KEY TERMS
An Outline of No-Gate’s Conceptual World
Ch’an’s conceptual framework can easily be outlined by defining a few foundational terms, and our understanding of Ch’an changes dramatically when we realize that they are all either Taoist terms or Buddhist terms that have been redefined as Taoist concepts. This grounds Ch’an in Taoist cosmology, where reality is a generative ontological tissue to which consciousness belongs utterly (see the Introduction, p. ixff.). Concepts at this foundational level blur, and Taoist terminology proliferates—creating a host of virtually synonymous terms in the attempt to elucidate fundamental reality. Ch’an continues this intellectual habit, redefining a number of Buddhist terms and pushing them to that foundational level.
PRESENCE 有
The empirical universe, described in Taoist philosophy as the ten thousand living and nonliving things in constant transformation.
See the Introduction, here
Ref: here
ABSENCE 無
The generative tissue from which the ever-changing realm of Presence perpetually arises. This tissue is the ontological substrate infused mysteriously with a generative energy. Although made of the same stuff as Presence, it is Absence because it has no particular form. But because of its generative nature, it shapes itself into the individual forms of the Cosmos, then reshapes itself into other forms: the ten thousand things in the constant process of change. In fact, a more literal translation of Absence might be “without form,” in contrast to “within form” for Presence. Absence is known directly in meditation (widely practiced by ancient Chinese poets and intellectuals), where it is experienced as empty consciousness itself, known in Ch’an terminology as “empty-mind” or “no-mind”: the formless generative source of thoughts.
See the Introduction, here
Ref: here
WAY (TAO) 道
The Tao of Taoism. As the generative ontological process through which all things arise and pass away, Tao might provisionally be divided into Presence and Absence. Tao is a prime example of overlapping terminology struggling to name the fundamental nature of reality, for in practice Tao is nearly identified with Absence because however much Presence takes its various forms, it always remains part of the ongoing generative process of formless Absence.
Tao represents one of the most dramatic indications that conceptually Ch’an is a refinement and extension of Taoism, because the term Tao is used extensively in Ch’an with largely the same meaning. It sometimes simply means “the Ch’an path to enlightenment,” a usage that parallels its use in Taoism (but even here the philosophical meaning resonates, as this usage implies that the particular practices of Taoism or Ch’an are part of Tao’s ongoing process). But more often, it is Tao as a generative ontological tissue, exactly as in Taoist texts like Tao Te Ching. In this sense, it is often best translated “Buddha-Way”; and in fact, it is sometimes combined with Buddha to form literally the term Buddha-Way (p. 24)—but its meaning remains virtually identical to the Taoist Tao. Buddha-Way also reveals how the term Buddha becomes an essentially Taoist concept in Ch’an (see entry on Buddha below).
See the Introduction, here
Ref: passim.
OCCURRENCE 自然
A central concept in Taoist ontology/cosmology, tzu-jan is a way of describing the process of Tao that emphasizes individual entities rather than the process as a whole. The literal meaning of tzu-jan is “self-ablaze.” From this comes “self-so” or “the of-itself.” As a philosophical concept, it becomes “being such of itself,” hence “spontaneous” or “natural.” But a more revealing translation of tzu-jan is “occurrence appearing of itself,” for the term is meant to describe the ten thousand things burgeoning forth spontaneously from the generative source (Presence from Absence), each according to its own nature, independent and self-sufficient, each dying and returning to the process of change, only to reappear in another self-generating form. Living as an integral part of that process was a spiritual practice (wu-wei, for which see the Introduction, here) widespread among artist-intellectuals of ancient China, and it informs Ch’an practice in fundamental ways: the wild antics of Ch’an masters, the way one responds to a sangha-case, etc.
See the Introduction, here
Ref: here
LOOM OF ORIGINS 機
A mythological description of tzu-jan: the particulars of the generative Cosmos in constant transformation. Chuang Tzu, the seminal Taoist writer, describes that ontology/cosmology like this: “The ten thousand things all emerge from a loom of origins, and they all vanish back into it.”
