A monk asked Master Woonmun, “What is a phrase that can penetrate the Dharma-body?”
Woonmun answered, “I hide my body in the Great Bear constellation.”
Student: “How can Woonmun hide his body in the Great Bear in the sky?”
Master: “He can do it when you can’t see what he shows you.”
Commentary:
Hiding is not different from revealing.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Obaku sent Rinzai to carry a letter to Issan. At that time Gyosan was in charge of handling guests. He took the letter and asked, “This is Obaku’s, but what is his?” The master slapped him. Gyosan stopped him and said, “Elder brother, since you know about this matter, let’s cease.” Together they went to Issan, who asked, “How many monks are in the community of Master Obaku, my elder brother?” Rinzai replied, “Seven hundred.” Issan said, “Who is the leader?” Rinzai said, “His letter has just reached you.” Then Rinzai asked Issan, “And how large is your community here?” Issan said, “One thousand five hundred.” Rinzai remarked, “Very large.” Issan said, “There are not a few at my elder brother’s, Master Obaku.”
Commentary:
When Gyosan said to Rinzai, “This is Obaku’s, but what is his?” ‘His’ implied the Buddha’s. He tested Rinzai to see if he knew what the true-Self is. Rinzai revealed the true-Self by slapping him, and Gyosan approved him by saying, “Elder brother, since you know about this matter, let’s cease.” Then, together they went to Issan, who asked, “How many monks are in the community of Master Obaku, my elder brother?” With this question, Issan tested Rinzai to see whether he was deluded by the illusion of numbers. Rinzai responded wisely by revealing the true-Self through saying, “Seven hundred.” We should not be deluded by the number. Issan tested Rinzai again by asking, “Who is the leader?”, which meant “Do you know what the Buddha nature of Obaku, who is your leader, is like?” Rinzai showed the Buddha nature of Obaku by saying, “His letter has just reached you.” Then, Rinzai countered Issan by asking, “And how large is your community here?” Issan responded by saying, “One thousand five hundred.” We should know that he didn’t mean the number but showed the true-Self. Issan’s words ‘There are not a few at my elder brother’s, Master Obaku’ meant that there is no difference between seven hundred and one thousand five hundred.
Student: “Why is there no difference between seven hundred monks and one thousand five hundred monks?”
Master: “Which is heavier, one rabbit horn, or one thousand rabbit horns?”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. In Buddhism one’s real self is referred to as the true-Self, or the Buddha-Nature. You are to your real self as a wave is to the sea. You are part of your real self as the function of it, just as a wave is part of the sea as the function of it. A wave changes as time passes and according to the circumstances it is in, but the sea itself never changes.
The ceaseless changes of all the waves are how the sea is. In the same way, your real self never changes at all, although you, as a human being, change every moment. Buddhism is a religion that helps people to realise the real self in person.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
One day Master Namchun said, “No Buddha of the three worlds knows it, but rather cats and cows know it.”
Student: “How can cats and cows know it while no Buddha of the three worlds does?”
Master: “Because you don’t know.”
Commentary:
When you are ignorant, the Buddha is also ignorant, but when you are wise, cats and cows are wise as well.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Later, Issan asked Gyosan, “Why did Rinzai snatch the hoe out of Obaku’s hand?”
Gyosan said, “The robber was a wastrel, but in wisdom he prevailed over the noble man.”
Commentary:
‘The robber was a wastrel’ means that if we are deluded by the expedient behaviour that Rinzai, the robber used to reveal the true-Self, he can be taken for a wastrel who is impolite and ignorant, but that in fact, the wisdom in which he prevailed over the noble man is hidden in his behaviour.
Student: “What is the wisdom hidden in Rinzai’s behaviour?”
Master: “It is hidden in your behaviour as well.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. To meditate should not be to try to remove rambling thoughts, illusions but be to try to see them as they are. The harder you try to get rid of them the more you will be troubled by them because trying to remove them is adding yet another thought. They appear to be illusions and trouble you because you can’t see them as they are. Try to see them as they are by tracing them back to the root. When you can see them as they are, you will enjoy happiness you’ve never experienced before. Let me introduce an ancient Zen poem.
Don’t avoid illusions. They are the Buddha you are looking for.
Don’t follow the Buddha. It is the illusion that you are trying to avoid.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Yaoshan had not given a discourse in the dharma hall for some time. The monastery director said, “The assembly has long been wanting to receive teaching from you. Please give a discourse to the assembly, Master.”
Yaoshan asked him to sound the drum. The monastics came together. Yaoshan took the high seat, sat there for a while, got down, and went back to the abbot’s room. The monastery director followed him and asked, “Master, you agreed to give a discourse to the assembly. Why didn’t you say a word?” Yaoshan said, “Scriptural teachers are for scriptures. Commentary teachers are for commentaries. What do you expect from this old monastic?”
Student: “Why didn’t Yaoshan say a word not to mention a discourse?”
Master: “Don’t say that he didn’t give any teaching.”
Commentary:
What matters is not a discourse but teaching.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
One day during the work period, Rinzai was last in the row. Obaku looked back and saw that Rinzai was empty-handed. “Where is your hoe?” Obaku asked. “Someone has gone off with it,” replied Rinzai. Obaku said, “Come here and we’ll talk about it.” When Rinzai came near, Obaku lifted his hoe high and said, “Nobody in the world can take this away from me.” Rinzai then grabbed the hoe, held it high and said, “How come it is now in my hand?” Obaku said, “Today there is one who works with all his might,” and returned to the monastery.
Commentary:
When Obaku, seeing Rinzai empty-handed, asked where his hoe was, he asked him not about his hoe but about the true-Self. Sensing Obaku’s intention, Rinzai revealed the true-Self by saying, ‘Someone has gone off with it’. Obaku refuted Rinzai’s words by saying, ‘Nobody in the world can take this away from me’. Obaku was testing Rinzai to see if he was deluded by words and forms. Rinzai responded by grabbing the hoe, holding it high and saying, ‘How come it is now in my hand?’ By this he meant, “I know you mean the true-Self. This is the true-Self in which giving is not different from taking since there is no giving and no taking.” Then, Obaku approved him by saying, ‘Today there is one who works with all his might’. One who works all with his might implies an enlightened one who is aware that he is one with everything.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Why does a day that seems to drag to you appear to go by quickly to others? A day you share with your sweetheart in a beautiful place would feel much shorter than a day that you spend doing backbreaking work which you hate to do. When we have time, but have nothing specific to do, we say that we kill time.
Although we may want to save the time that we have to kill, in the same way we deposit our money in the bank in order to use it later when we have need of it, it is impossible. This shows that time is not real but just imaginary. This is why the Diamond Sutra says that there is no past, no present and no future.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Dagui was once asked by a monastic, “What is the Way?”
Dagui said, “No-mind is the Way.”
The monastic said, “I don’t understand it.”
Dagui said, “It’s good to understand not-understanding.”
The monastic said, “What is not-understanding?”
Dagui said, “It’s just that you are not anyone else.”
Student: “What is not-understanding?”
Master: “No-mind.”
Student: “What is No-mind?”
Master: “Mind.”
Commentary:
Removing mind is the way to see mind just as killing the Buddha is the way to see the Buddha.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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