A. Master: “A piece of cake.”
Student: “What is it like?”
Master: “When small, it is smaller than a mustard seed.
When large, larger than the whole universe.”
Commentary:
It is neither large nor small since it has no boundary.
It never moves however hard we try to lift it, but it is not heavy at all.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Supposing you see a vase and think it is very nice. Let’s take the phrase ‘the nice vase’ into account to see whether it is true or not.
Firstly, why is the object a vase? Is it the truth? The truth can’t be denied by anyone at any time. However, as you know, it can be anything else other than a vase according to when, where, how and by whom it is seen. It can be even a weapon in some situations. It is a vase not because the fact that it is a vase is an unchangeable and undeniable truth but because you labelled it as ‘vase’.
Now let’s consider, why is it nice? It might not be nice to others at all however nice you may think it is. It means it is nice not because its being nice is the truth but because you put a label ‘nice’ on it, which was created by your imagination.
In fact, it is not a vase, nor is it very nice unless you label it as a ‘nice vase’.
A nice vase is an illusion produced by your imagination.
When you see or hear something good or bad, you should realise that ‘good or bad’ is not produced by the thing itself but by your discriminating mind.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Master: “Take a look carefully.”
Student: “What shall I look at?”
Master: “Listen carefully.”
Commentary:
Don’t seek to approach it.
If you put your face near it in order to see it closely, you will have your face burnt.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
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
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Let’s suppose there is an sick man whose illness is so serious that he can’t move around. You give him medicine that can cure him of the illness. The next time you meet him, finding him still ill, you wonder if he took the medicine. You ask, “Did you take the medicine I gave to you?” He answers, “Of course, I did.” You say, “You don’t seem to have taken it. You still don’t look well.” He says, “I did take it. I will show you the evidence that I took it.” He throws up the medicine you gave him in front of you and shows it to you. It must be the very medicine you gave to him. Do you think he took the medicine? This is the way we accept spiritual teachings and read spiritual books.
When a patient takes medicine, the medicine must be absorbed into the system of his body and its form should disappear, in order to help him. The evidence that the patient took the medicine is not that he keeps the medicine intact in his stomach, not feeling better, but that he acts energetically and is in good shape after the medicine disappears into his tissues of his body.
We often regard remembering teachings from masters and the contents of books you read as mastering it. Knowing something as knowledge is one thing and experiencing it is another. Just keeping the truth as your knowledge without experiencing it through your body is like keeping medicine undigested in your stomach. Zen knowledge without experiencing the truth is no more helpful to your life than undigested medicine is to your body.
Don’t say you know that all is an illusion.
You are not aware of the truth at all.
What is worse,
you are not conscious of even the fact that you don’t know the truth.
You don’t know what you say since you can’t see yourself as you are.
When all is an illusion, you are also an illusion.
Who on earth is unhappy when you are an illusion?
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Autumn wind has no intention at all to cool people,
but they say it is cool.
A cow, producing milk, has no intention to give it to people,
but they say it is a beneficial animal.
A snake, producing poison, has no intention to harm people,
but they say it is a harmful animal.
What would they think of people?
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. In order to treasure your True-self, you, above all, should know exactly what it is. How can you treasure your True-self, if you don’t know it? You can’t treasure it whatever you may do unless you realise it through experience. However, once you realise your True-self through experience, you don’t have to try to treasure it because it is so perfect that there is nothing you can do for it. You can neither throw it away, treasure, destroy, purify nor protect it. It is always perfect without any change, regardless of whether you do something for it or not. If you have any intention to do something to treasure or protect it, it is also rather an illusion to stain it. So the best way to treasure your True-self is to realise it through experience.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Master: “Bring your mind to me, and I’ll make it comfortable.”
Student: “I can’t find it anywhere.”
Commentary:
Oh! Poor fellow.
It is like he’s saying that he can’t find his mouth.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. It is from the well-known saying in Zen, “If you want to see the Buddha, kill him if you should meet him.”
It means that you should break away the illusion of a thing when it comes to you if you are to see the essence of it. Most people have images of the Buddha although they have never seen him. It is indeed a very good example of an illusion. Illusions die hard because we are highly addicted to them, so masters employed strong language like that in order to put emphasis on eliminating illusions.
Likewise, if you are to see the essence of you, you should remove the image of you. The very typical image of you is your body, and I can tell you to kill yourself to convey my meaning that you should remove your established image of yourself, instead of telling you to ask yourself what you are when your body is not you. So “Kill the Buddha” mentioned above, means to perfectly remove the illusion of a thing in order to see the essence of it.
©Boo Ahm
A. Birth and death are like the right and the left. There is no fixed right side and no fixed left side. The right can be the left anytime and the other way around. Besides, when we are not conscious of right and left, there is neither the right nor the left.
Nobody can deny the fact that we are part of the whole universe. Then is the universe dead or alive? It’s neither alive nor dead. Then are we, part of it, alive or dead? Though we define a given part of universe as birth or death, actually there is no birth and no death unless we divide the universe into many with the imaginary lines we produce.
There is no birth and no death unless we are conscious of them. To conclude, to experience in person the fact that birth and death are nothing but an illusion, like the right and the left, is to escape from the trap of birth and death.
©Boo Ahm
Zen Fools 