What This Concept Is About
In Chan Buddhism, certain phrases stick in the Chinese language like nails—「不立文字」("not establishing words"), 「即心即佛」("this very mind is Buddha"), 「拈花微笑」("the flower and the smile"). 「平常心是道」("ordinary mind is the Way") is one of them. But this particular phrase is the easiest to recite as a cliché, and the easiest to wield as a protective charm.
The fundamental source of this saying is Master Nanquan Puyuan's statement to Zhaozhou Congshen: 「平常心是道」("ordinary mind is the Way"). The scene is plain—no shouting or striking, no citing of scriptures—just a plain-spoken sentence delivered straight to him.
But after Zhaozhou understood this, he immediately asked a crucial question: 「还假趣向也无？」—Do I still need to draw near, to apply mental effort, to "rush toward" it?
Nanquan answered: 「拟向即乖。」(To deliberate and tend toward it is already to deviate.)
This line is the key. 「拟」 means to ponder, to measure, to mentally reach toward; 「向」 means to rush toward, to approach, to grasp. The moment there is deliberation and tending-toward, there is 乖—deviation, missing the mark.
Zhaozhou pressed further with an even more pointed question: 「不拟争知是道？」—If I cannot tend toward it, how can I know this is the Way?
Nanquan gave a highly distilled response:
「道不属知，不属不知。知是妄觉，不知是无记。若真达不疑之道，犹如太虚廓然荡豁，岂可于中彊是非耶。」
*"The Way does not belong to knowing, nor to not-knowing. Knowing is deluded perception; not-knowing is blank indifference. If one truly reaches the Way of no doubt, it is like the great void—vast and open. How could one force right and wrong within it?"*
This passage contains four layers of meaning:
First, 「道不属知」—You cannot delimit it with a fixed "knowing"; Second, 「亦不属不知」—But neither can you dismiss it with "not knowing"; Third, 「知是妄觉」—Whatever is clearly, distinctly "I now know it" is already a grasping-knowing, a deluded-perceiving knowing; Fourth, 「不知是无记」—If you are muddled and unclear, you fall into 无记 (avyākṛta, "indeterminate"), a dead stillness without awareness.
Thus truly reaching the Way of no doubt means having neither the attachment of "I am enlightened" nor the collapse of "I know nothing at all," but rather 「犹如太虚廓然荡豁」—like empty space, vast and open, broad, clear, unsticking, unblocked. These four characters 「廓然荡豁」 are Nanquan's true portrait of "ordinary mind."
The *Dahui Pujue Chanshi Yulu* (Record of Chan Master Dahui Pujue) also draws out three masters' interpretations of the word "know": Guifeng Zongmi called it 「灵知」 ("spiritual knowing"); Heze Shenhui said 「知之一字众妙之门」 ("the single word 'know' is the gate to all wonders"); Huanglong Sixin said 「知之一字众祸之门」 ("the single word 'know' is the gate to all disasters"). To see Guifeng and Heze is easy; to see Sixin is difficult—one must possess the eye that transcends directions, for it 「说似人不得，传与人不得」 ("cannot be explained to others, cannot be transmitted to others"). The latter half of this gong'an is the sharpest blade in the Chan school—the clearer, the more "I understand," the more vigilant one must be.
Once this gong'an is thoroughly digested, we can look at how the *Guzunsu Yulu* (Record of Ancient Venerable Masters) and the *Dahui Pujue Chanshi Yulu* unfold this concept. It can be broken into four layers.
One: The Dimension of Practice—Not "Intellectual Understanding" but "Personal Investigation"
The *Guzunsu Yulu* states plainly: 「祇许体究，不许会解」("only personal investigation is permitted, not intellectual understanding") and 「会处明得，不如不会处见得」("what is understood through comprehension is not as good as what is seen where one does not comprehend").
「会解」 is the head understanding—taking "ordinary mind is the Way" as a concept, hanging it up, treating it as some state, some superior place, some obtainable goal. Once it is hung up, you begin to think: When will I reach this "ordinary mind"? What would it look like? Am I not there yet?
This returns to Zhaozhou's question—you want to "tend toward" it. This is precisely 「拟向即乖」.
