Author: Zen Fools

When the attitude of your heart does not change from moment to moment, this is called the living patriarch. For if it changes, then your essential nature and your actions fall apart. But when your heart does not differ, there is also not any difference between your essential nature and your actions.

Commentary:

‘The attitude of your heart does not change from moment to moment’ implies that you are not swayed, or deluded from moment to moment by what you see and hear, since you see everything as empty. ‘If it changes, then your essential nature and your actions fall apart’ means that if you are deluded by illusions, that is, if you cling to words and forms, you cannot see your essential nature, the true-Self and your actions as one. In other words, if your heart does not differ, that is, if you don’t differentiate things by attaching different names, imaginary lines, you come to realisation that the true-Self is one with your actions as its functions.

©Boo Ahm

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A. Don’t mistake emptiness for nothingness. Emptiness is not different from fullness. I’d like to say that emptiness is undivided fullness. Form is to emptiness as waves are to the sea, or form is to emptiness as winds are to the air. Giving a name and granting meaning to each wave, according to its size and shape, and differentiating them from each other is to see things as form. From the perspective of form, all waves differ from each other, and each wave has its beginning and end. In this way, we sentient beings are addicted to seeing and hearing things.

However, to see all waves just as the sea, or water is to see things as emptiness. Then, all waves are just one as water, which is why emptiness is referred to as oneness. From the viewpoint of emptiness, all waves are just part of the sea and remain endlessly as water, just as they always have been. Although waves seem to appear and disappear, they were there as the sea before their appearance and are still there as water, or the sea after their disappearance.

What we are doing is determined by how we see it.

©Boo Ahm

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Once a monk asked master Doksan, “Where have all the Buddhas and patriarchs gone?” Doksan responded, “What’s your question?” The monk said, “I called for a fine racehorse to spring forward, but all that responded was a lame tortoise.” Doksan did not deign to respond to the remark.

Student: “Why did the monk say, ‘I called for a fine racehorse to spring forward, but all that responded was a lame tortoise’?”

Master: “Because you see just a lame tortoise without seeing a fine racehorse.”

Student: “Why didn’t Doksan say anything about the monk’s remark?”

Master: “Because you cannot hear him.”

Commentary:

Words and silence can be cut and broken. You should be able to hear that which cannot be cut and broken.

©Boo Ahm

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Venerable ones, what do you seek? He who stands clearly revealed and distinct before your eyes, listening to this Dharma talk, this Independent Man of the Way lacks nothing at all. If you do not want to be different from the Buddha and the patriarchs, just see it thus and do not indulge in doubts and speculations.

Commentary:

The key point here is what or who is He who stands clearly revealed and distinct before our eyes. He contains everything and there is nothing that doesn’t belong to Him. We, of course, cannot escape from Him even for a moment. There is no ceasing to see and hear Him even for a second. In fact, although Rinzai says that He is listening to his Dharma talk, not merely the Dharma talk that Rinzai is delivering but also Rinzai himself is part of Him. He appears to be dark in dark places and appears to be bright in bright places. He reveals Himself as a mountain when you see a mountain and as your family members when you see them. This is why ancient masters said we fail to see Him, the true-Self that is clear before our eyes because we try to find Him whilst forsaking Him who is before our eyes. ‘Just see it thus and do not indulge in doubts and speculations’ means that we should see things as they are, that is, see things without attaching names to them. Attaching names is like blocking your sight with things.

©Boo Ahm

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A. Let us suppose that you watch a horror movie with a five-year-old child in a movie theatre. The child can be scared enough to try to hide or even burst out crying, whereas you enjoy it. Why does such a thing happen? Does the movie make itself look more horrible to the child than to you?

The difference is that you can see and hear beyond what you see and hear, that is, you know it is not real but merely pictures on a white screen, but the child does not. In the same way, the enlightened can see and hear reality beyond what reaches their eyes and ears. This is why the enlightened are said to see and hear what ordinary people cannot.

©Boo Ahm

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When a monk asked master Doksan, “Who is the Buddha?”, he answered, “An old man from India.” He responded, “No shitting here” when he was asked what wisdom is by another monk. When yet another monk asked him to explain Zen, Doksan shouted at him, “I have nothing to give you!”

Student: “What did master Doksan mean by ‘an old man from India’?”

Master: “He is as old as everyone.”

Student: “Why did he say, ‘No shitting’?”

Master: “Don’t mistake gold ore for just stone.”

Student: “Why did he say that he had nothing to give the monk?”

Master: “Because it was all he could give.”

Commentary:

All waves are just water, and all winds are just air, irrespective of what they look and sound like.

