This idea is conveyed by a famous koan (a paradoxical statement that Zen Buddhists meditate on) that says you can enter this state of awakening only through a gateless gate. This is a seemingly simple but rather profound teaching: As long as you think there is a gate, you will not be able to enter the awakened state. You enter it by realizing there is no gate; you’ve been in that awakened state all along. You arrive there by realizing there is no “there” there. The only thing keeping you from seeing this is the mistaken belief that you were ever outside a gate in the first place.