「体究」 is different—体 is the body, the whole, living life itself; 究 is to exhaust, to pursue to the end. To investigate with the body, to investigate with one's very life, rather than to think with the brain. This is the same register as Third Ancestor Sengcan's 「不用求真，唯须息见」("do not seek the true; only cease views") and 「才有是非，纷然失心」("the moment there is right and wrong, the mind is scattered and lost").
「息见」("ceasing views") is the core verb of this practice. 见 is views, judgments, "I think…". The Third Ancestor says you do not need to seek a "true"—you only need to let those clamoring "views" settle. The moment there is a right-wrong judgment, the moment there is fastidiousness about "this is right, that is wrong," the mind is thrown into chaos.
But here there is an extremely subtle mechanism: the *Guzunsu Yulu* immediately warns—「若於无求再生执见，便是执而不肯捨，大小大痴人」("if, having no-seeking, you generate attachment and views anew, that is clinging without willingness to let go—a great fool indeed"). You have just learned to be "without seeking," and then you turn "without seeking" into a new state to cling to—that is attachment on top of attachment. Clinging without releasing—that is the great fool.
The *Guzunsu Yulu* also has this line: 「此岂不是出离事？你若寻出离处，所谓苦屈。」—"Is this not the matter of liberation? If you go looking for a place of liberation, that is what is called suffering and grievance." 「出离」 ("liberation, escape") is originally the core goal of the path of liberation, but Southern-school Chan says precisely here: if you go searching for a "place of liberation," you suffer. Liberation is not about rushing toward somewhere—it is about no longer needing to rush.
Two: The Positive Meaning—"No-Mind" Rather Than "No Awareness"
The *Dahui Pujue Chanshi Yulu* positively expresses "ordinary mind is the Way" through 「无心」 ("no-mind"). An ancient worthy's verse says: 「寻牛须访迹，学道访无心」("to find the ox, one must seek its tracks; to study the Way, one seeks no-mind").
But this "no-mind" absolutely cannot be misunderstood.
It is not the dull insentience of earth, wood, tiles, or stones—that is merely a dead thing without awareness. It is not depression or numbness—that is the loss of awareness, an illness, not the Way.
Its true appearance is:
「触境遇缘心定不动、不取著诸法、荡然无障无碍、亦不住在无染污处、观身观心如梦如幻、亦不住梦幻虚无之境。」
*"When touching objects and encountering conditions, the mind is settled and unmoving; not grasping or clinging to dharmas; vast and without obstruction; also not dwelling in a place of purity; contemplating body and mind as dream and illusion; also not dwelling in the realm of dream-illusion and emptiness."*
Breaking this down line by line:
——When encountering things, the mind is settled and unmoving, but not like a stone; it is shaken, yet has a grounding within; ——Seeing all dharmas, not grasping or clinging, but not suspending judgment; seeing clearly, not clutching; ——Vast and without obstruction, not snagged by any single place; not snagged by success, not snagged by failure; ——Also not dwelling in a place of purity—this is the most subtle line: you also cannot rest in the self-feeling of "I am unpolluted," because this too becomes a new pollution; ——Contemplating body and mind as dream and illusion—seeing yourself clearly, but not treating that "I" as a real entity; ——Also not dwelling in the realm of dream-illusion and emptiness—but neither do you fall into nihilistic indifference and take that indifference as a refuge.
Dahui says: 「到得如此境界，方始谓之真无心，且非口头说底无心」("only upon reaching such a state can it be called true no-mind—and it is not the no-mind spoken of with the mouth"). This is the real "no-mind." Saying aloud "I've let go," "I have ordinary mind," "I have no attachments"—that is another matter entirely. That is hanging "no-mind" up as a signboard, precisely 「守名而生解」("guarding the name and generating understanding from it").
Three: A Warning—Do Not Treat It as the Ultimate Standard
Both records devote great space to breaking the disease of 「执为极则」 ("clinging to it as the ultimate standard").
The *Guzunsu Yulu* says some people first mistakenly take 「身心寂灭、前后际断、一念万年、古庙里香炉、冷湫湫地」 ("body and mind extinct, past and future cut off, one thought for ten thousand years, an incense burner in an old temple, cold and dreary") as the ultimate, and then go a step further, 「执箇一切平常心是道以为极则」 ("clinging to 'all ordinary mind is the Way' as the ultimate standard"). The result? 「天是天、地是地、山是山、水是水、僧是僧、俗是俗」—everything returns to a dead-water "ordinary," and the original face of people and things becomes invisible; when faced with a true test gong'an (such as 「我手何似佛手」, "how is my hand like the Buddha's hand?"), one can only make a dull worldly response.
