Author: Zen Fools

Q. Doesn’t this world stay the same to others?

A. Yes, it absolutely does. Everything stays the same to everyone all the time, but it doesn’t look the same to all of us because we can’t see it as it is. So, it can be said that there are as many worlds as there are living things that reside there since each of them has its own respective perspectives that are different from one another. In other words, each of us has his own world. To see the world as different and various, according to one’s karma, is to see the realm of forms and to see the world as the same, is to see the realm of Emptiness, Oneness.

When we can see it as the same, there can’t be any conflicts between individuals or between communities, such as nations. However, aside from whether it is good or bad, it is our different viewpoints that not just get us into conflicts but also make our lives colourful and exciting. The purpose of Zen meditation is to see the world in both ways; as both the same and different. That is to enjoy diversity without conflict.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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The Fire Dharma of Xuefeng and Xuansha

Xuefeng said to the assembly, “All Buddhas in the three worlds turn the dharma wheel in the fire.”
Xuansha said, “When the fire expounds dharma to all Buddhas in the three worlds, they stand and listen.”

Student: “How is it when all Buddhas in the three worlds turn the dharma wheel in the fire?”
Master: “Hidden.”
Student: “How is it when the fire expounds dharma to all Buddhas in the three worlds and they stand and listen?”
Master: “Revealed.”

Commentary:
When hidden, Buddhas have no intention to hide themselves.
When revealed, they have no intention to reveal themselves.
Whether they are hidden or revealed doesn’t depend on their decision but on your eyes and ears.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Rinzai 17

At the High Seat, a monk asked: “What is the essence of Buddhism?”
The master raised his fly-whisk.
The monk gave a Katsu. The master hit him.

Commentary:
The monk asked Rinzai what the true-Self is, since the essence of Buddhism is to realise the true-Self. The master answered the monk’s question just by raising his fly-whisk. You should not think that he raised his fly-whisk. If raising a fly-whisk were an answer, who couldn’t raise it? On reading or hearing this phrase, you should feel as if it sounded like thunder and as if the whole universe collapsed down if you are a good practitioner. One step further, you should be able to make your own answer.

The monk, grasping what the master meant, responded to the master’s answer by giving a Katsu. The master, sensing that the monk got his intention, approved him by hitting him.

Student: “People often raise things in their lives: old men raise their walking sticks, we raise forks, or knives at meal time, we raise and wave something at someone a little away to say hello, good-by and so on. What is the difference between Rinzai’s raising his fly-whisk and ordinary people’s raising their things?”
Master: “Seeing ordinary people’s raising as the same as the Rinzai’s raising is seeing the treasure, and seeing Rinzai’s raising as the same as ordinary people’s raising is seeing the storehouse.
Student: “How do the enlightened see?”
Master: “In both ways at the same time.”
Student: “What would you have done when Rinzai raised his fly-whisk if you had been the monk’s shoes?”
Master: “I’d have taken it away from him and broken it into two pieces.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Q. All words point to the true-Self, but which word is the absolute word that points to the true-Self?

A. When all words point to the true-Self, there is no word that doesn’t point to it. Every word is the absolute word that points to it. Even the dirty words people use in calling each other names while fighting or abusing others, are pointing to it. Each of the words you used to ask this question is also pointing to it. Every single word I am using to answer your question at this moment is pointing to it as well.

Furthermore, according to the Sutras, there is nothing that is not the true-Self, which means that not only all words but also all actions point to it. The truth is that all words and actions are the functions of the true-Self. So, the expression ‘All words reveal the true-Self’, I think, is more suitable than the expression ‘All words point to the true-Self’.

What matters most is whether we realise it or not. Once we have realised it, our lives themselves become the Sutras since all the words and actions used in our lives are dharma talks that point to it.

Student: “What is the absolute word that points to the true-Self?”
Master: “You already said it.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Shoushan’s Stick

Shoushan Xingnian held up a bamboo stick and said to the assembly, “If you call it a stick, you defile it. If you don’t call it a stick, you miss it. What do you call it?”
Shexian Guixing, who heard him, had great realisation. He went close to Shoushan, snatched away the stick, and broke it in two. He threw the pieces down on the ground and said, “What is this?”

Student: “Why did Shexian Guixing break the stick and throw the pieces down on the ground?”
Master: “He showed what cannot be broken.”
Student: “What is that which can’t be broken?”
Master: “He broke the stick and threw the pieces down on the ground.”

