- Introduction: The Method of Negation
Every authentic encounter with the Absolute begins not with affirmation, but with a stripping away. The ultimate reality—whether named as the Unborn, Brahman, or Absolute Nothingness—cannot be approached by concepts, images, or affirmations. To affirm is already to fall into limitation, for affirmation binds Being to a predicate, and predicates belong to the world of phenomena. Affirmation assumes distinction: this is true, that is false; this is real, that is not. But the Absolute stands prior to all distinctions, prior to the very duality of “is” and “is not.”
It is for this reason that the method of negation arises as central in both Unborn Mind Zen and Advaita Vedānta. The pathways differ in emphasis—Unborn Mind Zen radicalizes negation into a refusal of all arising phenomena, whereas Advaita shapes negation into a systematic discipline known as neti-neti (“not this, not that”). Yet both traditions converge in the recognition that what is most Real cannot be captured by thought or form; it is only disclosed when everything false, relative, or conditioned is let go.
To negate, however, does not mean to destroy. Nor does it mean to reject the relative world as utterly unreal in a nihilistic sense. Rather, negation is a gesture of refusal—a refusal to be ensnared by appearances, a refusal to identify with passing forms, a refusal to let the finite masquerade as the Infinite. In this sense, negation is a method of discernment: by stripping away what is not ultimate, what remains shines forth more clearly, even though it can never be “captured.”
In Unborn Mind Zen, this negation takes the form of remaining “prior-to” phenomena: prior to the thought that arises, prior to the feeling that insists upon its reality, prior even to the act of meditation as a technique. In Advaita, it manifests as the careful, deliberate discipline of disentangling the Self from all that is non-Self, until only Brahman remains.
Yet, for both, the journey of negation confronts us with paradox: if all affirmations fail, can we even speak of the Absolute? If all predicates are stripped away, how do we avoid collapsing into silence, or worse, into despair? The traditions respond differently—Unborn Mind Zen emphasizes a luminous awareness that remains after all negations, while Advaita insists that the Self revealed through neti-neti is identical to Brahman, limitless and unconditioned.
Thus, negation is not merely a philosophical technique. It is a spiritual practice, a mode of life, a refusal that opens into affirmation of a higher kind. But it is affirmation without words, without predicates: the silent recognition of what is always already present, the Absolute beyond all grasp.
- Unborn Mind Zen: Negating Phenomena
Unborn Mind Zen places a radical emphasis on what it calls the prior-to stance. To remain “prior-to” is not an act of adding anything, nor is it a form of meditative cultivation in the sense of building concentration or tranquility. Rather, it is a refusal to follow the stream of phenomena into entanglement. A thought arises—remain prior-to it. A sensation demands attention—remain prior-to it. A subtle identification with the act of meditating itself begins to form—remain prior-to even that.
This stance of prior-to is the lived embodiment of negation. Unlike the gradual method of neti-neti in Advaita, which carefully distinguishes Self from non-Self through philosophical discernment, Unborn Mind Zen makes no such concessions to graduality. Its negation is immediate, uncompromising, and total. There is no progression through stages; there is only the stark refusal to grant phenomena any ontological privilege.
Unborn Mind Zen’s teachers often critique the Zen of Dōgen and the later Sōtō tradition precisely at this point. Dōgen emphasized shikantaza—“just sitting”—as the embodiment of enlightenment. To simply sit, without striving, without rejection, is to enter the field of practice-realization. But for Unborn Mind Zen, such “just sitting” is a subtle entanglement in phenomena. Sitting is still an act. Sitting is still rooted in the body and in the unfolding of time. To identify sitting itself with the Unborn is, from their perspective, to mistake the finger for the moon.
Instead, Unborn Mind Zen insists: the Unborn Mind is not to be found in sitting, not in breathing, not in the act of zazen itself. It is always already present, luminous and untouched, prior to every arising. To lean upon sitting, or upon any practice, is to make the Absolute dependent on conditions. Thus, to “practice” in the sense of cultivating states of mind is anathema. One need not refine the mind, one need only cease to identify with what arises within it.
This radical form of negation can at times appear austere, even harsh. There is no compromise, no gentle reassurance that progress will unfold gradually with effort. There is only the insistence: all that arises is non-abiding. Do not cling to it, do not identify with it, do not mistake it for Self. What remains when all phenomena are negated is not a void of absence, but the luminous clarity of the Unborn.
Thus, the negation of Unborn Mind Zen is not nihilistic. Its refusal is not a destruction of reality, but a refusal to allow the transient to masquerade as the Real. In this sense, it is a “no” that opens into the deepest “yes”: the recognition of Suchness, pure and unconditioned.