This clinging disease has an extremely vivid metaphor: the blind man with his staff.
A blind man leans on a staff, cannot take a step without it, grips it tightly, walks by its support, relying on it at every step. You think this is security, but in fact you are bound by that staff. When the eye of the Way opens wide, and one can 「抛却杖子、撒开两手、十方荡荡、七纵八横」 ("cast away the staff, open both hands, roam freely in all ten directions, vertical and horizontal at will")—that is true freedom.
The *Dahui Pujue Chanshi Yulu* retells this metaphor with 「双盲行路」 ("two blind men walking the road") and asks: 「如今人能有几个放得杖撒得手？」—"Among people today, how many can put down the staff and open their hands?" Those who can let go are rare.
「依草附木」 ("leaning on grass, clinging to trees") is another related phrase—leaning on grass, attaching to wood, taking "ordinary" as a refuge, and when encountering things, sticking close to some "stable" thing and moving with it, without one's own eyes.
Four: The Affirmative Side—Everyday Manifestation
Beyond the warnings, both records still give an affirmation.
The *Guzunsu Yulu*:
「随缘事事了，日用何欠少。一切但寻常，自然不颠倒。」 *"Follow conditions, and each matter is finished; what is lacking in daily functioning? Everything is simply ordinary; naturally one is not inverted."* 「但无一切心，自然合大道。应用在临时，莫分妙不妙。」 *"Just have no mind of any kind, and naturally you accord with the great Way. Apply it at the moment of encounter; do not distinguish wonderful from not-wonderful."*
The *Dahui Pujue Chanshi Yulu* is even more explicit:
「道无不在，触处皆真。」 *"The Way is nowhere absent; wherever you touch, it is true."* 「日用事无别，唯吾自偶谐。头头非取捨，处处勿张乖。」 *"In daily functioning there is nothing special; I alone am in harmony with myself. At every head, no grasping or rejecting; at every place, no conflict or discord."*
This draws the true location of "ordinary mind is the Way": it is not another realm to be sought elsewhere, but the whole of daily functioning that naturally accords with the Way once all deluded thoughts are stilled. It is not elsewhere—it is in the rice before you, the person before you, this one matter before you now.
Seen within the entire path of liberation, the position of "ordinary mind is the Way" is quite particular: it is neither the "starting point of practice" nor the "endpoint of practice." It is the threshold from "various practices" falling back to "no practice, no attainment." What it must break is all clinging to the "extraordinary" or the "sacred"—the sacred and the extraordinary are themselves deluded views. What it must establish is the originally complete endowment that needs no further seeking, in all times and all places. Insight and daily functioning are mutually identical—not two separate things.
A Walk-Through in Everyday Life
The worst thing for Chan sayings is "intellectual understanding without personal investigation." Let us walk "ordinary mind is the Way" through several contemporary scenarios.
Scenario One: Morning Rush Hour, Scrolling on the Subway
You squeeze into the subway in the morning, pressed and jostled by the crowd, phone screen lights up, social media opens. First thought: "Ugh, I see a colleague's good news / anxiety-inducing news…" — followed by comparison, inferiority, resentment, anxiety.
Walking through it by "ordinary mind is the Way":
- 「拟向即乖」—If you immediately think "I should have ordinary mind about this," that very "thinking about it" is already a form of 拟向; you have already placed "ordinary mind" somewhere out there waiting for you to "reach" it. This is deviation. - 「触境遇缘心定不动」—The subway rocking is a condition; the phone lighting up is a condition. You cannot stop these conditions from arising. But "the mind settled and unmoving" means: seeing that you are anxious, seeing that this thought has arisen, not running after it, and not suppressing it either. - 「日用现成」—You actually do not need to wait for a "well-practiced" morning to be "ordinary." Today's subway, today's crowd, today's phone notifications—this is how today is. This is the "everyday." - The trap of 「执为极则」: Someone says, "I've studied Chan, so I shouldn't be anxious." If one day you are not anxious, you are smug; if another day you are anxious, you collapse. This returns to "the blind man with his staff"—you have made "not being anxious" into a crutch, and you rely on it at every step.
