Author: Zen Fools

Venerable Ones, get to know what plays with these shadows of light. It is the not only original source of all the Buddhas but also where all practitioners should return to. Your physical body, formed by the four elements, can neither speak nor listen to the Dharma; nor can your five viscera and six entrails; nor can the empty space.

Commentary:

To get to know what plays with these shadows of light, illusions is to realise the true-Self since all actions, that is, all illusions are the functions of the true-Self. The true-Self, the original source of all is the root of not only all the Buddhas but also all illusions. That’s why ancient masters would say that all illusions turn into the true-Self once we’ve attained enlightenment, that we can be enlightened if we can only see a single illusion as it is, and that every illusion is a gate to the true-Self. ‘All practitioners should return to’ means that all practitioners should realise that they are part of the true-Self that plays with these shadows.

‘Your physical body, formed by the four elements, can neither talk nor listen to the Dharma’ means that the true-Self is not your physical body formed by the four elements; soil, water, fire and wind, but rather what controls your body every moment. That’s why I tell you to ask yourselves what you are when your bodies are not you.

Student: “How can we see the true-Self?”

Master: “Thank you for showing it.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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A. Let me ask you back. Have you ever died, or been dead so far? If not, how can you say that you feel dead when you have no experience of how the dead feel? Do you think that the dead can feel? Feeling dead is a kind of illusion. You are practising in the wrong way. You are meddling with illusions or being deluded by them during the time that you think you are spending practising Zen. Your state is referred to as ‘fallen into darkness’, or ‘fallen into the den of fox’ and Zen practitioners are likely to fall into it.

Zen meditation is not just sitting without thinking. Such a problem as this comes to you when you try to remain without thinking. Zen meditation is to focus all your attention on an ultimate question, called a koan, such as ‘What am I when my body is not me?’. When all your attention is concentrated on the question, such a thought can’t occur. When you feel dead again, just ask yourself what it is that feels dead?

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Ruiyan asked his teacher Yantou, “What is the original permanence?”

Yantou said, “Movement.”

Ruiyan said, “What happens when movement takes place?”

Yantou said, “You don’t see the original permanence.”

Ruiyan silently reflected on the matter.

Yantou said, “If you agree with this, you are bound by subject and object. If you disagree with this, you fall into an endless cycle of birth and death.”

Student: “Why don’t we see the original permanence when movement takes place?”

Master: “Because movement prevents you from seeing the original permanence.”

Student: “Why did Yantou say, ‘Movement’ when asked what the original permanence was?”

Master: “Because ‘movement’ prevented your seeing the original performance.”

Commentary:

When a master shows a fluttering leaf in order to explain the wind,

don’t be deluded by the leaf.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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The scholars of the Sutras and Treatises take the Three Bodies as absolute. As I see it, this is not so. These Three Bodies are merely words, logical props. An old master said, “Even when we talk about the Buddha Bodies and the Pure Land based on their literal the meaning, we do this depending on the true-Self.” Thus, you should know that the Dharma Nature Bodies and the Pure Land are only shadows of light.

Commentary:

‘These Three Bodies are merely words, logical props’ means that the Three Bodies are only imaginary lines, labels used to explain and describe the Buddha, the true-Self, and are not the Buddha itself. Words and phrases employed to illustrate the Buddha, however beautiful and plausible they may sound, are not the essence of the Buddha but only fingers pointing to the Buddha. Clinging to those words is to be deluded by illusions of the Buddha. So, ancient masters would say, “If you cling to words, all Sutras become Mara’s talk.”  Buddha also said on his deathbed, “Not a word have I said” in order to prevent his students from clinging to his words.

‘Even when we talk about the Buddha Bodies and the Pure Land based on their literal meaning, we do this depending on the true-Self’ means that everything we do to express the Buddha, whether speaking or gesturing, is the function of the true-Self, the Buddha. In other words, the Dharma Nature Bodies and the Pure Land are only shadows of light, illusions. The ground from which these words come from is the true-Self.

Student: “What are the Three Bodies?”

Master: “Don’t be belied by such words.”

Student: “Then, what are the Three Bodies?”

Master: “The Three Bodies.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Jesus said: “Life in God’s Kingdom is Like this.  A man went to the marketplace to hire workers for his vineyard. He offered them a silver coin and they went off to work. At 9am, 12noon, 2pm and 4pm he went again and hired men at an agreed wage. At 6pm there were still grapes to be picked so he hired more men and agreed to pay them a fair wage.  At 8pm all the grapes were picked so he gathered all the men and paid them, starting with the ones hired at 6pm. All the workers got the same amount, a silver coin. The workers who had started at 9am were angry but the man said to them, ‘I paid you what we agreed, are you cross because I was generous to those who came later?’”

A. This paragraph implies that once you enter God’s Kingdom, there is no difference whatsoever with regard to how long you tried before entering the Kingdom. Some people meet Christianity at birth while others find it late in their lives. This parable implies that regardless of how early people start to follow Jesus’s teaching and how long they have followed it, once they enter the Kingdom, there is no difference at all there. Likewise, in Buddhism once you attain enlightenment, there is no difference whatsoever, regardless of how long you have practised prior to attaining enlightenment. Enlightenment attained after practising for 30 years is not different at all from the one attained as a result of practising for one year.