- Advaita Vedānta and the Discipline of Neti-Neti
In Advaita Vedānta, the method of negation takes a very different shape. Where Unborn Mind Zen emphasizes immediacy—remaining prior-to phenomena without gradual steps—Advaita employs a structured, deliberate practice of discernment. This is the discipline of neti-neti (“not this, not that”), one of the most profound contributions of the Upaniṣadic sages to the philosophy of spiritual realization.
The purpose of neti-neti is to strip away all mistaken identifications with what is not the Self (ātman). The body arises—neti: not this. Thoughts, feelings, and emotions arise—neti: not this. Even subtle experiences of joy, clarity, or mystical absorption arise—neti: not this. The negation continues until all that is finite, conditioned, or dependent is seen as not the Self.
Unlike Unborn Mind Zen, which rejects reliance upon methods, Advaita embraces method as an indispensable aid. For Advaita, the mind is both the source of bondage and the potential instrument of liberation. It must be purified and refined through listening (śravaṇa), reflection (manana), and deep contemplation (nididhyāsana). Only then is it capable of wielding the scalpel of neti-neti with sufficient clarity.
The process is not instantaneous. The aspirant must learn to discriminate (viveka) between the transient (anitya) and the eternal (nitya), between the Self (ātman) and the non-Self (anātman). This discrimination unfolds gradually, requiring both intellectual understanding and direct contemplative insight. In this sense, Advaita does not dismiss sitting, reflection, or meditation. Rather, it harnesses them as tools to peel back layers of identification, like removing one mask after another until the face beneath is revealed.
Yet the negation of Advaita is not merely an endless stripping away. At its culmination, when all predicates have been denied, what remains is not nothingness but Brahman: pure Being, Consciousness, and Bliss (sat-cit-ānanda). This Self, revealed through negation, is not an absence but an overflowing fullness, limitless and without second.
Here lies a crucial contrast with Unborn Mind Zen. Whereas Unborn Mind speaks of luminous awareness “prior-to” phenomena without affirming its nature, Advaita is willing to affirm—cautiously—that the Self thus revealed is identical with Brahman, the Absolute Reality that is the ground of all that appears. Where Unborn Mind resists naming, Advaita finds affirmation at the very end of negation.
In practice, however, the effect is similar. Both disciplines sever attachment to phenomena and open the practitioner to the Absolute. Yet the mood differs: Advaita’s neti-neti is patient, structured, philosophical, almost pedagogical; Unborn Mind Zen’s negation is immediate, radical, uncompromising. One guides through stages of discernment, the other demands an instant refusal. Both, however, are means of disclosing the Real beyond all predicates.
- The Paradox of Negation—Fullness in Emptiness
At first glance, the logic of negation appears to lead inevitably toward emptiness as mere absence. To say “not this, not that” or to remain “prior-to” every phenomenon might suggest that what remains is nothing at all, a void stripped of meaning and life. This is the charge often leveled against both Buddhist śūnyatā and Advaita’s neti-neti: that they end in nihilism. Yet the paradox at the heart of both traditions is that negation does not culminate in nothingness as lack, but in nothingness as fullness.
Unborn Mind Zen expresses this paradox through its insistence that the luminous Mind remains untouched by any arising. In negating all phenomena, what shines forth is not a dead emptiness but the unconditioned radiance of Suchness. This “no-thing” is not barren but fertile, not a wasteland but a boundless openness. To call it “Unborn” is to affirm that it is not subject to arising and ceasing, not contingent upon conditions, and therefore inexhaustible.
Advaita Vedānta arrives at a parallel insight through the path of neti-neti. When all identifications have been stripped away, what remains is Brahman, the infinite substratum of all. To the ordinary mind, this seems like nothing—because it is not any object, not any thought, not any experience. But to the realized sage, Brahman is fullness itself (pūrṇa), overflowing as Being, Consciousness, and Bliss. Thus, what looked like negation from the standpoint of the seeker reveals itself as affirmation from the standpoint of realization.
This paradox of “fullness in emptiness” is perhaps the central jewel of the via negativa across traditions. The “no” that refuses all phenomena is at the same time the doorway to the “Yes” of the Absolute. But each tradition frames this differently.
* Unborn Mind Zen avoids positive descriptions, wary of reifying the Absolute. Its silence and refusal to affirm are themselves a safeguard against clinging. Yet its practitioners testify to a luminous clarity that is unmistakably alive.
* Advaita Vedānta accepts the risk of affirmation, proclaiming Brahman as the sole reality, the ground of all. Its danger lies in mistaking the intellectual affirmation for realization itself, but when realized, the fullness of Brahman is beyond doubt.