The most common place where people mis-map this: taking "ordinary mind" as "no thoughts arising"—that is not ordinary mind; that is dead stillness.
Scenario Two: Working Late into the Night, Project Deadline Looming
You face the screen, it is late, you are exhausted, but the deadline is tomorrow morning. The inner dialogue might be: "I should treat work with ordinary mind." "I should let go of attachment." "I should live in the present moment"…
Walking through:
- "Ordinary mind" is not "not caring." This project right now is your condition, part of your "everyday manifestation." Avoiding it, pretending it does not matter—that is not "ordinary"; that is evasion. - 「但无一切心，自然合大道」—The "all minds" here are the fantasies: the deluded hope that everything will go smoothly tomorrow morning, the endless rumination over a colleague's words from earlier, the clinging to "I am not capable enough." Still these "all minds," and what remains is the mind that faces this one matter before you now. That one is enough. - 「应用在临时，莫分妙不妙」—What must be submitted tomorrow morning is what must be submitted; what must be done now is what must be done. Do not worry about whether it is "wonderful" or "not wonderful," do not worry about whether "this counts as practice." Just do it—the way of eating when eating. - Warning: If you use "ordinary mind" as a name to push the deadline to tomorrow morning, or shift the blame onto a colleague, you are using "ordinary mind" as a shield—a false teaching under the name of "ordinary." What the *Dahui Pujue Chanshi Yulu* denounces as 「随缘管带忘情默照」 ("following conditions while managing, forgetting feeling and silently illumining") and 「是事莫管但只恁麼歇去」 ("don't manage any matter, just rest like that") is exactly this.
Scenario Three: Small Frictions in Intimate Relationships
You and your partner argue over a small thing—who does the dishes, who forgot to say something. The words get harder and harder.
Walking through:
- 「知是妄觉」—At this moment, the thought surfacing in you—"They're clearly doing this on purpose," "They don't love me anymore"—this kind of "I see it clearly" judgment is often the strongest form of 妄觉 ("deluded perception"). It looks extremely clear, but it is actually affliction in disguise. - 「不取著诸法」—"Their words are hurtful" is one dharma; not grasping does not mean that matter is unimportant, but rather that you do not hang that "hurt" feeling on your heart forever and replay it endlessly. - 「亦不住在无染污处」—You also cannot jump to the other side: "Fine, fine, I won't hold a grudge, this is my level of Chan practice"—this kind of "I don't care" is also pollution, the pollution of avoidance. - 「日用无别」—Washing dishes can be done very ordinarily, or very agonizedly. The difference is not in the dishes; it is in whether you are settled or scattered while washing. - Warning: Treating "ordinary mind" as "I must not get angry"—that is not ordinary mind; that is suppressed anger. Treating "ordinary mind" as "I accept whatever they say"—that is not ordinary mind; that is people-pleasing. Both are variants of 「执为极则」.
Scenario Four: The Everyday of Parenting
The child is crying, homework is dragging, eating is picky. As a parent, you easily fall into two reactions: one is emotional escalation, the other is forceful "restraint."
Walking through:
- At this moment, the voice of the "practitioner" easily appears: "I should treat my child with ordinary mind"—the moment this sentence is uttered, you are already in 拟向. - The true appearance: seeing the child crying, seeing the irritation rising in yourself, seeing all of this, and still getting up to handle it—rather than being caught up in the tangle of "should I be irritated or not." - 「触境遇缘心定不动」—The child crying is a condition. Your mind being settled is not iron-stone immobility; it is having a grounding. That grounding lets the crying be the crying, judgment be judgment, action be action—without the three churning into one lump. - Warning: The trap of 「执为极则」 is "I should cultivate to a state where even if the child makes a scene, I remain unmoved." This is making "ordinary mind" into another crutch.
Scenario Five: The Endless Loop of Scrolling Short Videos
The algorithm feeds you; you scroll for an hour, look up, and find your eyes sore, your mind empty, your heart unsettled. "I should put down the phone"—this sentence has already become a popular cliché.
