Hello and welcome to another episode of the Secular Buddhism Podcast.

This is episode number 116.

I am your host, Noah Rasheda, and today I'm going to talk about the people who don't exist.

Keep in mind you don't need to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist.

You can use what you learn to be a better whatever you already are.

Now before jumping into the topic, I want to talk about the Zen Kowon that I left you

in the last podcast episode.

This is the Kowon of the Gateless Gate.

So one day, as Manjushri stood outside the gate, the Buddha called to him.

Manjushri, Manjushri, why do you not enter?

Manjushri replied, I do not see myself as outside.

Why enter?

I've talked about this concept of the Gateless Gate before in previous podcast episodes.

But I recently just got back from Nepal.

Had an excellent time over there.

And during one of the days that we were trekking out in the middle of a field, there was a gate.

And I looked at it and I jokingly called it the Gateless Gate.

It looked like the gate had been built without a fence.

And at some point maybe the fence would be installed.

Or it could have also been the frame for what was going to become a swing set or something.

But the gate was there.

It looked like a gate without a door.

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