A. Master: “It’s in the Buddha hall.”
Student: “Isn’t it just a statue made of clay?”
Master: “Yes, it is.”
Student: “What is Buddha then?”
Master: “It’s in the Buddha hall.”
Commentary:
It is a top secret.
Keep away all your acquaintances when looking and listening.
Look and listen by yourself.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. It has neither a figure nor a root, but it is active all the time without staying anywhere. When you go, it makes your body go, when you sit down, it makes your body sit down, and whatever you do, speaking or keeping silent, it makes your body do it.
Although it moves in countless ways, it has no fixed rule. The harder you look for it, the farther away it is, and the harder you try to obtain it, the more you forsake it. It is with you at this moment as usual, and you can’t separate from it even for a second. The problem is that you don’t recognise it. So, it is called an open secret.
What is it that is making your body read this writing now? Once you realise what on earth it is and what it is like, you will have completed your practice.
Student: “What is the true-self?”
Master: “Pardon?”
Student: “What is the true-self?”
Master: “Nothing else other than it.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Student: “I’m fifty years old.”
Master: “How old is fifty years?”
Student: “I don’t know.”
Master: “How come you still don’t know your age?”
Student: “How old are you, Sir?”
Master: “Eighty years old.”
Student: “How old is eighty years?”
Master: “Eight times ten is eighty.”
Commentary:
Don’t think that the student’s right answer is five times ten.
The curved can’t contain the straight.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Zen has a similar saying, ‘Kill Buddha and your parents if you are to see your true-self’. Even Buddha, while alive, would say to his disciples, “If you see me, kill me.” Here, killing Buddha and your parents means removing the illusions of them and not actually killing Buddha and your real parents. Logically speaking, how would it be possible to kill the historical Buddha who passed away about 2500 years ago? The reason why masters would use such a radical expression is that the illusions of Buddha and your parents are among the illusions that are the most difficult to remove.
Likewise, in order to see God, you have to remove all illusions, among which those of God and your parents die hardest. So, the above scripture can be interpreted: ‘Those who love the illusions of their parents without trying to see their true-self are not fit to be my disciples. Those who can’t remove the illusions of their parents can’t see God, the true-self.’
Student: “When we kill our parents, we can repent of our sin of killing them before Buddha. However, where can we repent of our sin when we kill Buddha or God?”
Master: “When you come into your kingdom after a successful rebellion, there is no one who can judge you.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. If you practice Zen meditation in the right way, you can experience small and big changes in the course of your practice. You can come across a moment when you feel a big unexplainable change. During this experience, feeling oneness with the whole universe, you realise simultaneously that everything is empty and you are eternity itself.
From then on, you can see things as form and emptiness at the same time. Then masters’ records, or the Sutras, read like your own stories, and you can understand them as clearly as if experiencing them through your whole body rather than understanding them with your head. Then, you have nothing to ask others since there is nothing that you don’t know. An ancient master once said, “When you are full after hearty food, you need not ask others whether or not you are full.” If you experience the changes mentioned above, you can be said to be enlightened even if you are not checked by a master.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Student: “Yes, Sir.”
Master: “Do you know your wife?”
Student: “Of course, Sir. I share the same bed with her.”
Master: “How many hairs does she have on her head?”
Student: “I don’t know. How could I know that?”
Master: “Don’t say that you know your wife then.”
Commentary:
Don’t try to extract juice by squeezing dry sticks.
The number of the fingers of a hand is five.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. It’s true that love and hate are neutral and both are illusions. In fact, it doesn’t make any difference whether you are loving or cruel. To realise the truth means to realise that everything is empty and feel oneness with the whole universe. Then, your feeling of love and hatred cannot help but be different from the feeling that you have had before realising the truth.
Above all, when you feel your hate as empty, your hate seldom develops into being cruel. Your cruel feeling, if or when it occurs, is not as strong or acute as before and doesn’t last long even though you don’t struggle to control your emotion. Rather, your cruel feeling turns into sympathy as you feel oneness. That is called compassion.
In fact, as many people become unhappy because of love as do those who become unhappy because of hatred. As often as not cruel feelings result from love. If you realise the truth mentioned above, you will not be obsessed with, or attached to love, to the extent that your love makes people feel burdened or even tortured rather than happy. And you will not become so frustrated by the loss of love, if it happens, that you stray from your normal life. That is called wisdom.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Form can be likened to wind, and emptiness to air. All winds, whether breezes or storms, are the actions of air. There can’t be any wind which is not air. Wind is air, and air is not separate from wind. Form is to emptiness as wind is to air. All forms, whether bad or good, or moral or immoral, are action of emptiness, the true-self.
When we know the truth that form is the action of emptiness, the true-self, just as wind is the action of air, form is called form. When we are ignorant of this truth and believe that form is self-existing apart from emptiness, then form is referred to as illusion. This is like believing that wind is one thing and air is another. What is form to the enlightened is an illusion to the unenlightened.
The purpose of Zen meditation is to see everything as it is, which means to see everything in both ways, as form and emptiness at the same time, just like we know that wind and air are the same when wind brushes against our skin.
Student: “How can I avoid illusions and see my true-self, Sir?”
Master: “Why do you hope to see your true-self while trying to avoid It?”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “Waves never leave the sea.”
Commentary:
Winds never return to air because they never leave air.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. To think that everything is empty seems to be a good way to solve your problem. Try to keep thinking that way even though you’ve not realised the truth and your life will gradually become more stable with your Zen practice growing mature. The most important thing that you should realise now is that if everything is empty, your wife’s attitude is also empty just like your misdeed is empty. Then, your situation is not a problem anymore.
You might think that she also should see your past deeds as empty and not be so angry with you, but she should take responsibility for her own behaviour. If she also viewed things as you want her to, it would be the most ideal solution. However, if you really believe that everything is empty, why does her attitude, rude or polite, matter. If you can’t accept her attitude as empty while saying that everything is empty, you are being self-contradictory after all.
Why don’t you think of her attitude as her struggle to forgive you. Her head may have forgiven you but her heart still might not since the latter takes longer to forgive you. She, I think, is determined to forgive you since she still loves you and wants to keep your family together, but she still feels suffering from the incident because her wound has not yet healed perfectly. It is your duty as her husband to comfort and help her to surmount her suffering and become what she used to be.
Seeing others’ suffering as yours is compassion.
Seeing your suffering as empty is wisdom.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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