Bible – Page 3 – Zen Fools

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Q154. How do you think Zen meditation can help Christians to overcome original sin?

January 12, 2016January 10, 2016 Zen Fools

A. According to the Bible, man can’t have eternal happiness or find salvation because of the original sin he committed in the beginning of time. The sin was eating the fruit of the tree of life, and as a result, our mind became discriminating, which prevents us from seeing God. The Bible says that we can be forgiven for the sin and find salvation only by believing in God.

To find salvation means to return to the original state prior to eating the fruit. And to believe in God means to see God, just as the old saying goes, ‘Seeing is believing’. Seeing God is possible by removing the discriminating mind.

The Sutras say that whatever good things we may do, we can’t enjoy eternal happiness without life and death, even though we can enjoy temporary happiness, unless we realise the true-self by removing the discriminating mind.

The core teachings of Christianity and Buddhism are the same in that we can enjoy eternal happiness by eliminating the discriminating mind. Zen meditation is a practice to remove the discriminating mind.

So, to help Christians to remove their discriminating mind is to help them to overcome original sin.

Bible, Buddha, Buddhism, God, Meditation, Practice, Prayer, Religion, Zen

Q136. What do you think of praying to God or Buddha?

November 10, 2015November 10, 2015 Zen Fools

A. We can see a lot of people not only pray to them but also offer plenty of money to temples or churches as a token of their faith in Buddha or God, while ignoring many suffering people who are in need. People want to make a deal with God or Buddha, just like they may bribe public officials to do something they want to be done. In brief, they take advantage of their prayer to Buddha or God as a means to satisfy and justify their greed and hypocrisy.

It is said that God or Buddha is love itself, compassion itself and justice itself and that he is so almighty that he can fulfill our prayers. Why are so many starving in the world and why do endless wars break out and disasters befall people at this time while so many clergymen, priests and monks are praying all around the world? Why does a charitable God who says, “Love your neighbour as yourself” always seem to side with rich, strong countries or people? Why have so many countries been engaged in wars throughout history in the name of religion?

I don’t think that prayer itself is bad. However, why do these things happen in spite of so much prayer by so many people around the world? It is because they don’t know whom they pray to or worship because they don’t know themselves and therefore they do not know who is praying. They also don’t know how to worship or pray because they don’t know whom they worship or pray to. Therefore, they commit brutal carnage while speaking of Jesus’s love with their mouths, and spend an untold sum of money on producing weapons while saying their prayers.

I never discourage you from praying, but encourage you to pray in the right way. In order to pray in the right way, you should know at least who prays to whom. When you don’t know this, trying to find out who prays to whom it is a true prayer.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Bible, Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Meditation, Religion, sutras, Truth, Zen

Q100. I don’t understand that the Sutras and the Bible are also illusions.

August 18, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Ancient masters used to say that a nice saying which sounds reasonable can be a strong trap. A saying or a word, however great and nice, is nothing but an illusion. No one denies, for example, the truth that the sun is a mass of flames. However, your lips are never hot, not to mention being burnt, no matter how many times you may recite the word ‘sun’. In other words, sayings or words are not the truth itself but an illusion.

The more reasonable a saying sounds, however, the stronger we tend to make our attachment to it while taking it for the truth itself. The Sutras and the Bible are very typical examples that have great sayings we are likely to be tempted to attach ourselves to. We have a very interesting metaphor for such cases that shows how we should accept spiritual teachings: Don’t look at the finger pointing to the moon but the moon itself. The Sutras and the Bible are just like fingers pointing to the moon for people who want to see the moon, but they are not the moon itself.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Bible, Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Koan, Truth, Zen

Q88. Why is it difficult to get the point of masters’ teachings?

July 22, 2015 Zen Fools

A. You should remember that all sayings from the Sutras, the Bible and masters are all like a piece of broken tile for knocking on the door. Let’s suppose you are locked in a burning room and trying to get out of it. The room has a single window through which you can escape from it but unfortunately you are not aware of the window. I throw a piece of broken tile at the widow in order to let you know the existence of the window, the only exit.

