Prajna Paramita's Great NO!

As we began 2025, I returned to the teachings of the Heart of Great Perfection Wisdom Sutra. In times of chaos, something in me turns toward what is most true. The Heart Sutra is one such text that invites this kind of turning.

Moving through the Heart Sutra we arrive at a set of stanzas that read as a series of negations.

Therefore, given emptiness, there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no sight, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind; no realm of sight ... no realm of mind consciousness.

There is neither ignorance nor extinction of ignorance... neither old age and death, nor extinction of old age and death; no suffering, no cause, no cessation, no path; no knowledge and no attainment.

With nothing to attain, a bodhisattva relies on prajña paramita, and thus the mind is without hindrance. Without hindrance, there is no fear. Far beyond all inverted views, one realizes nirvana

It reminds me of the first koan in the Mumonkan

Mumonkan Case 1: Joshu’s Mu

A practitioner asked Master Joshu, does a dog have buddha nature?

Joshu said: MU

Mu, essentially No, Not

The kanji character is interestingly an image of a shaman dancing.

The buddhist dictionary defines MU as nothingness, beyondness.

This single word has been used in Zen as a breakthrough koan.

When working with this koan we are instructed to throw our whole selves into Mu, or let everything become mu, the sounds in the room and outside, every thought, every sensation, Mu, mu, mu.

As the first case in the Mumonkan, Mumon offers extensive commentary on this simple koan, he says:

For the practice of Zen, you must pass the barrier set up by the ancient masters of Zen. To attain to marvelous enlightenment, you must cut off the mind road. If you have not passed the barrier and have not cut off the mind road, you are a phantom haunting the weeds and trees.

Now just tell me, what is the barrier by the ancestors? Merely this Mu – the one barrier of our sect. So it has come to be called “the Gateless barrier of the Zen Sect.”

Those who have passed the barrier are able not only to see Jôshû face to face but also to walk hand in hand with the whole descending line of ancestors and be eyebrow to eyebrow with them. You will see with the same eye that they see with, hear with the same ear that they hear with. Wouldn't it be a wonderful joy! Don’t you want to pass through the barrier?

Then concentrate your whole self into this Mu, making your whole body with its 360 bones and joints and 84,000 pores into a solid lump of doubt. Day and night, without ceasing, keep digging into it, but don't take it as “nothingness” or as “being” or “non-being”. It must be like a red-hot iron ball which you have gulped down and which you try to vomit but cannot. You must extinguish all delusive thoughts and beliefs which you have cherished up to the present.

After a certain period of such efforts, Mu will come to fruition, and inside and out will become one naturally. You will then be like a dumb man who has had a dream. You will know it for yourself and for yourself only. Then all of a sudden, Mu will break open. It will astonish the heavens and shake the earth. It will be just as if you had snatched the great sword of General Kan: If you meet a Buddha, you will kill him. If you meet a patriarch, you will kill him. Though you may stand on the brink of life and death, you will enjoy the great freedom. In the six realms and the four modes of birth, you will live in the samadhi of innocent play.

This koan reflects something about the heart of our practice, about the aspiration for liberation, about reality and deep compassion.

All in this single word, MU—NO

There are times in practice when we are invited to wield the sword of MU. To practice Prajna Paramita’s Great NO. What is true? What is your original face?

Not this, not this, no this.

To see through all conditioned phenomena, to see for ourselves what can not be taken away.

We have a tendency to see and react, hear and react, perceive or misperceive and react. We make our home in a belief, a thought, a reaction, or our anger, our fear.

We make conclusions based on our limited perception, and the beliefs, emotions and thoughts that moment of perception triggers.

When we swing the sword of MU, we cut through all that is insubstantial, temporary, fleeting. We see through our mental fabrications, our mind’s fake news, the dusty habits that constellate this sense of separation, the assumptions that we paste on top of reality.

What is left when all our conditioning is seen for what it is?

We return to oneness.

We awaken to our true nature.

We live from a love beyond belief, beyond fear.

Doesn’t mean these feelings, thoughts and reactions don’t arise—NO is helping us see into their nature, reminding us of their temporariness, their empty-but-apparent expression.

The heart sutra is helping us find true liberation from our misperceptions, and misidentifications.

To practice NO in meditation is an invitation to see through the content of thought, to sink below the stories and narratives that keep us on the surface of mind and to know ourselves beyond our habits of identification with mental objects, with sounds, sensations, sights, with the body, etc.

What are we when we give everything over to MU?

The ancient ancestors say, we will be free in life and death.

We won’t be at the mercy of our fear.

What kind of world is possible if we weren’t living in some kind of fear reaction to fear?

What kind of life is possible, if we were in touch with the freedom and love of our true nature—in any situation?

I personally feel excited to find out. I wish that for us as we face the uncertainty and mystery of this unfolding political situation in the US, may this be motivation for our awakening.

The sword of wisdom is in our hands.

Let NO take you to what cannot be negated.

Stand here, in this sacred place.

* Listen to the podcast episode for a more in depth dive into the practice of Prajna Paramita’s Great NO!

I’m Amy Kisei. I am a Zen Buddhist Teacher, Spiritual Counselor, budding Astrologer and Artist. I offer 1:1 Spiritual Counseling sessions in the styles of IFS and somatic mindfulness. I also offer astrology readings. Check out my website to learn more. I currently live in Columbus, OH and am a supporting teacher for the Mud Lotus Sangha.

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