but everything is in the plenary void of self-sufficient existence.
　　　　  In Ohio Impromptu, Beckett moves beyond his earlier expression of
　　　　  the logical paradox of existence, presenting a koan which allows us
　　　　  to join the characters in achieving a state of pre-reflective
　　　　  "without-consciousness."
　　　　  Once we gain the vision of this new paradigm, we are free to absorb
　　　　  the information of the plays in a pre-reflective state wherein
　　　　  fragments are universal and vice versa; we learn to make
　　　　  "without-sense" of the plays by seeing, "not some thing different,
　　　　  but in a different way."(51) Or, as Schopenhauer, who was heavily
　　　　  influenced by contact with Buddhism, describes the profound,
　　　　  mind-numbing experience of witnessing a great work of art,
　　　　  "aesthetic pleasure in the beautiful consists ... in the fact that,
　　　　  when we enter the state of pure contemplation [when logic and
　　　　  linearity are destabilized and association begins], we are raised
　　　　  for the moment above all willing, above all desires and cares; we
　　　　  are, so to speak rid of ourselves."(52) Only when we are "rid of
　　　　  ourselves," can R's final words, "Nothing is left to tell," begin to
　　　　  make sense in a different way: it is only after we and the
　　　　  characters (and Beckett) have struggled through the play together
　　　　  and discovered Mu shin -- the state of no mind, or "consciousness
　　　　  beyond thought" -- that we can understand No-thing the "positive
　　　　  nothingness of nonbeing,"(53) as the path to the play's (and our)
　　　　  enlightenment.
　　　　  NOTES
　　　　  (1) Samuel Beckett, Ohio Impromptu in Collected Shorter Plays (New
　　　　  York, 1984), 288. Subsequent references appear parenthetically in
　　　　  the text.
　　　　  (2) For use in this term, see Samuel Beckett's short story,
　　　　  "Lessnesg".
　　　　  (3) Yasunari Takahashi, "The Theatre of Mind -- Samuel Beckett and
　　　　  the Noh," Encounter, 58 (April, 1982), 66-73. Reprinted in Critical
　　　　  Thought Series: Critical Essays on Samuel Beckett, ed. Lance St.
　　　　  John Butler (Brookfield, VT, 1993), 260. Takahashi has noted that
　　　　  one is reminded, by Beckett's minimization and abstraction, of
　　　　  Japanese Noh theater, which reduces to essential movements and
　　　　  energy states a vast range of human emotion and action. In this form
　　　　  of theater, "nothing happens, everything has already happened ...
　　　　  but someone emerges out of an unknown country." As with Beckett,
　　　　  stillness and memory (often in third-person) are primary dramatic