What should you do now? As soon as you hear the strike of the broken tile on the window or see the broken tile thrown into the room, you should be able to escape from the burning room through the window.
However, most of you pick up the tile and try to analyse it: the elements of it, location of its production, its colour, its weight, the effect it can have on the room and so on. This is the way you accept masters’ teachings, so you can’t avoid finding it difficult to get to the point of the teachings.

Which is your way of approaching Zen?

In order to catch the point of the teachings, don’t cling to the words themselves, but try to grasp the main

intention of their being spoken.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.

intention of their being spoken.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.

Bible, Buddha, Buddhism, illusion, Meditation, self, sutras, Truth, Zen

Q86. If all is an illusion, are koans also illusions?

July 16, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Of course they are also illusions. When I want people to stop making noise in a room, I can say to them, “Be quiet, please.” My words, “Be quiet, please” are also noise. Then I can be said to use noise in order to remove noise. Likewise, Zen questions, which are known as koans, are illusions used for the purpose of eliminating other illusions.

In fact, not only koans but also the Sutras and the Bible are illusions.

©Boo Ahm

Bible, Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, sutras, Truth, Zen

Q71. Why should we not read books?

June 16, 2015June 16, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Ancient masters always advised us not to read books if we hoped to reach the final goal. However good a book on enlightenment you may read, you can’t reach the final goal through reading books without practice. Masters discouraged us from reading books because reading leads us to feel as if we were approaching the final goal as we get more knowledge on the final goal. In fact, getting more knowledge is collecting more illusions and strengthening the solidity of your illusions while reaching the final goal means breaking illusions. Actually we are going farther away in the opposite direction from the final goal against our intention.

Why do few people reach the final goal though so many people are reading so many books including the Sutras and the Bible around the world? Are the Sutras and the Bible telling a lie? It is not because they are telling a lie but because we can’t digest what they mean. The final goal, the truth, is compared to a cure-all that gives an eternal life to ill people who take it. But the cure-all is so invisible that it is almost impossible to discern it. And what all books, including the Bible and the Sutras, are saying about it is not the cure-all itself but wrapping papers that can help people to recognise the contents, the cure-all. Most people mistake swallowing the wrapping paper for taking the contents, or cure-all. If we had taken a true cure-all, we would have become well instantly.

I don’t want to discourage you from reading books, but I’d like to invite you to change the way of reading books in order to take the cure-all, instead of swallowing the wrapping paper. You should bear it in mind that every single word of the book you read is the gate to the truth, the final goal. If you digest only a single word through your body from any book you read, you can reach the final goal. If you have not reached the final goal after reading so many books, it means that you have not understood even a single word of so many words you have read. You took only wrapping papers. Trace back to the root the word or a sentence you believe you understand, or you like. That is to try to see beyond the word, an illusion. This can be compared to tearing the wrapping paper. If you can see the root, you can be said to have digested the book perfectly, to have reached the final goal. Try to see the root of each word or each sentence as perfectly as possible, instead of trying to read as many books as possible. That is a kind of Zen practice as well.

Bible, Enlightenment, God, illusion, Meditation, Practice, Truth, Zen

Q64. How can I stop smoking?

June 15, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Why can’t we stop doing things as we please? Many people, for example, can’t stop smoking though they are eager to stop it and some are suffering intense agony because they can’t stop bad memories they want to forget from reviving. It is because we don’t know what, or who, allowed our body to do something in the past and wants it to stop doing it now. Saying, “I allowed myself to do it,” we don’t know who or what I am when my body is not me. Likewise, saying, “I want to stop smoking,” we don’t know who or what wants to stop smoking, since we don’t know what we are when our body is not us. How could you stop doing something when you don’t know who permits your body to do something and wants it to stop doing it?

The Bible 1 John 4:4 says, “The spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.” ‘The spirit who is in you’ means your true-self, the final goal, and ‘the spirit in those who belong to the world,’ implies your body, which is an illusion. Only when you know what you are when your body is not you, can you become more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.

If you realise what you are, you can be as free to stop doing it as you were to start to.