A. Master: (Kept silent)
Commentary:
Don’t say the master kept silent.
His answer sounds deafening like thunder.
If I heard the answer, I’d say, “Thank you for your kind answer.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Category: Koan
Q36. What is a koan in Zen meditation? Why can’t I understand koans even though I have read a lot on meditation? They make no sense to me.
A. A koan is a sort of dialogue between a master and his students that is used to check whether they have reached the final goal. At the same time, it can be a good question you can practice with. It is just like a maths question in maths, in that a question can be used to test students on one hand and can be material to study on the other hand; so it can be referred to as a Zen question. If you understand perfectly the principle of a question, you can solve other questions easily. Koans might seem to be funny and even look like a joke. Sometimes they may seem to make no sense at all. However, once you have reached the final goal, you will understand how clever, correct and beautiful they are.
Some people think that each question has a single answer, and, memorising it, say they know the correct answer. The truth is that each koan has so many answers that we can’t say all the answers, even if we spend all our life saying the answers to a single question.
It is just like when five year old children are asked a maths question, “What is 3 + 2?” Not all, but most of them can provide only a single answer 5, because they have not mastered the four rules of arithmetic. However, most secondary school students know that though the answer to the question is 5, it can be said in countless other ways, such as 6 – 1, 1.5 + 3.5, 4 + 1, 4.8 + 0.2, 100 – 95 and so on. They also know that although each of the answers seemingly has a different form, all of them are perfectly correct answers.
If you expect to understand koans by reading books, it is natural for them to seem to make no sense at all. Trying to grasp them through reading is like trying to wash a mud-stained cloth with muddy water; it will make things more complicated, since koans are asked to check whether Zen students are freed from the illusions with which we are bound, but reading books is to create illusions. Only when you are freed from illusions can you understand them clearly.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q35. What are you when your body is not you?
A. I don’t know.
Commentary:
Don’t take the answer to be wrong. It leaves nothing to be desired.
If I were asked the question, I would answer, “I can’t answer your question because I have no mouth.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q34. Would you recommend any other way to practice Zen, when I feel tired of the question ‘What am I when my body is not me?’
A. If you feel tired of asking yourself the same question, I’d say two things.
One is that you may take another Zen question that is likely to stimulate your curiosity. I plan to provide a new Zen question a week.
The other is that you ask your question of the things around you instead of yourself. Seeing a tree, you can ask the tree your question ‘Hi, tree. What am I when my body is not me?’ or a little different question ‘Hi, tree. What are you when you are not a tree?’ You can ask such a question of anything such as a car, a puppy, a bird, a desk, spoon, a cup and so forth that you can see in your everyday life. My words might sound ridiculous but they, whenever you ask them the question, never fail to tell you the correct answers. The problem is that you can’t grasp their answers because your eyes and ears are veiled by illusions. To try to understand their answers is a good practice, too.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q32. What are you when your body is not you?
A. A rat.
Commentary:
Don’t be deluded into thinking that it is crazy about chocolate and frightened by a cat.
It swallows the whole universe in a mouthful and gives birth to a cat.
If I had heard the answer, I would have said, “Very nice to meet my species.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm.
Q29. What are you when your body is not you?
A. A piece of cake.
Commentary:
A piece of cake,
It is neither soft nor tough.
How deplorable!
Numerous people have tried to eat it so far,
Few of whom swallowed it.
Countless people have tried chewing it,
But no tooth-mark is left on it.
If I were asked the question,
I would answer, “Why do you ask me the taste of the food you are chewing?”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q27. Can’t people move away from the wrong doings of former lives?
A. What do you think your former life is? Yesterday was your former life and tomorrow is your future life. Suppose you had no meal yesterday. Now you can’t move away from feeling very hungry, but whether you will continue to be hungry, or not, depends on whether you eat food now or not. Every moment is not just the result of your former life but also the cause of your future life.
What counts here is that how you accept the result of your former life determines your future life. So it is said that we can know what your former life was like and what your future life will be like by seeing your present life. The result you face today may look advantageous to you but you should not be too much attached to it. It may look unfavourable to you but you should not be frustrated. You should see things as neutral. What is the best today can be the worst tomorrow and what is the worst today can be the best tomorrow. History shows that many of the great figures who helped mankind were those who accepted their misfortune as their stepping stone. In fact nobody can move from the result of his former life. However, if you can see it as neutral, you feel no need to move away from it. Then we say, “You’ve moved away from the result of your former life.”
When you can see things as they are, you can see things as neutral.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q21. To counter act any thoughts that would come into my head I would repeat the question. I had to repeat the question many times in the 30 minutes. I assume that this will be required less with practice?
A. When thoughts come into your head, trace back to the root from which the thoughts come. When you repeat the question in your mind, do doubt what listens to the question. That is a very good practice as well. If you keep practising as directed, you will become one with the question and need not repeat it any more.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q20. I focus on the question and my mind tends to empty. Is this the idea? It is quite pleasant and I felt a sensation of being very heavy.
A. When you focus on the question, you can feel something new you’ve never experienced before. The feelings you mention are very normal phenomena which you can feel during the practice. What is important is that you should not attach to such feelings; that is, you should not try to maintain the feeling. Instead, you should focus on the question regardless of the sensation.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q19. Is the question ‘What are you, when your body is not you?’
A. Exactly right. You will become happiness itself the moment you reach the answer.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
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