The paradox teaches us that emptiness and fullness are not two. The emptiness revealed by negation is not opposed to fullness but is its very condition. To see this is to break the spell of dualistic thought, which always imagines emptiness as lack and fullness as abundance. Both traditions, through different strategies of negation, converge on this non-dual recognition: the Absolute is beyond predicates, yet the very act of negation unveils its inexhaustible richness.
Here negation reaches its highest function. It ceases to be a rejection and becomes instead a revelation. By saying “no” to the finite, one opens to the Infinite. By refusing the false, one awakens to the Real. The paradox is not a contradiction but the deepest invitation: in emptiness, fullness; in nothingness, the All.
- Practical Implications—Living Negation in the World
If the way of negation remained only a philosophical exercise or a meditative subtlety, its transformative power would be incomplete. Both Unborn Mind Zen and Advaita Vedānta insist, though in different registers, that the fruit of negation must manifest in the texture of one’s daily existence. The ultimate measure is not how refined one’s concepts are, but whether the “false self” has been abandoned and the luminous ground revealed in life.
Unborn Mind Zen: Remaining Prior-to Phenomena in Action
For Unborn Mind Zen, “remaining prior-to” is not confined to the meditation cushion. It is a discipline that extends into every moment. A conversation begins—remain prior-to the words and their emotional undertones. A wave of anger arises—remain prior-to the reactive impulse. A sense of achievement forms after some perceived insight—remain prior-to even that.
This stance is not cold detachment but radical freedom. One is no longer ensnared by the push and pull of phenomena. Relationships continue, work continues, the body continues, yet the practitioner knows these as dream-like displays. The Unborn remains untouched, luminous in the background. To live in this way is to walk in the world but not be of it, a phrase reminiscent of mystical traditions across cultures.
Unborn Mind Zen often critiques conventional Zen’s attachment to ritualized sitting practice precisely because such attachment risks confining awakening to a narrow setting. The point is not to sit for enlightenment, but to live in the Unborn, unbound by circumstance. To “just sit” may be an exercise in repose, but to remain prior-to phenomena in the midst of life’s turbulence is liberation itself.
Advaita Vedānta: Neti-Neti as Lifelong Discrimination
In Advaita, neti-neti becomes a habit of mind that extends into daily discernment. The aspirant is taught to ask, in every circumstance: “Is this Self? Or is this non-Self?” Each thought, each identification, each role in society is measured against the inner intuition of Brahman. The constant negation of “not this, not that” eventually dissolves habitual clinging to body, mind, and ego.
But Advaita also insists that the fruit of this negation is not withdrawal. The realized sage, the jīvanmukta (liberated while alive), lives in the world without confusion. Action arises, but without doership. Compassion flows, but without attachment. Work is performed, but the Self is never obscured. The negation has not destroyed life but has clarified it, revealing the substratum that was always present.
Shared Outcome: Freedom Through Non-Clinging
Here both traditions converge. Negation, far from being nihilistic, allows for the most luminous engagement with existence. By refusing to grant ultimacy to the transient, one becomes free to live without fear and without the burden of clinging.
* For Unborn Mind Zen, the practitioner no longer chases after or recoils from phenomena, dwelling always in the radiant prior-to.
* For Advaita Vedānta, the sage rests in Brahman, seeing the world as appearance, neither resisting nor grasping it.
In both, negation becomes the ground for affirmation—not of the finite, but of the Infinite shining through the finite.
The Ethics of Negation
A final word must be said about ethics. Critics often worry that such radical negation leaves no room for moral responsibility. If all is negated, what remains of right and wrong? Yet both traditions have answers:
* Unborn Mind Zen teaches that when the ego no longer clings, compassionate activity naturally arises, unforced and uncalculated. Negation clears away the distortions that block the spontaneous flow of wisdom and compassion.
* Advaita Vedānta maintains that the jīvanmukta acts in harmony with dharma, not because of external obligation but because Brahman itself shines forth as the Self of all beings. Negation of ego leads not to indifference but to universal empathy.
Thus, the via negativa culminates not in emptiness as void but in emptiness as fullness, lived through compassionate freedom.
Conclusion
The practice of negation reveals a paradox: to deny is to unveil, to refuse is to affirm. Whether through Unborn Mind Zen’s uncompromising stance of remaining prior-to phenomena, or Advaita’s disciplined stripping away of predicates through neti-neti, the seeker is led beyond appearances into the heart of reality. What seemed at first like an austerity of “no” is revealed to be the gateway to the most luminous “Yes”—the fullness of emptiness, the radiance of the Absolute.