Author: Zen Fools

Q. How does a Zen practitioner walk through hell?

A. I am going to write this assuming that a Zen practitioner means a man who has been enlightened through Zen practice. He walks through hell because hell is not hell to those who are enlightened. Rather, he rather can change hell into paradise or the Pure Land by walking through it. It can be compared to Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world going to an orphanage or a refugee camp. His going to these places doesn’t make him poor or miserable, like the orphans or refugees there. Wherever he goes and stays, he is still rich. When he goes to such miserable places, he doesn’t become miserable like people there but rather can turn the places into better places to live in. Likewise, an enlightened man can change hell into the Pure Land by delivering his teaching to the people there.

©Boo Ahm

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When you chop an earthworm into two pieces

Changsha was once asked by Emperor’s Secretary Du, “When you chop an earthworm into two pieces, both pieces keep moving. I wonder, in which piece is the Buddha nature?”
Changsha said, “Don’t have illusory thoughts.”
Du said, “How are we to understand that they are both moving?”
Changsha said, “Understand that water and fire are not yet separated.”

Student: “How should I understand that water and fire are not separated?”
Master: “The sky and the earth are from the same root.”

Commentary:
An answer is from where a question is from.
What are they like before they are a question and an answer?

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Hsin Shin Ming: “42. Quietude and noisiness come from ignorance; Enlightenment has no likes or dislikes for them.”

‘Quietude’ and ‘noisiness’ mean being peaceful and being troubled in our life. ‘Ignorance’ here means being deluded by illusions without knowing that everything is empty. To rephrase the scripture, we are peaceful when we get what we like and are removed from what we dislike, and troubled when we fail to obtain what we like and are forced to accept what we dislike, because we are ignorant that everything is empty. However, when we have realised that what we like and what we dislike are all empty and that they are just illusions created by us, we can be free from being deluded by them and enjoy them as if we enjoy a movie.

So, once you realise that all things are empty, they become condiments that enrich your life, whereas they become poison leading you to the suffering from quietude and noisiness when you don’t know that they are empty.

Student: “How can I cease to like quietude and dislike noisiness?”
Master: “You should not mistake quietude for noisiness.”

©Boo Ahm

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Q. What does it mean to see the world like a mirror? How can I see like that?

A. Once an ancient master asked one of his students, “How do you see the world?” The student answered, “I see the world like seeing a mirror.” Then, the master said, “Your comment is good but not perfect.” The student asked back, “How should I see the world, Sir?” The master said, “You should see the world just like a mirror seeing the world.”, and the student monk was deeply touched.

You should be able to see the world not like seeing a mirror but like a mirror seeing the world. A mirror reflects everything as it is, whatever is before it, without discriminating. No matter how beautiful a flower you may put in front of it, it never thinks of it as a beautiful flower and never craves for it. It just reflects the flower as it is. However dirty a thing may be in front of it, it never dislikes or distorts it but just reflects it as it is. In order to see the world like this, you should be able to see the world as empty.

©Boo Ahm

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Yunmen’s “Where Are They?”

Once Yunmen was asked by a monastic, “When birth and death come, how do we avoid them?” Yunmen said, “Where are they?”
Student: “Why did Yunmen say, ‘Where are they?’ when asked how to avoid birth and death?”
Master: “Because you can avoid them when you know where they are.”

Commentary:
All suffering is from struggling to attain and avoid what we don’t know and where it is.

©Boo Ahm

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Hsin Shin Ming: “41. Looking for the mind with the mind is the original mistake.”

The mind means the true-Self. Not only we, but also all other things are the true-Self, and there nothing else other than the true-Self.

Looking for the mind with the mind is just as if a five-year-old child were looking for the universe while not knowing that he is part of the universe. The reason why we try to find the mind in vain is that we are deluded by the label, ‘mind’ just as a five-year-old child imagines that the universe has a certain shape like sweets, chocolate and apples when he hears the word, universe.

Student: “How can we be free from the original mistake?”
Master: “Try to see who is looking for the mind instead of looking for the mind.”

©Boo Ahm

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Q. Some masters tell us not to sit at noon and midnight and to avoid practising at dawn and dusk. What is the best time to practise?

The purpose of Zen meditation is to remove illusions, imaginary lines. Time is one of the most typical illusions. There is not such a thing as time, not to mention no good time or bad time. To think that there is a good time and a bad time is to add more imaginary lines of good time and bad time. Clinging to good times and avoiding bad times such as dawn and dusk is to be deluded by illusions, which is to run counter to Zen meditation.

Every moment is equal and neutral. However, everybody has his own physical rhythm and different circumstances suitable for practice depending on his job and situation. So, the best time for practice is the time suitable for your personal circumstances.

©Boo Ahm

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Tozan’s three pounds of flax

A monk asked Tozan, “What is the Buddha?” Tozan answered, “Three pounds of flax!”

Student: “Why did Tozan say, ‘Three pounds of flax’ when he was asked what the Buddha is?”
Master: “It is parents that give pocket money to their children, but it is their children that decide how to use it.”

Commentary:
A banknote is money to the wise but just a piece of paper to the foolish.

©Boo Ahm

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Hsin Shin Ming: “40. There is but one Dharma, nothing else. People make illusions and are attached to them.”

Dharma means the Way, true-Self or emptiness. The essence of everything is emptiness, and everything is oneness as emptiness. What we see, hear and feel is all one Dharma, emptiness, and there is nothing else. The reason why things look different from each other is not because each of them differs originally from one another but because we divide oneness into many and differentiate by assigning different labels, imaginary lines such as good, bad, large, small, gold, stone, glass, diamond and so on.

We struggle to attain ‘good’ and avoid ‘bad’. This is how we are deluded by the illusions created by us. In particular, those who try to attain enlightenment or realise what the true-Self, emptiness is, tend to make images of emptiness or the true-Self and strive to achieve them. This is like trying to grasp a moon’s reflection in the water.

Student: “It is said that there is but one Dharma. What is the one Dharma?”
Master: “What is not?”

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Q. Some people who experienced the true-Self still encounter many problems afterwards. Does this mean that the initial experience was not genuine?

A. To experience the true-Self doesn’t mean to change the world itself where you live but means to change your view of the world. So, in other words, you still can encounter a lot of problems afterwards but the way you see them is different from how it used to be after experiencing the true-Self.

For example, the classical music from your neighbouring house is a very irritating noise to you when you know nothing about classical music. However, the same music sounds so beautiful that you come to admire it once you have an ear for classical music. The music that used to be a problem is now a pleasure.

In the same way that music which sounded noisy when you couldn’t understand it now sounds beautiful to you after mastering how to appreciate it. Likewise, the same world around you looks different after you experience the true-Self because your view is changed.

So, if they still have the same view of things as they did before the experience, the experience they had was not the experience of enlightenment but that of a minor change.

©Boo Ahm

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