Sir, - A shop assistant recently handed me my change to the tune of: "There you go." This phrase was indeed music to my ears as there and then it occurred to me that its delightful meaninglessness merited memorable mention among the many irrationalities or koans in the topsy-turvy world of Zen which can result in enlightenment for folk who keep them before the mind's eye.
It seems to me that, like koans such as "the sound of one hand clapping", "the shape of your original face before you were born", etc., concentration on "there you go" could equally lead to a ligature of discursive thought and a rich emptiness promoting an equilibrium and psychic wholeness as the unconscious becomes conscious, as it were, in the process.
Wherefore, while I concede that meaning may be found in "there you go", I prefer to leave it alone in its utter absurdness and allow it to smash logic (which so often can be tiresomely over-precise). I trust that "mantra-koan" devotees like myself may go along with me in my "there you go" approach when I assert that, after receiving my change in the shop, while I did not go anywhere where there was no "there" there, I also happily arrived at a non-geographical location in the form of a still point lurking in "there you go" or somewhere thereabouts. - Yours, etc.,
(Fr) Pat Deighan,
Laytown, Co Meath.