Commentary:
It is in order to show what can’t be said that masters say.
It is in order to show what can’t be broken that masters break.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Rinzai 16

To all his monks, he continued, “If you wish to understand my phrase of guest and host, ask the head monks of the two halls,” and came down from the seat.

Commentary:
His comment ‘If you wish to understand my phrase of guest and host, ask the head monks of the two halls’ is known as one of the most difficult koans, which is highly liable to be misinterpreted as Rinzai encouraging his students to ask the head monks directly instead of realising that he was answering the question in person. This is an additional answer which he showed to his monks while thinking that they couldn’t grasp his first answer. This answer is like a sword whose blade is so sharp that it is invisible and we can’t even feel it cutting us. This implies that Rinzai’s answer is so subtle and tricky that we are very likely to be deluded into discriminating by it. The fact is that the master showed guest and host to all his student monks one more time.

Student: “Who is guest and who is host?”
Master: “Guest is host and host is guest.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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What does the Biblical phrase ‘The truth will set you free’ mean?

The truth is that everything is empty, that is, everything is one as Emptiness. What matters here is how we can be set free by the truth.

Saying, “The truth will set you free” is like saying “This food will save you from hunger”. This doesn’t mean that this food itself saves us from famine but means that only when we make the food one with us through a process of eating and digesting it can we be set free from hunger. Likewise, it is not the truth itself that makes us free. It is only after we make the truth one with us through the process of enlightenment that we can be set free.

Realising the truth that everything is empty means realising that all yokes binding us are empty. To realise that all yokes are empty is no other than to set us free from all yokes, including the yoke of life and death that binds us most firmly. However, if we, not realising the truth, only cling to the words, it will become yet another yoke that binds us.

The life free from all yokes is referred to as the Kingdom of Heaven in Christianity and the Pure Land, Buddha’s Land in Buddhism.

Student: “How shall I accept the truth mentioned in the Bible?”
Master: “It is not the truth until you’ve realised it, just as the best medicine is not medicine until you are cured after taking it.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Guishan’s “You Have to Find Out for Yourself”

Guishan was once asked by Commander Lu in the monastics’ hall, “Among these advanced monastics, who are meal servers and who are meditators?”
Guishan said, “There are no meal servers and no meditators.”
Lu said, “Then what are they doing here?”
Guishan said, “Officer, you will have to find that out for yourself.”

Student: “What did they do if they neither served meals nor meditated?”
Master: “They did what you do now.”
Student: “I am asking you questions now. How could they do what I am doing now when they couldn’t ask you like this?”
Master: “You don’t know what they did because you don’t know what you are doing now.”

Commentary:
A drop of seawater is enough to know that seawater is salty.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Rinzai 15

The head monks of the two halls happened to meet. At the same time each gave a Katsu. That day, a monk asked the master, “Were guest and host clear?” The master replied, “Guest and host were clearly distinguished.”

Commentary:
When the monk asked if guest and host had been clear between the two head monks who had shouted a Katsu at each other at the same time, he, deluded by words ‘host and guest’, wanted to want to know who was enlightened and who was not, or who asked and who answered. However, when the master replied, “Guest and host were clearly distinguished”, he meant that forms and Emptiness were clearly distinguished. His answer indicated that he could see the situation in both ways clearly as forms and as Emptiness and that he revealed guest and host in person at the same time. When hearing or reading this, we should be able to distinguish host and guest clearly. What matters here is whether we can grasp what is beyond what meets our eyes and ears when we see and hear.

Student: “Which is guest, and which is host when one shouts a Katsu earlier than the other?”
Master: “Guest and host always arrive together.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Q. Should I go to temple in order to become a Buddhist?

A. Anyone who tries to attain enlightenment through Buddha’s teaching is Buddhist regardless of whether he goes to temple or not. Those who go to temple for any purpose other than enlightenment, the core of Buddhism, can’t be said to be a Buddhist, however often they may go to temple. It is not whether you go to temple or not, but whether you try to get enlightened through Buddha’s teaching that determines whether you are Buddhist or not.

If you try to attain enlightenment through Buddha’s teaching, where you are staying now is on other than a temple. If a temple doesn’t deliver Buddha’s teaching, it is not a temple anymore, no matter how many monks and no matter how big a congregation it may have. Buddhists make a place into a temple for the sake of convenience. A place never makes people Buddhist.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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