Author: Zen Fools

Obaku came into the kitchen and asked the cook what he was doing. The cook said, “I am sorting out the rice for the community of monks.” Obaku said, “How much do they eat a day?” The cook answered, “Two and a half stone.” Obaku asked, “Isn’t that rather a lot?” The cook replied, “I rather fear it is too little.” Obaku hit him. The cook reported this to Rinzai. The master said, “I will go and test that old fellow Obaku for you.”

Commentary:

When Obaku asked the cook what he was doing, he didn’t mean to ask what he was doing, but he, revealing the true-Self, checked whether the cook could discern the true-Self or not. He asked the cook if he knew whether the essence of his being that was sorting the rice is the true-Self, Emptiness. In the realm of Emptiness there is no rice and no one to sort the rice. Failing to grasp the master’s meaning, the cook made a worldly answer. Obaku had the kindness to present him with another question ‘How much do they eat a day?’. In the realm of the true-Self there cannot be any conceptions such as ‘much’, ‘little’ and ‘eat’. The cook, deluded by words again, responded with a mundane answer. When the compassionate Obaku gave the cook one more chance by asking, ‘Isn’t that rather a lot?’, he, aware that the cook was still lost, gave the answer to the three questions he had asked by hitting him.  When Rinzai, hearing about this situation from the cook, said, “I will go and test that old fellow Obaku for you”, not only did he promise to test Obaku but also gave the same answer to the three questions as Rinzai did by hitting the cook.

Student: “How would you have answered the question ‘What are you doing?’?”

Master: “I would have sprinkled water on Obaku.”

Student: “What would your reply have been to the question ‘How much do they eat a day?’?”

Master: “I would have said, ‘Why do you ask me how much you eat a day?’.”

Student: “How would you have responded to the question ‘Isn’t that rather a lot?’?”

Master: “‘A lot’ and ‘a little’ are the complaints of those who eat with a mouth.”

Student: “What did Rinzai mean by ‘I will go and test that old fellow Obaku for you’?”

Master: “He meant, ‘Why don’t you recognise what Obaku showed? What I am showing you now is not different from it. Take a close look.”

The king doesn’t know what rice is while the cook in the kitchen is always worried whether there is a lot or a little.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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A. When ancient masters said that we should remove all illusions, they didn’t mean that we should move them from one place to another place out of our sight, but meant that we should not be deluded by them by realising that all words and all the images accompanying them are not real but imaginary or illusionary. This is why an ancient master remarked that the word ‘fire’ cannot burn your lips no matter how many times you may recite it, and why another ancient master said, “You don’t have to try in vain to remove the horns of rabbits” when he was asked the same question. In fact, trying to remove the horns of rabbits is no other than being deluded by illusions because it is trying to get rid of things that don’t exist.

Student: “How can I remove the illusions that block my mind?”

Master: “Your mind is also an illusion.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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When the Buddha was alive, seven wise sisters happened to pass a cemetery. One of them, pointing to a dead body, asked the others, “The corpse is here. Where is the man?” One of them said, “What? Why? Why?” All of them attained enlightenment upon hearing these words. Then, surprised to see them get enlightened, a heavenly God, spraying flowers, said, “Oh, my glorious sisters, what do you need? I will be willing to provide you with whatever you need forever.” The sisters answered, “We have everything we need. But if you want to help us, we hope to have three more things; one is a tree without a root, another is a patch of land without light and shade, and the third is a valley that doesn’t make any echo even if we shout.” The heavenly God said, “I have everything needed, but I don’t have the three things you mentioned.” The sisters responded, “If you don’t have these things, how can you save people from their suffering?” The heavenly God went to the Buddha and asked him about the meaning of these things. The Buddha answered, “Even my students who have practised a lot don’t know the meaning of these things. Only Bodhisattvas can know the meaning of them.”

Student: “What is the valley that never makes any echo even if we shout?”

Master: “You should not be fooled by your hearing.”

Commentary:

Although your ears are full, there should be no words.

