Enlightenment – Page 16

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Q163. I wonder why you say that we need no more practice after enlightenment, while most masters insist that we continue to practise after enlightenment.

February 16, 2016February 16, 2016 Zen Fools

A. What is enlightenment? It means to realise that everything is empty and an illusion. To the enlightened, there is nothing to obtain because everything is an illusion. They are aware that not only practice but also enlightenment is an illusion. Then, practice, to try to obtain enlightenment is to make another illusion. In brief, the purpose of practice is to remove illusions. Why should we make new illusions while trying to remove illusions?

Some people say it takes time to remove old bad habits that we have had for a lifetime even after enlightenment. However, the enlightened never make an artificial effort to remove them, but leave them alone to disappear by themselves of their own accord, because they know that not only old bad habits but also the disappearance of them is empty.
Waves in the sea, however wild, naturally grow calm with time when the storm stops.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, One, Religion, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q162. Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”

February 14, 2016February 14, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Master: “I am you.”

Commentary:
Watch out!
You are prone to fall into the den of ghosts.

When the master is the student, what are they?
Daffodil.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, desire, Enlightenment, Meditation, Mind, mindfulness, root, suffering, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q161. Is desire the motivation of life or the root of suffering?

February 11, 2016February 11, 2016 Zen Fools

A. This question is like asking whether we should view food as a cause of illness, such as obesity and diabetes, or a necessary thing for survival. Desire itself is neutral. It depends on you whether it is the motivation of life or the root of suffering. Try to see the root of your desire clearly when it occurs. When you realise it clearly, it is not only the motivation of life but also the root of happiness. It is when you don’t know what it is that it becomes the root of suffering.

However beautiful a thing may be, it is no more than an illusion as long as you don’t know the root from which it is from.
However ugly a thing may be, it is the truth itself when you know its root.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, Meditation, mindful, mindfulness, One, Practice, root, self, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q160. If everything, even enlightenment is empty and just an illusion, why should we try to attain enlightenment?

February 9, 2016 Zen Fools

A. If we really know that everything is an illusion, we don’t have to make an effort to attain enlightenment since enlightenment is also then an illusion. The reason for trying to obtain enlightenment is that we have not realised in person the truth while saying that everything is empty. The knowledge of enlightenment is not enlightenment itself. The former is as different from the latter as the knowledge of a meal is different from eating the meal. The knowledge of enlightenment can no more give us eternal happiness than the knowledge of food can satisfy our hunger. We practise in order to experience, in person, the truth that everything is empty.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Koan, Meditation, Mind, mindful, Practice, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q159. How can I clap with one hand?

February 7, 2016 Zen Fools

A. You already did.

Commentary:
The banker informs him that he is a billionaire, but he is still worried about his next meal.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, Meditation, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, Practice, Religion, root, self, Uncategorized, Zen

Q158. How can we, sentient beings, know Buddha?

January 25, 2016 Zen Fools

A. I never ask you to try to know Buddha that seems to be far above us. Now I am encouraging you to realise what a sentient being is because you know that you are a sentient being.
The key problem, however, is that you don’t know what a sentient being is, because you don’t know what you are even though you say that you are a sentient being. What matters is that Buddha is he who knows what a sentient being is, since Buddha is he who can see himself as he is because Buddha and sentient beings are from the same root. In brief, Buddha is none other than a sentient being who can see himself as he is.

A Buddha who can’t see his True-self is a sentient being.
A Sentient being who can see his True-self is a Buddha.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, Mind, Practice, suffering, Uncategorized, Zen

Q157. How can we have less suffering when an unhappy thing happens to us?

January 19, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Why do we have less fear than children when we get an injection in the hospital? Do we have less pain than children? When do we feel more pain, getting an injection while awake or while asleep? We feel much less suffering while awake because we can know the context before and after the injection: why we have to get it, what will happen after we get it, and what the feeling will be like, and we can get ourselves mentally ready to take it in advance.

However, being injected while asleep will make me feel more pain because we are not ready. Likewise, children feel more pain or suffering than grown-ups because they can’t understand the context including the fact that the injection will relieve them of the suffering they are undergoing now. In the same way, when we can see the essence of things we are going through by seeing things as they are, we can feel much less suffering than those who can’t see things as they are.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, Koan, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q156. Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”

January 17, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Master: “A rat.”

Student: “Why do you say that you are a rat?”

Master: “Because of karma.”

Commentary:

Look and listen carefully.

It is not a rat but your eyes and ears that matter.

©Boo Ahm

Bible, Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, God, Happiness, meditaion, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, Practice, Prayer, Religion, root, Uncategorized, Zen

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.

Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, student, true self, Uncategorized, Zen

Q153. Student: “What am I when my body is not me?”

January 10, 2016January 10, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Master: “Where are you from?”
Student: “I am from New York.”
Master: “How did you come?”
Student: “By plane.”
Master: “How is the weather there these days?”
Student: “Very fine.”
Master: “That’s all. Nothing else.”