our approach was starting from a logical analysis of knower and being-known

to finally the NO-TWO state of mind. Although we cited some Buddhist statements to

help explain what we want to illustrate, our approach is basically independent of

Buddhism. However, there exists close consistency between our description of

ontological existence and that of the Buddhist Sutras and Scriptures. For example we

have identified the NO-TWO state of our approach with the ontological existence of

philosophy in general. Now we even claim that the ontological existence of our

approach is more than "close consistency" with that of the Buddhist philosophy.

They carry essentially the same meaning. This can be seen easily from the Platform

Sutra of the Sixth patriarch of Zen Sect, Hui-Neng. It would be interesting to begin with

the story we stated in section VI. That is how he was to begin his Buddhism

expounding When Hui-Neng met two monks arguing about the cause of seeing a pennant

moving in the wind, One monk claimed the moving being due to the wind while the other

claimed the moving being due to the pennant itself. Then Hui-Neng said that it was due

to the motion of the image of mind. This is a good illustration from Hui-Neng on the

phenomenal appearance which can be shown as the emergence of the observer's mind.

The ontological part was subsequently answered by Hui-Neng when asked by the

Buddhist teacher of the two monks, the master Ying-chung. Being startled by

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Hui-Neng's highly intelligent statements during their conversation Ying-chung asked him

about what had been the most important secret of the instructions from the fifth patriarch

of Zen Sect. Hui-Neng's answer was that there had been no secret except the emphasis

on the enlightenment of one's self nature, even the Zen meditation and the liberation of

mind are not so important. Hui-Neng continued that Zen meditation or liberation

belongs to the domain of two things (two things of "relativeness" world) and that the

Buddhist Dhama was the method to detach from the two things. He further gave an

example: 『Good is one, no good is another; good and no good form the two things.』.

As we discussed previously, good and no good are just concepts of the relative-ness

world (section IV) which are not transcendental (section III). On the contrary the

Buddhahood nature given by Hui-Neng possesses the feature of NO-TWO which carries

the same meaning of the NO-TWO state we introduced in section I. In emphasizing the

importance of the NO-TWO concept and in ending his Buddhist expounding lastly when

Hui-Neng was near his death, he told his disciples how to expound dharma properly. He

cited 36 pairs of opposite terms such as good and evil, bright and dark, large and small,

creation and annihilation, etc. The dharma (method) he asked his disciples to observe

was that in answering questions during Buddhist expounding they should state only the

opposite term to render the thought of listeners detached from both sides of the notion of

concern. He gave an example: if some one asked about 『what is dark?』the answer

should only be 『bright』. In this way Hui-Neng attempted to make the listener's thought

stay some where in the middle way of the bright and dark, approximating the NO-TWO

state of mind.

Other Buddhist Sutras are also consistent with the concept of NO-TWO state. Let us

briefly state below. The almost shortest "Heart sutra" which contains less than 300

Chinese characters describes the ontological existence as being the state where there is

neither creation nor annihilation, neither dirt nor clean, neither increasing nor decreasing.

Clearly this is a description of the NO-TWO state of mind introduced in section I which

is transcendental over the relativeness of the opposite terms like the creation and

annihilation, etc.

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In the Buddhist well known "Diamond Sutra" it is explicitly written that if one can depart

from all phenomena (including abstract things like principles, doctrines, etc.) then he can

be named as Buddha. This state of mind is actually the NO-TWO state (see section II (c)

and (d)). That is, if one can achieve the NO-TWO state, he has arrived in the threshold

state of a Buddha.

The Suragama Sutra is a kind of Buddhism-expounding based on logical arguments.

Being most suitable for the scientific age of present times the sutra explicitly states ten

distinct characteristics for the ontological existence. The example demonstrating the

immortality given in section VI is actually the third characteristic of the ontological

existence stated in Surragama Sutra. Since the NO-TWO state of mind has been

identified as the ontological existence (section V), our approach to the NO-TWO state

from logical argument is in conformity with the NO-TWO state or ontological existence

of the Buddhist literature.

VIII. Discussion and conclusion

In the preceding section we cited the ontological existence in several popular Buddhist

Sutras. In many other Buddhist Sutras the NO-TWO state may not be explicitly written

but its synonyms may be used rather frequently. The approximate synonyms for the

NO-TWO state of mind have a variety of terms such as Buddha Nature, Dharma Nature,

self nature, nirvana, etc. These synonyms may have some different meaning and also

may have different meaning in different uses. For example, the self nature used in the

Platform Sutra means the fully enlightened state of one's self nature which is entirely

different from the un-lightened one's self (the ego). Similarly the nirvana state usually

denotes the state in which there is neither creation nor annihilation in the thought of one's

mind, which is quite different from a usually (wrongly) used meaning of nirvana as the

death of an ordinary person.

The distinction between philosophy and religion would be, roughly speaking, that the

former is a branch of learning in search for the truth of all the existence based on

reasoning while the latter is a kind of practice in worshiping certain God or Gods or

Buddha, based on firm belief.

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One important feature of Buddhism from other religions is that Buddhist disciples are

allowed to have wisdom and discussions about anything beyond human affairs, even

including the problem of how to become a Buddha. This is especially true for the

Mahayama Buddhists. And firm belief in Buddhism should result from the wisdom.

Therefore we may understand the wisdom as the theoretical part for the Buddhist

philosophy. The achievement of testimony of Nirvana may be understood as the

experimental part of the Buddhist philosophy. Consequently, our Buddhist philosophy is

different from the conventional Western philosophy which appears not to emphasize the

experimental part.

Our approach in this paper is first to introduce and define the concept of NO-TWO state

based on logical argument or reasoning and then to confirm the consistency of these

results with those of the Buddhist Sutras. One can as well regard the logical argument

used here as a modern-culture foundation for the Buddhist philosophy. Thus it can be

concluded that the Buddhism may have both the philosophical side and the religious side.

And our treatment is developing the Buddhist philosophy by means of the modern culture

of the world. In short, our treatment is to develop a Modernized Buddhism..

To conclude briefly, we have given the concept of NO-TWO state of mind its

transcendental properties, its identification with the ontological existence and a

demonstration of its immortality. Based on logical argument the description of

ontological existence has been shown consistent with various Buddhist Sutras. While the

ontology is consistent with the basic theoretical part of the Buddhist philosophy the

evidence of Nirvana should constitute the experimental part of the Modernized

Buddhism.

Acknowledgement

The author should like to express his thankfulness to Mr. N.T. Liang for his stimulating

discussion on the NO-TWO state and also to Ms. Shou-hua Chen for her hospitality

during the author’s stay in Avon Connecticut for writing this manuscript.

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【Ps1.: Main part of this article was given as an informal talk to a large

group of friends in Avon Connecticut in 1992.】

【Ps2.: For more detailed and formal discussions please refer to the Chapter

6 of the book “A Science-Based Simplified Modern Buddhist Philosophy”, which was written in 1995, and is available in this Internet Website.】

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