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All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Venerable ones, do not use your minds wrongly! You, wandering around with your burden just as the great ocean keeps moving corpses around, obstruct your minds by raising obstacles. When there is no cloud across the sun, the serene heaven is radiant with light. Without a mote in the eye, there are no illusionary flowers in the empty sky.

Followers of the Way, if you want to conform to the Dharma, just keep yourselves from doubting. If expanded, it fills the universe; if contracted, it has no room for even a single hair to stand on. It shines solitary and bright, and has never lacked anything. The eye does not see it, the ear does not hear it. What can we call it? An old master said, “To say it is a thing is to miss the point.” Just see it in person! What more is there? One would never finish speaking of it. Each of you should work diligently! And take good care of yourselves.

Commentary:

‘Do not use your minds wrongly’ means that you should stop leaving your mind to look for the true-Self, because the mind which is busy in search of the true-Self is no other than the true-Self. ‘Wandering around with your burden just as the great ocean keeps moving corpses around’ implies endless discrimination through knowledge. This prevents you from realising the true-Self by raising more illusions, obstacles. ‘Without a mote in the eye, there are no illusionary flowers in the empty sky’ means that the reason why you cannot see the true-Self is not that there is any obstacle between you and it but that your eyes and ears are deluded by illusions, imaginary labels and forms.

‘Just keep yourselves from doubting’ means that we should just recognise the true-Self, without wandering in vain looking for it, since it is revealing itself both by filling the universe and by having no room for even a single hair to stand on. ‘The eye does not see it, the ear does not hear it’ means that we can neither see nor hear it through discriminating. In fact, we cannot stop seeing and hearing it even for a moment once we are not deluded by illusions because there is nothing else but it. Strictly speaking, seeing and hearing are incorrect expressions since seeing and hearing imply duality; subject and object, while the true-Self is non-duality, Oneness. This is why an old master said, “To say it is a thing is to miss the point.”

Student: “How is it when all clouds disappear and the sun appears?”

Master: “All the clouds are the sun.”

Student: “How is it when the eye does not see it, the ear does not hear it?”

Master: “The eye and the ear are also it.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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A. This phrase shows well how difficult it is to remove illusions from our minds. Even if you refuse to get out of your house, it is possible to get your physical body out of your house in one way or another such as by using physical force. However, the illusion of your house cannot be removed as easily as your physical body can. For example, once you see something as a house, the thing takes root as a house in your mind. From then on, whenever you see it, you look upon it as a house, and whenever hearing the word ‘house’, you, imagining the shape of the thing, identify the word with it. We are too addicted to this habit to be freed from it easily. Escaping from the habit is referred to as enlightenment.

Student: “How can I get the house out of me?”

Master: “Don’t try in vain to remove a horn of a rabbit.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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When the Buddha was alive, seven wise sisters happened to pass a cemetery. One of them, pointing to a dead body, asked the others, “The corpse is here. Where is the man?” One of them said, “What? Why? Why?” All of them attained enlightenment upon hearing these words. Then, surprised to see them get enlightened, a heavenly God, spraying flowers, said, “Oh, my glorious sisters, what do you need? I will be willing to provide you with whatever you need forever.” The sisters answered, “We have everything we need. But if you want to help us, we hope to have three more things; one is a tree without a root, another is a patch of land without light and shade, and the third is a valley that doesn’t make any echo even if we shout.” The heavenly God said, “I have everything needed, but I don’t have the three things you mentioned.” The sisters responded, “If you don’t have these things, how can you save people from their suffering?” The heavenly God went to the Buddha and asked him about the meaning of these things. The Buddha answered, “Even my students who have practised a lot don’t know the meaning of these things. Only Bodhisattvas can know the meaning of them.”

Student: “What is the patch of land without light and shade?”

Master: “That is where rootless trees inhabit.”

