The old problem of the goose in the bottle

Riko once asked Nansen to explain to him the old problem of the goose in the bottle. If a man puts a gosling into the bottle, he said, and feeds the gosling through the bottle's neck until it grows and grows and becomes a goose - and then there is just no more room inside the bottle, how can the man get it out without killing the goose or breaking the bottle?

RIKO! shouted Nansen, and gave a great clap with his hands.

Yes Master! said Riko with a start.

See! said Nansen. The goose is out!

That which is never lost cannot be found, and to search for it is absurd. But the moment this absurdity is understood all seeking stops by itself and that which is never lost is found! That is why I say: SEEK AND YOU WILL NOT FIND, because the very seeking is the barrier. The search itself is the hindrance because it creates the seeker, the ego, the illusion that I am, and I am not. Do not seek and you will find it: the I-AM-NOTNESS. This nothingness is the gate. THE GATELESS GATE.

What does it mean to be empty?

Once a student asked Joshu: Sir, you teach that we must empty our minds, but I have nothing in my mind; now what shall I do?

The old Master laughed and said: Throw it out!

But I have nothing. How can I throw it out? asked the student.

Joshu said, If you can't throw it out, carry it out! Drive it out! Empty it out! But don't stand there in front of me with nothing in your mind!

Emptiness is not really emptiness: rather, it is the All. It is not negative: rather, it is positivity itself. It is out of it that everything is born and to it everything returns. It is the source and ground of all existence. So whenever I say EMPTINESS I never mean just emptiness! To me emptiness is not the absence of anything but the presence of emptiness itself.