It is said that if you meet the Buddha on the road, you must kill him.
Buddha passed into eternal rest 2,400 years ago.
The appearance is that of an impostor that you must, with no hesitation, kill.
It is also the idea embedded in emptying one’s mind.
It is a direct, anti-intellect approach that requires one to intuitively understand and break through conceptual barriers. It means, Do not hold onto dogma, in the same way wood will not resist fire and a stone will not float.
As we tend to solidify and cling to certainty, killing the Buddha means to kill the impostor in us: our conceptualisations and what enlightenment looks like to us. It means to let go of all preconceptions and have a beginner’s mind: open and eager.
If we must think about it, we will not understand it.
Whatever we think ultimate truth is, whatever we think the essence of all things is, it is not that.
We thus renounce all clinging, even the clinging to the Buddha.
For if we see the Buddha on the way, it surely is a delusion, as we are one with all things.
We are the way.
—R.