Commentary:

Don’t think that light and shade are created by the sun.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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The ultimate principle of the Way cannot be revealed by theorising or controversy, and it is not by quarrelling loudly that other Ways are refuted. There is no special meaning in the transmission of Buddha and patriarchs. Though there is a verbal teaching, it falls into the temporary explanation of the Three Vehicles, the Five Natures, and the cause and effect of men and Devas. But this does not apply to the teaching for complete and sudden enlightenment. The young Sudhana did not go to look for 53 enlightened teachers.

Commentary:

The ultimate principle of the Way can neither be better revealed by theorising or controversy nor be hidden or covered by silence or speechlessness, both because theorising and controversy are not different from silence or speechlessness in the Way and because the former and the latter are the functions of the Way. ‘There is no special meaning in the transmission of Buddha and patriarchs’ means that there is on other meaning than what is seen and heard clearly at this moment since there is nothing but it. All verbal teachings such as the Three Vehicles, the Five Natures, and the cause and effect of men and Devas are no better than temporary expedients. Ending up in intellectual understanding by clinging to words is not the essence of the teaching for enlightenment. Although the Avatamsaka Sutra says that the young Sudhana went to visit 53 enlightened teachers for enlightenment, it is just a fictional story produced as an expedient, not an historical fact.

©Boo Ahm

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A. Before enlightenment, we are told that we should see the true-Self, the Buddha. We even define enlightenment as seeing or realising it as though there were difference and distance between us subject, and the true-Self object.

However, once we have attained enlightenment, that is, once we have seen it, we come to the realisation that the true-Self is no other than ‘I’ and that words such as ‘I have to see the true-Self’ can’t be established since we are neither separate nor different from the true-Self. Therefore, ‘he is neither he nor you’ means that the Buddha is none other than me ‘I’.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

When the Buddha was alive, seven wise sisters happened to pass a cemetery. One of them, pointing to a dead body, asked the others, “The corpse is here. Where is the man?” One of them said, “What? Why? Why?” All of them attained enlightenment upon hearing these words. Then, surprised to see them get enlightened, a heavenly God, spraying flowers, said, “Oh, my glorious sisters, what do you need? I will be willing to provide you with whatever you need forever.” The sisters answered, “We have everything we need. But if you want to help us, we hope to have three more things; one is a tree without a root, another is a patch of land without light and shade, and the third is a valley that doesn’t make any echo even if we shout.” The heavenly God said, “I have everything needed, but I don’t have the three things you mentioned.” The sisters responded, “If you don’t have these things, how can you save people from their suffering?” The heavenly God went to the Buddha and asked him about the meaning of these things. The Buddha answered, “Even my students who have practised a lot don’t know the meaning of these things. Only Bodhisattvas can know the meaning of them.”

Student: “What is the tree without a root?”

Master: “You are not different from it.”

Commentary:

Seeing things just like dreaming of them is seeing the true-Self.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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You heard of this old fellow Rinzai, and so you came here asking difficult questions, trying to shut me up. If I give you the actualisation of the whole body, you students can but stare stupidly, unable to utter a word. And I tell you that the ass cannot follow the path that the king-elephant walked on. But you, on all occasions, hit your chest, point at your ribs, and claim, “I understand Zen, I know the Way.” And yet whether you come here in pairs or three at a time, these such attitudes are of no use here. Bah! With this body and heart, you deceive innocent men and women of middle-class homes by wagging your tongues wherever you go. The day will surely come when you receive the iron rod. You are not monastics, and you will fall into the world of Asuras.

Commentary:

‘If I give you the actualisation of the whole body, you students can but stare stupidly, unable to utter a word’ means that when Rinzai responded to their questions by revealing the whole body that is the true-Self, they were at a loss for words because they couldn’t grasp his meaning. So, in order to say that the unenlightened cannot make sense of the meaning of the enlightened, Rinzai used a metaphor ‘the ass cannot follow the path that the king-elephant walked on’. He also warns that monastics should not mislead innocent laypeople with plausible and sweet words whilst they themselves don’t know what they are talking about and that they cannot be said to be true monastics. ‘The day will surely come when you receive the iron rod’ implies that such monastics cannot avoid paying for what they do, which is to fall into the world of Asuras that are warlike ghosts.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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