A Ladder in Empty Space

A Ladder in Empty Space

A student monk asked: "There is a pearl in the sky. How can I obtain it?" Nansen replied: "Split bamboo and make a ladder to pick it."

"There is a pearl in the sky. How can I obtain it?" This means, "How can one attain enlightenment?" Many Zen masters have taught that enlightenment is obtaining emptiness, and the student was asking how one could possess that emptiness.

Then Nansen answered: "Split bamboo and make a ladder to pick it."

People usually work or study with the expectation that they can achieve anything through effort. All of you have probably worked hard to live a life that is not inferior to others. However, even though you have lived earnestly, no less diligently than others, when you think about whether you are truly living as well as others, you would find it difficult to give yourself a definitive answer.

Of course, you may be able to live as well as others. But for you to live a life where you enjoy inner fulfillment, you must tear down the inner walls you possess.

"I have worked so hard all this time to eat well, live well, and live in a way that others would not envy, so why do I still have this 'envy' remaining?"

This is because the methods you have pursued have necessarily contained some lacking elements.

Our mind is one, but it has two functions. One is the conscious function, and the other is the subconscious function. What ordinary people call "my mind" refers to their conscious interpretation and evaluation of their conscious function. They are unaware of their unconscious function. For example, you get sick. If you have pain somewhere or develop an illness, why did that illness arise? It's because you possess within yourself the elements that can cause that illness. God is flawlessly accurate. God is God precisely because of this complete accuracy. What you don't want, what you don't request, is absolutely never given to you. You might ask:

"Then why did I get sick? I never wanted to become ill."

You carry the illness within your mind. It has manifested accurately as illness in you.

Since childhood, you have grown up experiencing illness, either directly or indirectly. You have heard about cancer. You've heard that some neighbor died of cancer, and newspapers and various media are full of stories about cancer. Fear of cancer gradually infiltrates your unconscious. Your unconscious repeatedly remembers this terrible enemy called 'cancer.' Then your life energy, the energy bestowed upon you by God, begins to flow toward cancer. This energy flows toward whatever your subconscious strongly remembers. If you are caught up in the thought "What if I get cancer!" that energy gets concentrated on that very "what if." It may be a shocking story, but most people who get sick are suffering from chronic illnesses because they find comfort in them. Their unconscious maintains justification for its existence through illness.

If you truly want to be saved from illness, there must be a struggle to free yourself from the disease. That's why Jesus said, "Your faith has saved you."

If you are greatly afraid of some situation, quickly resolve that fear. Fear acts powerfully on the unconscious. Then such situations will actually occur around you. This is called psychic power. Psychic power can be used in negative ways or in positive directions.

"There is a pearl in the sky. How can I obtain it?" "Split bamboo and make a ladder to pick it."

You have come here to attain enlightenment for yourself. Even now, many people are practicing in the mountains. The diligent students, many clergy, religious scholars—they are the ones splitting bamboo to make ladders. This is impossible. Yet Nansen said: Try even harder at this impossible task.

The student monk thought quietly: "How can one place a ladder in the sky?" This is impossible. "Where should I lean the ladder?" There is nowhere to lean it. Yes, that's exactly it. The very act of asking "Where should I lean the ladder?"—that itself is placing a ladder in empty space and climbing up. The countless people who enter the mountains for spiritual practice and study earnestly—that itself is placing a ladder in empty space and climbing up.

Nansen said: "But why do you try to obtain it? The pearl in emptiness cannot be picked just because you try to pick it, so why do you try to pick it? Don't try to pick it. If you let go of the you that tries to grasp, immediately you and the pearl will be one."