Too many steps have been taken returning to the root and the source. Better to have been blind and deaf from the beginning! Dwelling in one's true abode, unconcerned with and without - The river flows tranquilly on and the flowers are red.

There is a famous Ch'an/Zen saying that in the beginning mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. Then, at a particular point in practise, represented by the eighth picture, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers. After this mountains truly are mountains and rivers truly are rivers.

This stage is to know the world in its true nature. Rivers flow and a flower is red. There is no more self-consciousness reactions to distort the world.