Author: Zen Fools

Qingping asked his teacher, Cuiwei, “What is the exact meaning of the Bodhidharma’s coming from India?” Cuiwei said, “I will tell you when no one is around.” After a while Qingping said, “There is no one now. Please tell me, Master.” Cuiwei got down from the meditation platform and took Qingping into a bamboo garden. Qingping said again, “There is no one here. Please tell me.” Pointing to the bamboos, Cuiwei said, “This bamboo is tall just as it is. That bamboo is short just as it is.”

Student: “What did Cuiwei mean by ‘This bamboo is tall just as it is. That bamboo is short just as it is’?”

Master: “He showed the exact meaning of the Bodhidharma’s coming from India.”

Commentary:

See and hear what is neither tall nor short in the tall and short bamboos?

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Followers of the Way, do not grasp hold of what I am saying. Why not? My words have no fixed foundation; they are, as it were, pictures provisionally painted as makeshifts in space. This is the same as the metaphor that words colour the appearance of the true-Self and are only designs of an instant in space, like images painted in colour, or other teaching devices. Followers of the Way, do not take the Buddha for the supreme aim. I myself see him as a privy hole, and the Bodhisattvas and Arhats are things that bind men like a pillory and chains. This is why Manjushri grasped the sword to kill Gautama, and Angulimala took the knife to assassinate the Buddha.

Commentary:

When we read or listen to masters’ talks, the last thing that we should do is to accept them literally, as merely intellectual understanding whilst clinging to words. In fact, they are doing two things at once; explaining or describing the true-Self and revealing the true-Self in person. Whatever they say is just an expedient to reveal the true-Self in person. This is why Rinzai advised his students not to grasp hold of what he was saying.

People, however, pay all their attention only to the explanation or description in the way they are accustomed to, overlooking the true-Self they reveal. In order to rid us of this bad habit Rinzai said, “I myself see him as a privy hole, and the Bodhisattvas and Arhats are things that bind men like a pillory and chains”. ‘Manjushri grasped the sword to kill Gautama, and Angulimala took the knife to assassinate the Buddha’ was mentioned to show how hard they tried to put into practice the teaching that we should kill the Buddha when we meet him and not be deluded by the illusion of him.

Student: “Why should we kill the Buddha that we respect and are so anxious to see?”

Master: “Because that is the way we can see him.”

©Boo Ahm

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A. You do. However, you should know that every action is empty and neutral, not good, not bad, and so all karma created by actions is also empty and neutral.  A certain action is said to create good karma or bad karma, not because the action creates good karma, or bad karma in essence but because you think it does. That’s why an action can appear to be different; a cause of good karma and a cause of bad karma, depending on the beholder’s perspective.

Determining what actions create good and bad karma is no other than discriminating, that is, being deluded by illusions, which runs counter to enlightenment. So, ancient masters would say that creating good karma is not as good as creating no karma. In the Bible, Luke 6:37 says, “Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you.” The best we can do is not to be deluded by illusions by realising that karma is also empty.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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One day when Dagui went to the mountains, he saw Yangshan doing sitting meditation under a tree. Dagui tapped Yangshan on the back once with his staff. Yangshan turned his head. Dagui asked, “Can you say a phrase about going beyond Buddhadharma?” Yangshan replied, “Although I cannot say it, I will not depend upon someone else’s mouth.”

Student: “Who was it that Yangshan depended upon when he said, ‘I cannot say’?”

Master: “There is no one who doesn’t depend on him. Even the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas do.”

Student: “Who is it?”

Master: “I don’t know his name.”

Commentary:

It is revealing itself naked on bare feet before you all the time.

©Boo Ahm

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Venerable ones, if one comes to see things thus, one gets rid of being obstructed by names like worldly and sacred. Thoughts in your mind do nothing but create understanding from the fingers of an empty fist, and you vainly do something unusual and abnormal with six kinds of illusions from six roots; eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and will. You belittle yourselves by modestly saying, “I am but a common man – he is a sage.” You bald idiots! What is the frantic hurry to wear a lion’s skin and yap like a wild fox instead of spreading the spirit of a man? You do not believe in the treasure in your own house, so you go outside searching, and fall into the trap of words and phrases of the old masters; relying on Yin, leaning on Yang, you cannot arrive at any real mastery of your own. So, encountering phenomena, you discriminate them. Encountering illusions, you cling to them. Because everything you touch causes you illusions, you cannot stabilise yourself.

