Kukai on the Mantra 'A'

Close your eyes and say, "A."

All sentient beings have in the core of their minds a portion of purity which is completely appointed with all practices. Its essence is extremely subtle, clear, and bright, and it remains unchanged even when transmigrating in the six destinies. It is like the sixteenth phase of the moon. When the bright aspect of that phase of the moon meets the sun, it is merely deprived of its brightness by the rays of the sun and therefore does not appear, but from the start of the moon that then rises it gradually waxes day by day until the fifteenth day, when it is perfectly full and its brightness unobstructed.

Therefore, the practitioner of meditation first arouses the brightness within his original mind by means of the letter A, gradually makes it pure and brighter, and realizes the knowledge of non-arising. The letter A signifies the original non-birth of all things.

(Kukai, also known as Kobo-Daishi, 774–835, was the founder of Shingon (Esoteric) Buddhism in Japan.The syllable A is an important mantra in Shingon meditation practice, and is pronounced like the a in father.)

D.T. Suzuki on Nihilism

D.T. Suzuki: Much ado about nothing?

A monk asked Joshu, "What would you say when I come to you with nothing?"

Joshu said, "Fling it down to the ground."

Protested the monk, "I said that I had nothing; what shall I let go?"

"If so, carry it away," was the retort of Joshu.

Joshu has thus plainly exposed the fruitlessness of a nihilistic philosophy. To reach the goal of Zen, even the idea of "having nothing" ought to be done away with. Buddha reveals himself when he is no more asserted; that is, for Buddha's sake Buddha is to be given up. This is the only way to come to the realization of the truth of Zen. So long as one is talking of nothingness or of the absolute one is far away from Zen, and ever receding from Zen. Even the foothold of Sunyata must be kicked off. The only way to get saved is to throw oneself right down into a bottomless abyss. And this is, indeed, no easy task.

(Taken from 'An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, the Japanese scholar credited with introducing Zen Buddism to the West. Joshu (Zhaozhou in Chinese) was a famous Zen master of the 8th & 9th centuries)