©Boo Ahm

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An old master said: “If you meet a man of the Way on the road, do not talk about the Way.” Therefore, it is said: “If one tries to attain the Way by cultivating the Way, one is not doing the Way right. Tens of thousands of wild fancies arise in a rush, chasing each other in the head. When the sword of wisdom flashes, there is nothing left at all. Even before the light shines, darkness becomes bright.” So, another old master said: “The everyday mind is the Way.”

Commentary:

‘If you meet a man of the Way on the road, do not talk about the Way’ means that if we happen to meet a man of the Way, an enlightened man, then we should not try to attain something about the Way, the true-Self through words because the Way cannot be spoken or explained with words. Furthermore, not only can it not be attained, or lost but also not be manipulated or controlled. That is why tens of thousands of illusions arise in a rush when we try to attain the Way, enlightenment by cultivating the Way.

‘When the sword of wisdom flashes’ represents the moment of getting enlightened, or seeing things as empty. ‘There is nothing left at all’ means that everything turns into emptiness, or the true-Self. ‘Even before the light shines, darkness becomes bright’ means that once we get enlightened, we know that darkness and brightness are not separate but one, just as right and left are one.

‘The everyday mind is the Way’ is one of the popular phrases that sound simple but are intricate to digest. The master said what cannot be done. In other words, he didn’t mean to tell you what to do but just revealed the true-Self that can neither be explained with words nor be attained. This can be grasped only when you hear without being deluded by words.

©Boo Ahm

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A. The core teaching of Buddhism is that everything is non-duality, which is referred to as the true-Self, Emptiness, the Buddha, or Oneness. There is nothing that doesn’t belong to it. The historical Buddha is also part of the true-Self, just as we are. The difference between him and us sentient beings is that he realised the truth that everything is Oneness, whereas we are unaware of it.

According to the Sutras, the historical Buddha attained enlightenment as a result of hundreds of lifetimes of practice. The key point here is whether we keep being deluded by illusions of words or can realise that everything is empty. If we follow the literal interpretation, we still have such a long way to go that the chances of reaching the goal seem to be slim.

However, when we see everything as empty, both the Buddha and we are just one as Emptiness. This means that we have practised as much as the Buddha because his practice is our practice, since we are just one, not separate. In other words, everyone is ready to attain enlightenment at any moment.

©Boo Ahm

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Shuilao asked Mazu, “What is the exact meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India?”

Mazu pushed him so hard that he knocked him over.

Shuilao had immediate realisation. He got up, clapped his hands, and said in laughter, “Marvellous, marvellous. Hundreds and thousands of samadhis, the boundless and wonderful meanings are all on the tip of a single hair.  I have understood the fundamental source all at once.” Then he made a bow and left.

Student: “What is the fundamental source Shuilao understood?”

Master: “It cannot be knocked over.”

Student: “What is it?”

Master: “Shall I push you?”

Commentary:

There is not even a single hair that is not revealing the true-Self.

©Boo Ahm

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Followers of the Way, they say that there is talk of the Way to be practised and the Dharma to be realised. Tell me, then, what Dharma is to be realised, what Way is to be practised. At this moment, what do you lack for your functioning? And what do you need to complement by your training?

Young students, not understanding anything, put their faith in wild fox sprites and so get entangled in their random talk and fancies such as ‘Buddhahood can be attained only when theory coincides with practice and when we guard against the three karmic actions’. Those who make such discourses are as many as April drizzling rains.

Commentary:

Practitioners should not be attached to the illusions of the Way and the Dharma, just as they should not be attached to the illusion of the Buddha. When we follow each of the words ‘the Way’ and ‘the Dharma’, they look different and separate from each other, but they are just one. The one who is trying to practise the Way and realise the Dharma at this moment is no other than the Way, the Dharma itself. All its movements are the functions of the Way and the Dharma. Rinzai is saying that we should not make futile efforts to look for them outside. Ancient masters would compare this situation to a man who is looking for his ox whilst riding on it.

‘Put their faith in wild fox sprites’ means to be attached to misleading talks by fake masters that look sacred and sound plausible, such as ‘Buddhahood can be attained only when theory coincides with practice and when we guard against the three karmic actions’. The phrase ‘so get entangled in their random talk and fancies’ means to be deluded by talks such as those mentioned. To realise that Buddhahood as well as theory, practice and karmic actions is empty, is truly to attain Buddhahood, enlightenment. This is why the Buddha said that what can be attained is not Buddhahood. ‘Those who make such discourses are as many as April drizzling rains’ implies that there are a lot of fake masters who mislead people with such illusions.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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