Walking through:
- 「拟向即乖」—You just think "I should put it down," and the next thought is "one more scroll, then I'll put it down," and the next is "this one is interesting," and the loop continues. The 拟向 itself becomes the reason you cannot put it down. - Dahui cites Huanglong Sixin: 「知之一字众祸之门」—You think you "know" you should put it down. This "knowing" is itself a form of clinging, another form of not putting it down. - 「道不属知、不属不知」—It is not by "I understand the principle" that you put it down, and not by "I don't care about anything" either. It is that at some instant—perhaps when your finger just happens to swipe past, perhaps when your eyes tire, perhaps when a bird call comes from outside the window—you naturally put it down. - 日用现成: At the moment of putting it down, there is nothing especially "enlightened" about it. It is just putting it down. This is ordinary.
The most common place where people mis-map this: thinking that letting go must depend on an obvious moment of "decision." In fact, letting go is often "let go without even noticing."
Why Contemporary People Need It
This concept was already fully articulated in the mature period of Southern-school Chan. Why still speak of it today?
Background one: In the algorithmic age, "mind settled and unmoving" has become a rarity.
Our attention is structurally fragmented—notifications, pushes, short videos, trending searches. "The mind settled and unmoving when touching objects and encountering conditions"—how easy is that? Our 缘 ("conditions") have been artificially designed to be maximally unfavorable to 定 ("settledness"): every condition is embedded with a hook, every condition is strung into an infinitely extending chain of hooks. 「不取著诸法」 in this environment is almost like training against human nature.
Background two: A backlash against performance culture.
Modern people have internalized a voice: you must continuously optimize yourself—performance, appearance, social media persona, parenting outcomes, relationship satisfaction. This voice is so deep it has grown into the breath. Under this pressure, "ordinary mind is the Way" sounds like liberation: no more rushing, no more chasing, no more seeking a "better self."
This is its greatest contemporary appeal and its greatest contemporary trap—many people recite it as a synonym for lying flat, giving up, being demoralized, being "Buddhist-adjacent." This is the most common way of turning it into 「执为极则」.
Background three: Packaging by the modern "spirituality" market.
In contemporary times, mindfulness, meditation, Chan practice apps, and various body-mind-spirit courses—these industries package "ordinary mind" as a purchasable commodity, an app subscription, a certificate you can collect after a ten-day course. This is precisely what the *Guzunsu Yulu* calls 「守名而生解」—guarding the name "ordinary mind" and turning "no-seeking" into a new thing to be sought.
Background four: Neuroscience and AI as a contrast—but note the boundary.
Contemporary neuroscience observes that long-term mindfulness training is associated with changes in activity patterns in certain brain regions—for example, activity in the default mode network (DMN), related to "self-referential processing," appears to be modulated under certain practices. But this is correlation, not mechanistic proof, and certainly not "science has proven Buddhism." These studies help us understand that 「息见」 ("ceasing views") may have a material basis, but they absolutely do not equal "quantitative verification of Buddhism"—these are two different languages and two different goals; neither can pronounce the final verdict on the other.
The algorithmic age provides a particularly clear mirror: the way algorithms work is the opposite of 「执为极则」—they optimize all behavior toward a fixed target (click rate, dwell time, conversion rate), then rigidly hold that target and fine-tune around it. Nanquan's 「犹如太虚廓然荡豁」 is precisely the opposite of "rigidly grasping one optimization target." The more we live in the algorithmic age, the more we need to preserve an ability for "not everything must be turned into an ultimate standard."
So the urgency of "ordinary mind is the Way" in the contemporary era is double-edged: on the one hand, it responds to a genuine state of physical-mental overwork; on the other hand, it is most easily co-opted and distorted by the contemporary healing industry, turned into yet another form of performance culture—"I must cultivate ordinary mind," "I must calm down."
This is precisely the contemporary variant of the disease of 「执为极则」: turning "ordinary mind" into yet another KPI.
Common Misreadings and Clarifications
Misreading One: "Ordinary Mind" Means "I Don't Care" or "Good Enough"
This is the most common and most superficial misreading.
"Don't care" is dullness, giving up, turning off feeling. "Ordinary mind" is not grasping, not opposing—but not turning off feeling either. The Third Ancestor says 「才有是非，纷然失心」—"right and wrong" is judgment, not feeling. 「息见」 is stilling the judging-view of "I see it clearly," not stilling joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness themselves.
A clear proof: Dahui says 「观身观心如梦如幻，亦不住梦幻虚无之境」—since it says "contemplating body and mind," the awareness is perfectly clear; since it says "as dream and illusion," it is not dead or dull; since it says "not dwelling in the realm of dream-illusion and emptiness," it is not dissolving everything, not nihilism. This "clear but not carried away" is what "ordinary" truly is.