Student: “Why is there no difference after entering God’s Kingdom or attaining enlightenment?”

Master: “Because there is no discrimination there.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Guishan said to the assembly, “One hundred years from now I will be reborn as a water buffalo at the foot of this mountain. On the left side of the buffalo’s chest the characters, ‘I am a monastic of Guishan’ will be written. If you call it the monastic of Guishan, it will be a water buffalo. If you call it a water buffalo, it will be the monastic of Guishan. Tell me, what will you call it?”

Yangshan came forward from the assembly, bowed, and walked away.

Student: “What will you call it?”

Master: “I will call it a water buffalo?”

Student: “How could you call the monastic of Guishan a water buffalo?”

Master: “Because I respect him.”

Commentary:

If you know the Buddha, every name is His name.

If you don’t know the Buddha, even Buddha is not his name.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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This trinity of the Buddha’s body is none other than he here before your eyes, listening to my expounding of the Dharma. You can come to this seeing only by not running and searching outside.

Commentary:

‘This trinity of the Buddha’s body is none other than he here before your eyes, listening to my expounding of the Dharma’ means that ‘the trinity of the Buddha’s body’ is no other than what is controlling your body now. Even your reading this writing is the function of the trinity of the Buddha’s body. That’s why I tell you to ask yourself what makes your body drink tea when drinking tea and what is leading your body to walk when walking.

‘You can come to this seeing only by not running and searching outside’ means that we can come to see this trinity by not chasing illusions, words and forms. Not chasing illusions, words and forms means not being deluded by them, which is ‘not discriminating and not differentiating’.

In brief, what is controlling your body at this moment is the trinity of the Buddha’s body, which is revealing itself clearly before you all the time. In order to realise it you should stop discriminating and differentiating, that is, you should not be deluded by illusions.

Student: “How can I avoid being deluded by illusions?”

Master: “Don’t be deceived by my words.”

Student: “How?”

Master: “Don’t miss what is beyond my words by clinging to them.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

#zen #meditation #zenmeditation #enlightened #enlightenment #zenfools #photography

The secret place of the most High implies the Pure Land and the Almighty Buddha in Buddhism. Both are not separate and different from each other but the same as one. The Buddha is sometimes referred to as the Pure Land or the Buddha Land when it is described as a place we should reach.

The reason why it is called the secret place is not that it is hidden but that we can’t recognise it easily although we are actually in it all the time.

Being enlightened means realising that everything is the Buddha. When you are enlightened, you come to know that everything, including you, is the Buddha and there is nothing that is not the Buddha. We can enter the place by realising that we are the very place itself that we yearn to enter. The purpose of Buddhism is to help people realise that they are the Pure Land itself.

Student: “How can we enter the secret place?”

Master: “You are wrong if you move even a step.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Guishan was sitting in the dharma hall one day. The head of the kitchen hit the wooden fish announcing the noon meal. The fire attendant threw a piece of wood he was holding into the fire, clapped his hands, and burst into laughter.

Guishan said, “Someone in the assembly should get him here and ask him what’s going on.”

The fire attendant said, “I did not have the morning meal, so I was hungry. That’s why I was happy to hear the sound of the wooden fish.” Guishan nodded.

Student: “Considering the fire attendant’s words, is he enlightened or not?”

Master: “What do you think of his words ‘I didn’t have the morning meal, so I was hungry’?”

Student: “I think he was hungry.”

Master: “You missed what he showed by clinging to his words.”

Commentary:

What matters is not what others say but whether you grasp it or not.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

#zen #meditation #zenmeditation #enlightened #enlightenment #zenfools #photography

Do you wish to be not different from the Buddhas and patriarchs? Then just do not look for anything outside. The pure light of your heart at this instant is the Dharmakaya Buddha in your own house. The non-differentiating light of your heart at this instant is the Sambhogakaya Buddha in your own house. The non-discriminating light of your own heart at this instant is the Nirmanakaya Buddha in your own house.

Commentary:

‘To be not different from the Buddhas and patriarchs’ means to attain enlightenment, since enlightenment is to realise that we are the Buddha. ‘Look for anything outside’ means to follow words and to believe that there is something else other than your mind. The union of Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya in one Buddha is the holy Trinity in Buddhism. The first implies the essence of the Buddha, the second the action of it and the third the form of it. ‘Your own house’ implies the true-Self.

‘The pure light of your heart’, ‘the non-differentiating light of your heart’, and ‘the non-discriminating light of your own heart’ that imply the function of the true-Self are oneness, not separate from each other. ‘The pure light’ is ‘non-differentiating light’, which is ‘the non-discriminating light’. They all mean that the function of the true-Self is pure because it is non-differentiating light and non-discriminating.

Whatever you do, it is the function of the true-Self, the holy Trinity. Even saying, “Dharmakaya” is also the function of the holy Trinity.

Student: “What is Dharmakaya?”

Master: “A cup of coffee.”

Student: “What is Sambhogakaya?”

Master: “A cup of coffee.”

Student: “What is Nirmanakaya?”

Master: “A cup of coffee.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

#zen #meditation #zenmeditation #enlightened #enlightenment #zenfools #photography