Author: Zen Fools

The monk asked, “What is the mother?” The master said, “Coveting and thinking are the mother. If you, entering the realm of desire in one thought to look for ‘coveting and thinking’ and realising that everything, including ‘coveting and thinking’, is empty, are not attached to anything, this is harming the mother.” The monk asked, “What is the bleeding of Buddha’s body?” The master said, “In the realm of purity, if you do not give rise to any itch of knowledge, all is darkness itself; this is bleeding the Buddha’s body.”

Commentary:

The realm of desire means the mundane world, or the world of forms. In the middle of trying to find and remove ‘coveting and thinking’ in the world of forms, if you happen to realise that everything, including ‘coveting and thinking’, is empty, that is, if you realise that every illusion is no other than the function of the true-Self, and cease to be attached to anything, this is harming the mother that is ‘coveting and thinking’. The realm of purity implies Emptiness free of illusions. ‘All is darkness itself’ represents the state without any discrimination just as there is no discriminating in perfect darkness. This is why ancient masters, in order to emphasise the brightness of wisdom that comes from ceasing to discriminate, would say, “The brightness of wisdom is as bright as midnight darkness.”

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A. God never created suffering but freedom. The suffering of human beings results from their freedom to decide and choose. If you think that God should control, or interfere with our deciding and choosing, it means that we, having no right to do as we please, should be like robots that function just as programmed by God.

Before asking this question, do you really believe that God is perfection itself and love itself? If you have absolute belief in this, you should be willing to accept any situation that might be seemingly unfair and unjust as the perfect expression of his love because God never makes any mistakes. It is not because God created his work poorly but because you cannot understand God’s work in the same way that an artistically illiterate person cannot make sense of great artists’ works that current circumstances appear messy. Try to understand God’s intention. The best way to know his intention is to see God in person.

©Boo Ahm

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Once a monastic bid farewell to Joshu. Joshu said, “Where are you going?” The monastic said, “I will visit various places to study the Buddhadharma.” Joshu picked up his whisk and said, “Do not abide in any place where the Buddha is. Pass by quickly any place where there is no Buddha.”

Student: “The purpose of all monastics is to see the Buddha. Why did Joshu tell the monastic not to abide in any place where the Buddha is?”

Master: “Because it is the way to see the Buddha.”

Student: “Where is the place without the Buddha?”

Master: “Where is the place with the Buddha?”

Commentary:

That which really doesn’t exist is free from even the words ‘doesn’t exist’.

©Boo Ahm

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Venerable ones, only when you commit the Five Heinous Crimes can deliverance be attained. One monk asked, “What are the Five Heinous Crimes?” The master said, “To kill the father, to harm the mother, to bleed Buddha’s body, to break the peace of the Sangha, and to burn scriptures and statues, these are the Five Heinous Crimes.” The monk asked, “What is the father?” The master said, “Basic ignorance is the father. When there is no place where your heart arises and ceases, every sound is like an echo in the air and there is nothing to seek wherever you may go, this is called killing the father.”

Commentary:

Here Rinzai presented five ways of seeing the true-Self. The reason why he named them the Five Heinous Crimes is that the way of seeing and hearing things which we have been accustomed to so far is as difficult to do away with as committing the five crimes mentioned above. ‘When there is no place where your heart arises and ceases’ means to realise that all your discriminations are groundless illusions by seeing things as they are. ‘Every sound is like an echo in the air’ means that whatever you may hear, you are not deceived by the illusion of the sound but hear it as the sound of the true-Self. This is why an ancient master said, “When someone calls you names, taking the names as the sound of the true-Self is the best merit.” ‘There is nothing to seek wherever you may go’ implies that there is nothing to attach yourself to whatever situation you may find yourself in, because you are aware that everything is empty.

©Boo Ahm

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A. The idea that the world would be a better place if all leaders were women is also a sexist idea. As long as we are trapped by the thought that one sex can be superior or inferior to the other, the world you anticipate will never materialise. The idea that women can be better than men is no less sexist than the idea that men are superior to women. When the idea that everyone is equal independent of his or her gender and that one’s capability is not determined by one’s sex but by one’s effort prevails, the world will be a much better place to live in.

The Buddhist perspective is that everyone is equal as the true-Self, the perfect being which is neither male nor female and that gender discrimination is the phenomenon of being deluded by the illusions of male and female.

©Boo Ahm

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One day Zen master Tansheng of Mount Yunyan was sweeping the ground. His dharma brother Daowu asked, “Working hard?”

Yunyan said, “What is not working hard?”

Daowu said, “Then is there a second moon?”

Yunyan held up the broom and said, “Which moon is this?”

Daowu walked away without saying a word.

Student: “What is a second moon?”

Master: “Who is asking this question?”

Student: “I am.”

Master: “Who is not asking this question?”

Student: “I don’t know.”

Master: “How can you say that you are asking this question whilst not knowing who is not asking this question?”

Commentary:

It is servants that are doing the chores.

