LOOKING

AND

SEEING
Wei Wu Wei 'Looking' is 'Nirvana ', 'the seen ' is ' Samsara '. Looking is Subjectively being Conscious, ' the seen ' is objective consciousness. Subjectively, Nirvana and Samsara cannot be 'different'. Objectively they appear as relative counterparts, of which none could be 'different ' Absolutely. The interpretation, which seeks to find Nirvana and Samsara as being ' not-different' Relatively, is nonsense : Absolutely, no ' difference' is possible. ' Looking' does not discriminate : ' seeing' does nothing else. The misuse - due to mis-understanding - of the term ' seeing ' is the cause of this calamitous confusion. Nirvana is present whenever we ' look ': Samsara appears whenever we 'see'. This is why Nirvana is never 'absent' but never 'appears', and why Samsara always 'appears' but is always 'absent' (illusory). Is this difficult ? If so it seems, that is because we are conditioned to misunderstand what these concepts 'factually' - as opposed to 'actually ' - imply. This is not verbal jugglery: it is what the Sages knew and tried to impart. It is sometimes just termed 'Looking', occasionally - alas, alas mistranslated as 'Seeing'. Note: If 'mistranslated' is too strong a term, we may say 'misinterpreted' instead. Memo: The Heart Sutra states that 'Nirvana' and 'Samsara' are notdifferent. It is also stated in the famous convocation in the Surangamanirdesa Sutra, when the Buddha required each of his bodhisattvas to state how they had found Enlightenment, that Manjusri and Ananda: explained it was by ' Looking', and the Buddha, though agreeing that each of the senses could be used, since all were ultimately the same, declared that ' Looking ' was the most propitious for sentient-beings in general