“When you are completely clear, there is no subjective distortion; when you are completely pure, there is true perception. But even if you are thus through and through, this is still now the transcendental key. When the wind and waves have died out, the ocean of mind is as is; when you get to the bottom of the ocean of mind, for the first time you see the black pearl.”

-Tzu-te
From “Teachings of Zen,” edited by Thomas Cleary

How many?!?!?

From some random page on the net…
“This `gnani’, Devi explains, is a sage, one who is fully conscious through personal experience “of the eternal truths that express the Essence of the Universe.”

Hindi word, but not one, I suspect many Hindu’s are familiar with…

It’s an anagram of Nagin, an individual member of the Nagi. The Nagi are shamen, masquerading as a species of crow. One of their kind visited us yesterday, on the pretext of raiding a nesting pigeon. I sent him – or her – packing with the sound of one hand clapping.

Why yes, the Gnani… I know them well, or rather I’ve never heard of them!

… I see, but surely I’d need to establish an identity with all its physical elements such as a face before I could truly abandon the ego and try for enlightenment? I think I’d need some solid base to evolve from, but I understand your point!

“it is hard to feel enlightened when I do not have a face – well no physical sense of identity and all that”

This is (ironically the point of enlightenment). When you go past seeing your physical self, memories and thoughts as anything substantial- as something that adds up to a individual separate “self”. With no ego ‘in the way’ we evolve into an expression of Self/ Divine/ God/ Buddha

“Invisible Man or should I say person?”

Yea. Often it has been said of a Gnani that it is as if there no-one is there.