Category: mindfulness

Buddhism, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, Practice, Truth, Zen

Q57. Do we have to do away with all illusions in order to see the truth?

Zen Fools

A. Absolutely not. You should know that escaping from illusions means not removing or destroying them but realising that all illusions are also the truth. We are apt to judge what seems, or sounds nice or holy, to be the truth and what seems bad or ugly to be an illusion. In fact everything we can see, hear, feel and imagine, whether good or bad and right or wrong, is the truth. There is nothing but the truth, which we can’t escape from even a moment. Not seeing it is much more difficult than seeing it.

Why can’t we see it? It is because our eyes are covered with the truth and not because it is too far away. In other words it is so near us that we don’t recognise it.

Don’t look away from illusions for the truth. That is to go after illusions turning your back on the truth. The truth is not separate from illusions. What you regard as illusions is the truth and what you look upon as the truth is illusions. Don’t try to do away with illusions. You can’t make it because they are not illusions but the truth. People who strive to eliminate illusions are those who don’t know what they are. How can you remove them when you don’t know what they are? Faced with what you think is an illusion, trace back to the root which the idea of the illusion stems from instead of making efforts to get rid of it. That is the very Zen practice.

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Never avoid illusions.
Never go after the truth.
If you stop avoiding and going after,
You will be motionless.
That is the way the truth is.

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.

Happiness, mindfulness, Zen

Q54. What do masters mean when they insist that we possess nothing?

Zen Fools

A. It means we should escape perfectly from the trap of illusion without having a single illusion left. Ancient masters said that if we have a single illusion, it will fill the whole universe with illusions in no time. The Bible says that the poor are blessed. The poor here are those who have no illusion. People who have escaped from the trap of illusion are aware that everything in the universe is an illusion. Such people can be said to have nothing however much they have because they know all they have is nothing but an illusion.

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All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, God, Meditation, mindful, mindfulness, One, Practice, Truth, Zen

Q45. How can I be mindful?

Zen Fools

A. Very simple. If you know what your mind is, you can be mindful all the time with no effort. Most people try to mindful only to fail because they strive to do what they don’t know. In other words, to be mindful is difficult since you don’t know what your mind is. Actually, most people don’t know how to start to be mindful when they try to be mindful because they don’t know their mind.

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Anyway to be mindful, you must know what your mind is. How could you try to be mindful without knowing what your mind is? Try to find what your mind is and you will become mindful with no effort. What are you when your body is not you? Mind is the name of you when your body is not you, which is also referred to as true-self, true-nature, the nature, the truth, the Buddha in Buddhism and the God in Christianity. Whatever it is called, the name itself doesn’t matter. We should know what it is beyond the name.

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.