Misreading Two: "Ordinary Mind" Is a State to Be Pursued
Nanquan already answered when Zhaozhou asked 「还假趣向也无」: 「拟向即乖」.
But people always turn everything into something to be sought—"I want to cultivate to ordinary mind," "I want that vast and open feeling," "I envy that master's state." The moment such a mind arises, "ordinary mind" instantly becomes another "extraordinary"—something higher, farther, more worthy of going to.
It returns to the *Guzunsu Yulu*'s criticism: 「执箇一切平常心是道以为极则」—the more you cling to it, the less it is itself.
Even more subtle: you cannot even "pursue not pursuing it"—that is yet another form of seeking.
Misreading Three: "Ordinary Mind" Opposes All Effort
No.
「体究」 is not not-effort; it is effort in a different direction—not intellectual understanding, but body-mind investigation. 「寻牛须访迹，学道访无心」—the character 「访」 ("to seek out") is the practice. 「访」 is directed and effortful.
Huangbo said 「道亦不可学，情存学道，却成迷道」—this opposes 「情存学道」, that is, the posture of "I am studying the Way," not all mental application whatsoever.
「但无一切心，自然合大道」—this says "naturally" accords, not that one does not accord. "Natural" is not "whatever."
Misreading Four: "No-Mind" Means "No Heart," Numbness, Lying Flat
Already covered in Misreading One. One more line: depression, numbness, emotional blunting—these are illness, another kind of 执 ("clinging"). Dahui says 「非如土木瓦石之顽然无知」—this lists the most severe distortion of "no-mind" and reminds you not to mistake depression for enlightenment.
Misreading Five: Equating "Everyday Manifestation" with the Slogan "The Everyday Is Sacred"
「道无不在，触处皆真」—this sounds like "everything is sacred." But the disease of 「执为极则」 is precisely what such phrases most often trigger.
The real meaning of "everyday manifestation" is: the Way is not elsewhere, not in some enlightenment state tomorrow, but right here in washing dishes, replying to emails, holding your child today. But if you romanticize this moment as "oh, this is a sacred moment"—that single thought has already split the sacred from the everyday, and returned to "seeking the extraordinary."
Everyday manifestation is the present moment that does not establish the dualism of "sacred/ordinary"—the present moment that neither romanticizes the everyday nor denigrates it.
Misreading Six: Thinking "No-Seeking" Is the Ultimate Answer, So One Must Completely Abandon Seeking
The *Guzunsu Yulu* states plainly: 「若於无求再生执见，便是执而不肯捨，大小大痴人」—the moment you have just learned "no-seeking" and then cling to "no-seeking" as a new state, it is even worse.
A person who truly has no seeking does not think "I truly have no seeking." This reflexive checking is endless—every time you check "do I still have clinging?" that checking itself may be clinging.
Misreading Seven: Taking "Ceasing Views" as "Giving Up Thinking"
见 is views, judgments, positions. Ceasing views does not mean stopping the brain's operation—engineers can still calculate precisely, writers can still weigh each word, decision-makers can still deliberate over trade-offs. Ceasing views means: while views operate, one is not swallowed by them; while judgment occurs, one does not take the judgment as the entirety of "who I am."
The *Guzunsu Yulu*'s 「祇许体究，不许会解」 opposes treating "ordinary mind is the Way" as a concept to be intellectually understood—not all thinking whatsoever.
In Closing
After Nanquan finished speaking to Zhaozhou, Zhaozhou 「於言下千了百当」 ("was thoroughly settled at the words"). But the record ends with an extremely cold line: 「今如今人能有几箇放得杖撒得手？」
—Those who can put it down are rare.
「抛却杖子，撒开两手，十方荡荡，七纵八横」("Cast away the staff, open both hands, roam free in all ten directions, vertical and horizontal at will")—this is the direction Nanquan and his kind point to. But they also remind us: you are still holding the staff; noticing that you are holding the staff—this is the present moment of 体究; this moment of "everyday manifestation" is the manifestation of the Way.
Only: do not deliberate. Do not cling to it as the ultimate standard.
You have just seen "I was just deliberating"—that very seeing is one gain within no-gain; the next moment it will naturally flow past, and there is no need to "preserve" it.
This road has no endpoint—only the ground beneath your feet.