Entering the Gateless Gate: Stephen Bodian

A Journey through the Stages of Spiritual Awakening According to a time-honored metaphor, our essential nondual spiritual nature is an open secret: It’s never been hidden even for an instant, but it remains a secret to us until we realize it for ourselves. In Zen, a gateless gate or barrier appears to separate us from truth-only when we finally pass through it do we realize that the barrier doesn’t really exist and the separation was illusory from the start. Likewise, Tibetan Buddhism speaks of ground, path, and fruition: The ground of our Buddha nature is ever-present and all-pervasive, but until we embark on the path and realize the ground for ourselves, we never experience the fruition of our search.