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Followers of the Way, if you want to become Buddha, do not follow the ten thousand things. When the heart rises, the ten thousand things arise too. When the heart is stilled, the manifold things cease. And when the heart does not rise, the ten thousand things are without blame. In the world and beyond the world, neither Buddha nor Dharma has manifested themselves, nor have they disappeared. Though things exist, they are only names, words, conceptions and sentences. They are just expedient remedies to soothe crying children and treat their diseases depending on their diseases. Although they are expressed as names and conceptions, they are not names and conceptions on their own, but the one who is clear before your eyes, feels, hears, sees and changes things, attaches names and conception to everything.

Commentary:

‘If you want to become Buddha, do not follow the ten thousand things’ means that you should not be deluded by anything if you want to attain enlightenment. ‘When the heart rises, the ten thousand things arise too. When the heart is stilled, the manifold things cease’ means that when we discriminate, things come into existence, and when we stop discriminating, all things cease to be things. ‘When the heart does not rise, the ten thousand things are without blame’ implies that when we stop discriminating, that is, when we see things as they are, everything turns into perfection itself; this is called Emptiness, the Buddha, or the true-Self. ‘Neither Buddha nor Dharma has manifested themselves, nor have they disappeared’ means that we should not be deluded by the illusions and names of Buddha and Dharma if you want to see the Buddha, because the Buddha is the state that is perfectly free of name and form. ‘They are not names and conceptions on their own, but the one who is clear before your eyes, feels, hears, sees and changes things, attaches names and conception to everything’ implies that we, instead of being deluded by names and conceptions, should realise what it is that attaches them to everything.

Student: “What is the Buddha?”

Master: “Answering is killing Him.”

©Boo Ahm

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A. Medicine implies emptiness and illness illusions. Emptiness and illusions are not separate but one. When we are deluded by the names of things in seeing and hearing them, they are referred to as illusions, which the master compared to illness since they cause people the incurable illness of ageing to death. However, if you can see or hear things just as they are without being fooled by their names, you attain enlightenment, eternal life. Then, all things you see and hear are medicine that can relieve you of the illness and suffering of ageing to death. Everything is illness and medicine at the same time. Whether it is illness or medicine depends on your perspective.

Student: “Is this cake illness or medicine?”

Master: “It is illness when there is any distance between you and it but medicine when there is no distance between you and it.”

©Boo Ahm

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One day the head monk said during his dharma talk, “Everything is the Buddha. There is nowhere without the Buddha.” After the talk, a monastic asked him, “May I take a pee here in this Buddha Hall?” The head monk, getting upset, scolded the monastic, “How crazy you are to think of taking a pee before the Buddha!” The monastic responded, “You said that there is no place where the Buddha is not. Tell me where the Buddha is not and I will take a pee there.” The head monk couldn’t answer.

Student: “Where should we take a pee when there is no place without the Buddha?”

Master: “The Buddha doesn’t take a pee.”

Commentary:

There is no toilet in the Buddha Land.

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One monk asked, “The Buddha of Supreme Penetration and Surpassing Wisdom sat for ten Kalpas in the Hall of Enlightenment. But the Buddha-Dharma did not reveal itself to him, and he did not attain Buddhahood. I do not understand this saying, please point out the meaning.”

The master said, “Supreme Penetration is your own understanding that the ten thousand things everywhere do not have their own nature and have no form; this is called Supreme Penetration. Surpassing Wisdom is to have no doubt that there is nothing to be attained; this is called Surpassing Wisdom. Buddha is the naming of the fact that the pure and clean mind shines over the whole universe. To ‘sit for ten Kalpas in the Hall of Enlightenment’ refers to the practice of the Ten Paramitas.

‘The Buddha-Dharma did not reveal itself’ means that since Buddha is originally unborn and the Dharma is originally indestructible, how can it reveal itself? ‘Did not attain Buddhahood’ means that the Buddha doesn’t become Buddha again. Therefore, ancient masters would say that the Buddha is always present in the world, but is not stained by worldly things.”

Commentary:

Here Rinzai explains the characteristics of enlightenment. There are people who say that enlightenment fades away, or can’t be sustained, unless practice continues after enlightenment and also that it can be attained multiple times. This is far from the truth. Enlightenment is compared to hatching out, that is, breaking out of a chick’s shell.

Once attained, it is irreversible and you cannot ever return to the state of pre-enlightenment no matter what you may do; even if you violate the precepts and do immoral things. This is just like a chick cannot return into its egg again once it has hatched. This is why the Avatamsaka Sutra says that once we enter the room of enlightenment, the door is shut behind us.

Enlightenment happens only once, not multiple times. However, people can go through various changes, or new experiences in the course of practice. Such experiences may feel so unusual and fantastic that people often mistake them for enlightenment, saying that they have had multiple enlightenments. These are just phenomena that might happen to practitioners, not enlightenment. In the same way, every chick has new experiences and changes in the process of hatching, but it hatches only once.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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