See the Introduction, here
Ref: here
DARK-ENIGMA 
Another example of concepts blurring at foundational levels, dark-enigma was functionally equivalent to Absence, the generative ontological tissue from which the ten thousand things spring—but Absence before it is named. Or more properly, it is Way before it is named, before Absence and Presence give birth to one another—that region beyond name and ideation where consciousness and the empirical Cosmos share their source. Dark-enigma came to have a particular historic significance, for it became the name of a neo-Taoist school of philosophy in the third and fourth centuries C.E.: Dark-Enigma Learning, a school that gave Chinese thought a decidedly ontological turn and became central to the synthesis of Taoism and Buddhism into Ch’an Buddhism.
See also the Introduction, here
Ref: here
ORIGIN-TISSUE 緣
緣 is virtually synonymous with Absence, Tao, and dark-enigma: reality as a single tissue, undifferentiated and generative. Birth, the formation of the ten thousand individual things, is described as 緣 合 (yüan-ho): “origin-tissue coming together.” And death, the unraveling of individuation, is described as 緣離 (yüan-li): “origin-tissue scattering.” So the vast and ongoing transformation of things is this origin-tissue coalescing into individual forms and then dispersing back into a single undifferentiated tissue.
Ref: here
INNER-PATTERN 理
The philosophical meaning of inner-pattern, which originally referred to the veins and markings in a precious piece of jade, is something akin to what we call “natural law.” It is the system of principles or patterns that governs the unfolding of tzu-jan, or the manifestations of origin-ch’i as it takes on the forms of the ten thousand things. Inner-pattern therefore weaves Absence and Presence into a single boundless tissue. But concepts at these ontological depths blur, especially in the intermingling of Taoist and Buddhist thought; and in the hands of various writers, inner-pattern appears virtually synonymous with a host of other key concepts: Tao, tzu-jan, Buddha, prajñā (empty awakened mind: see here).
Ref: here
CH’I 氣
氣 is often described as the universal life-force breathing through things. But this presumes a dualism that separates reality into matter and a breath-force (spirit) that infuses it with life. Like the Absence/Presence dichotomy, that dualism may be useful as an approach to understanding; but more fully understood, ch’i is both breath-force and matter simultaneously. It is a single tissue generative through and through, the matter and energy of the Cosmos seen together as a single breath-force surging though its perpetual transformations. In its originary form, it is origin-ch’i (元 氣), which is essentially the same as Absence, though perhaps emphasizing Absence as dynamic and generative. Origin-ch’i is made up of yin and yang completely intermingled and indistinguishable. Once origin-ch’i separated out into yin and yang, yang rose up to become sky and yin sunk down to form earth. Always in motion, animating all things, ch’i is a kind of tissue that connects each individual always to the empty source.
Ref: here
MIND 心
In Ch’an parlance, mind principally refers to consciousness emptied of all contents, a state reached through deep meditation: hence, mind as “original-nature” or “Buddha-nature.” This consciousness in its original-nature is nothing other than Absence, that generative cosmological tissue—for it is the empty source of thought and memory, and also an empty mirror open via perception to the ten thousand things of Presence. So once again: Ch’an’s conceptual framework is fundamentally Taoist in nature.
Ch’an sometimes also uses mind in the common English sense of the word, as the center of language and thought and memory, the mental apparatus of identity. This usage is necessary in order to describe the goal of Ch’an practice, which is to replace mind as the analytical faculty with mind as consciousness emptied of all contents. From this come the terms empty-mind or no-mind—which are, confusingly, virtually synonymous with mind in its primary Ch’an sense.
In ancient China, there was no fundamental distinction between heart and mind: 心 connotes all that we think of in the two concepts together. In fact, the ideogram is a stylized version of the earlier 
, which is an image of the heart muscle, with its chambers at the locus of veins and arteries. This integration of mental and emotional realms allows the Ch’an experience of empty- or no-mind to be not just a spiritual or intellectual experience, but also a rich emotional experience.
See also the Introduction, here
Ref: passim.
