A. Student: ‘I am doing nothing.’
Master: ‘Then you are sitting at leisure.’
Student: ‘Sitting at leisure is also doing.’
Master: ‘You say you are doing nothing. What are you not doing?’
Student: ‘Even saints don’t know it.’
Commentary:
He can be said to know how to do nothing.
If you knew who does what, you would know how to do nothing.
©Boo Ahm
A. In fact both are not different from each other, but they are one, just as sea and waves are not separate. There is nothing but the truth. If, regarding illusions as different from the truth, we try to remove illusions and reach the final goal, it is like trying to remove waves in order to see the sea. We should keep in mind that to eliminate illusions doesn’t mean to put the illusions away to another place, but means to change our viewpoint and realise that all illusions including us, are the truth itself we are looking for. ©Boo Ahm 
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Let me ask you a question. What is the quickest shortcut to the earth? The final goal is difficult to reach not because it is too far away from us, but because it is too near us. In a word, nearness is rather a barrier. The harder you look for a shortcut, the farther you will get away from the final goal. The root of the desire to take a shortcut is the very final goal you are eager to reach. You should look for it within, not without. When a thought that you need to take a shortcut occurs to you, trace back the thought to its root, which is the quickest shortcut.
Do you want to take a shortcut?
Don’t move even a single step.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
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.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. This is not an all or nothing game. In the course of trying to get there you can experience something new and positive. Everything looks more beautiful than before and your life feels simpler and easier. You find it easier and simpler to tackle your demanding life than before, feeling sometimes your problems solve themselves. Becoming more understanding and considerate, you are less apt to lose your head in a bad situation where you used to. You have less ups and downs and your life becomes more stable. You can feel your life becoming much happier than before with practice.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Though you know everything is an illusion, it can be said, you have never experienced the fact in person. Knowing everything is an illusion is quite different from experiencing in person the truth that everything is an illusion. If you were aware that everything is an illusion, why wouldn’t you know that you yourself are also an illusion and that your anger and your regret are also an illusion? What else would matter when not only your anger and regret but also you are an illusion?
Don’t rule out anything from everything.
Trace back your agony to its root, and you will experience the truth that everything including you is an illusion.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
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.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. You seem to be in a hurry. “Don’t make haste where you should take it easy, and don’t be idle where you should be in a hurry.” “Practice just like putting out a fire on your head.” “Practice just like a hen incubates its eggs.” These are very well known maxims in Zen meditation practice.
Don’t make haste where you should take it easy, that is, you should not be impatient for the final goal. The purpose of Zen is to do away with attachment and illusions. To intend to obtain something fast is also a kind of attachment or an illusion that prevents you from concentrating on practice. Be unconcerned about when or how soon you will reach the final goal as if it were none of your business. No one knows when you will reach the final goal. However, when the time is ripe, you will reach it as easily and naturally as you touch your nose while washing your face, and (you will feel) as if it reached you. Leave it alone until the time is ripe of itself just like a hen incubates its eggs. The more impatient you are, the farther you will get away from the final goal.
However, don’t be idle where you should be in a hurry, that is to say, you should pay all your attention to your question when practising as if you were being chased alone by hungry lions. There is no time to lose in producing an original idea, no one to help you and no shelter to hide yourself. The only way you can avoid being devoured by them is to run faster than them. Don’t try any other way than focusing on your question. Don’t try to have the same experience as you heard from others, or read in books, that seem to be nice or mysterious. Don’t take understanding for the final goal, which is you are serving your enemy as your father or mother. Never try to understand it. It can’t be explained and understood, but must be felt or experienced through the whole body. Don’t care about how far away the final goal is, but care about only whether you can keep your question. The harder you try to find a better way, the farther you will get away from the answer. Focus all your attention to the question just like putting out a fire on your head. You will undergo something new sooner or later. What is important here is that you should never attach yourself to the new experience. Just keep your focus on your question, leaving it alone, however nice or novel it is.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Don’t try to remove your ego until you know what it is. You are likely to try hard in vain because you strive to eliminate something you don’t know. Though you say that you want to remove your ego, you actually don’t know what your ego is because you can’t see yourself as you are. How could you know what your ego is while not knowing yourself? You had better try to see yourself as you are instead of trying to eliminate your ego. When you can see yourself as you are, your ego will vanish of itself.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Master: Two plus three is five.
Student: I know that, too.
Master: Then you are a master, too.
Student: I didn’t ask you about numbers.
Master: I didn’t talk about numbers, either.
Commentary:
Master is pointing to the moon with his finger.
Why aren’t you looking at the moon but the finger?
If I were the student, I would say, “You are wrong, sir. Two plus three is seven.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Zen Fools 