Commentary:

‘Thoughts in your mind do nothing but create understanding from the fingers of an empty fist, and you vainly do something unusual and abnormal with six kinds of illusions from six roots; eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and will’ means that when your master reveals the true-Self by folding and unfolding his hand, you, deceived by the illusions of the motions of the master’s hand, guess in vain by using your knowledge. ‘What is the frantic hurry to wear a lion’s skin and yap like a wild fox instead of spreading the spirit of a man?’ means ‘Why do you say such nonsense while your appearance is not different from the Buddha’s?’. ‘You do not believe in the treasure in your own house’ implies that you have not realised that you are the very Buddha itself you are looking for. ‘You go outside searching, and fall into the trap of words and phrases of the old masters; relying on Yin, leaning on Yang’ means that you vainly grapple here and there with the words and phrases of old masters without grasping them clearly and talk nonsense with wild guesses just as a fortune teller does depending on Yin and Yang. This is why you are deluded by whatever reaches your eyes and ears and are attached to them. Chasing after them makes your lives unstable.

Student: “What is the treasure in my own house?”

Master: “Why don’t you rummage your house for it.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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A. What do you mean by a good thing? In essence everything is neutral, neither good nor bad. Nothing says, “I am bad”, or “I am good.” What is good to you can be bad to someone else, and what is good today can be bad tomorrow and vice versa. There is a proverb that poison, well used, can be medicine.

On the contrary, food, no matter how high quality it may be, can be harmful and poisonous either when we feed it to babies who are not capable of digesting it, or when we overindulge ourselves with it. Whether a thing is good or bad depends upon your perspective based on your situation. The best way to replace a bad thing with a good thing is to realise that the former is not different from the latter.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Dongshan told the assembly at the end of the summer training period, “When summer ends and autumn begins, go straight to a place where there is not an inch of grass for ten thousand miles.” No one in the assembly could respond. Later, a monastic told Shishuang about it. Shishuang said, “Why didn’t you say, ‘There is grass everywhere one step outside the gate’?”

Student: “What did Shishuang mean by ‘There is grass everywhere one step outside the gate’?”

Master: “There is still grass everywhere even if you don’t move one step outside the gate.”

Student: “What should we do?”

Master: “Doing a good thing is not as good as doing nothing.”

Commentary:

A place where there is not an inch of grass for ten thousand miles is grass.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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The monk asked, “What is breaking the peace of the Sangha?” The master said, “Realising that one thought and one mind are tied to illusions and that there is nothing to depend on is breaking the peace of the Sangha.” The monk asked, “What is the burning of scriptures and statues?” “If, seeing that karma, causation is empty, that mind is empty, and that things are empty, you decisively become Oneness and feel detached, this is burning the scriptures and statues.”

Commentary:

Practitioners are so addicted to the words ‘the mind is the Buddha’ that they tend to be attached to the illusion of the mind. The Buddha, the true-Self is essentially nameless and mind, the Buddha and the true-Self are not the essence of it but just labels used for the sake of convenience. If you, realising that every thought, even the thought ‘mind’ is nothing but an illusion, can be sure that there is nothing to depend on, this is breaking the peace of the Sangha because you are not deluded any more by the illusions such as ‘peace’ and ‘Sangha’.

If you, seeing everything, including karma and mind, as empty, become Oneness and stay detached from whatever reaches your eyes and ears, this is said to be burning the scriptures and statues because you are not deluded by the words of the scriptures and the forms of statues.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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A. Masters’ words, such as these, mean that we should not cling to words, intellectual understanding of the Sutras, not that we should ignore, or leave them out of our consideration altogether. Being attached to words can be compared to making matters worse by putting oral medicine into our eyes and ears instead of swallowing it. To cling to the intellectual understanding of the Sutras and Dharma talks is ridiculous, but to assume that they mean nothing at all is hopeless.

Although the atlas shows the way to our destination, it is not our destination itself. Mistaking the atlas as our true destination is ridiculous, but discarding the atlas is hopeless. Once we have reached our destination, the map is of no use to us any longer.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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Huangbo told a monastic, “All the venerable ones in various places all over the country are on top of my staff.” The monastic bowed. Later the monastic went to see Dashu and told him the story. Dashu said, “Huangbo said so, but has he seen the various places?” The monastic went back to Huangbo and told him about it. Huangbo said, “My words have already reached all over the country.”  Langye commented on this, “Dashu’s response was like someone who seemed to have eyes but was really blind. Huangbo’s single staff cannot be bitten and chewed by anyone in this country.”

Student: “What did Huangbo mean by saying, ‘All the venerable ones in various places all over the country are on top of my staff’?”

Master: “He didn’t say so.”

Student: “What did Dashu imply by answering, ‘Huangbo said so, but has he seen the various places?’?”

Master: “He didn’t say so.”

Student: “What did Huangbo mean by saying, ‘My words have already reached all over the country’?”

Master: “His words have already reached here, too.”

Student: “What did Langye mean by ‘Dashu’s response was like someone who seemed to have eyes but was really blind’?”

Master: “His blindness cannot be surmounted by your good sight.”

Student: “What does ‘Huangbo’s single staff cannot be bitten and chewed by anyone in this country’ imply?”

Master: “Why don’t you stop biting and chewing it?”

Commentary:

Struggling with the words that were not spoken by masters is biting and chewing their staffs.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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