CH’I-MIND 意
Containing the pictographic element for mind (心), 意 has a range of meanings: “intentionality,” “desire,” “meaning,” “insight,” “thought,” “intelligence,” “mind” (the faculty of thought). The natural Western assumption would be that these meanings refer to human consciousness, but 意 is also often used philosophically in describing the nonhuman world, as the “intentionality/desire/intelligence” that shapes the ongoing cosmological process of change and transformation. Each particular thing, at its very origin, has its own 意, as does the Cosmos as a whole. 意 can therefore be described as the “intentionality/intelligence/desire” infusing Absence (or Tao) and shaping its burgeoning forth into Presence, the ten thousand things of this Cosmos. It could also be described as the “intentionality,” the inherent ordering capacity, shaping the creative force of ch’i.
This range of meaning links human intention/thought to the originary movements of the Cosmos. And that link explains this translation’s use of the term ch’i-mind, which is meant to open the cosmological context for the idea of an “intelligence” that infuses all existence, and of which human thought is but one manifestation (although even here, notice No-Gate always deconstructs mind as the center of thought and ideation). So, 意 is a capacity that human thought and emotion share with wild landscape and, indeed, the entire Cosmos, a reflection of the Chinese assumption that the human and nonhuman form a single tissue that “thinks” and “wants.” Hence, thought/identity is not a transcendental spirit-realm separate from and looking out on reality, as we assume in the West. Instead, it is woven wholly into the ever-generative ch’i-tissue (or as it might have been expressed in ancient China: they are particular condensations of ch’i-energy), which is to say they are woven wholly into a living “intelligent” Cosmos.
Ref: here
BUDDHA 佛
Buddha refers most literally to Shākyamuni, the historical Buddha, but also to a host of other Buddhas in Buddhist mythology. Beyond its use as an element of storytelling, Ch’an invests no faith in those mythologies. And it is primarily interested in Shākyamuni at the deep level of his essential nature, which is his empty-mind. So the meaning of the term Buddha expands to mean empty-mind, emphasized in the term Buddha-nature; and because empty-mind is the central concern of Ch’an, Buddha also came to mean the essence of Ch’an. This empty-mind is available to each of us, so Buddha-nature is our original-nature, which opens the possibility both of meeting the Buddha and the patriarchs directly, and also of being indistinguishable from them, of being Buddha oneself (a common theme of No-Gate’s). And finally, as empty-mind is indistinguishable from Absence or dark-enigma, Buddha becomes synonymous with those terms too, and even the generative Tao (Way) itself. Hence, Buddha is absorbed into the Taoist cosmology, becoming another term used to describe that generative tissue that remains always just beyond language, most explicitly in the term Buddha-Way (see entry above for Way).
See also the Introduction, here
Ref: passim.
DHARMA 法
Dharma in Ch’an is the teachings of the Ch’an tradition. But Ch’an’s essential teaching is outside of words and ideas, and here is dharma’s most fundamental meaning: the sheer thusness of things that is the true teaching. And this is actually the term’s primary use in No-Gate Gateway—virtually synonymous with tzu-jan, Tao, Absence (emptiness), dark-enigma, even Buddha. Another example of a Buddhist term being adapted to function at the deepest ontological/cosmological levels of the Taoist conceptual framework, where concepts blur together.
Ref: passim.
EYE/SIGHT 目, 眼, 見, 
, etc.
Once mind is emptied of all content (through meditation and sangha-case practice), the act of perception becomes a spiritual act: empty-mind mirroring the world, leaving its ten thousand things free of all thought and explanation—utterly simple, utterly themselves, and utterly sufficient. This is the heart of Ch’an as a landscape practice. In such mirror-deep perception, earth’s vast rivers-and-mountains landscape replaces thought and even identity itself, revealing the unity of consciousness and landscape/Cosmos that is the heart of sage-dwelling not only for Ch’an practitioners, but for all artist-intellectuals in ancient China. But it is especially important for Ch’an. In fact, Chapter 6 says the essence of Ch’an is the “perfect dharma of the eye’s treasure-house.” And so, to emphasize the sense of a mirror-deep eye gazing out with the clarity of an empty awakened mind, Buddha-eye is sometimes used here in the translation of these terms. This perceptual clarity is itself nirvana or awakening, and it is always available in everyday experience. It is another way of meeting Buddha and all the patriarchs directly, but also of being indistinguishable from them, of being Buddha oneself.
See also the Introduction, here
Ref: passim.