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
Category: Practice
Q158. How can we, sentient beings, know Buddha?
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
Q157. How can we have less suffering when an unhappy thing happens to us?
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
Q156. Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”
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
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q155. Why did masters say, “Don’t try to do good things”?
A. When you have a stick, can you remove either end of it? Even if you cut off one end of it, there will still remain two ends even though the stick becomes a little shorter. No matter how many times you may cut off either end of it, you will still have both ends and find that the middle part becomes the end. The fact is that you can’t avoid having one end as long as you have the other end. This shows that there is no fixed end and that any part can be an end according to circumstances.
When we have an intention to do something good, we can’t avoid having an idea of something bad because there can’t be a good thing without a bad thing. As long as we have an intention to do good things, we can’t avoid discriminating things. Discriminating things is against the purpose of Zen meditation.
So masters said “Don’t try to do good things” in order to advise their students not to have discriminating minds.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q154. How do you think Zen meditation can help Christians to overcome original sin?
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.
Q153. Student: “What am I when my body is not me?”
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.”
Commentary:
Is that all? What is that?
When lost, turn back the way you’ve just come.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q144. By all means possible, I want to realise what I am when my body is not me. What am I?
A. You can’t hide it.
Commentary:
Why don’t you recognise it while revealing it at every moment?
Don’t seek it and it will show itself.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q142. Should ‘I’ be thrown away to attain enlightenment?
A. It is a very common saying in Zen that we should discard ‘I’ in order to attain enlightenment. This saying, however, is like putting the cart before the horse. This nonsensical saying is possible because we don’t know what we say. How would it be possible to discard ‘I’ without so much as knowing what it is? However hard we may try to discard ‘I’, it never disappears unless we realise what it is.
In fact, it is can’t be removed by force but disappears by itself when we realise what it is. The truth is not that it disappears, but that you realise that there is no ‘I’. In other words, you should realise that what seems to be your ‘I’ is just an illusion.
Trying to remove your ‘I’ without knowing what it is, is like trying to sweep away a shadow cast on the ground. If you are to remove your ‘I’, try to realise what it is instead of trying in vain to eliminate it.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q140. What should I do when I encounter a question during practice or when reading something about Zen?
A. First of all, never try to satisfy your curiosity about Zen or enlightenment by reading books. When you hit upon a question during practice or when reading books concerning Zen, don’t depend on books for the answer to your question. The books will present you with new questions, which will lead you to read more books and they will pose yet more questions. This will be endless. That is like trying to meet your hunger with pictures of food. You can not reach the final goal through reading books any more than you can satisfy your hunger by looking at pictures of food.
When you encounter a question beyond your understanding, ask yourself the question rather than consult another book. It might take some time, but you will never fail to get the right answer from yourself. So, ancient Masters would say that reading for a day is not as valuable as practising for an hour.
Remember that Buddha attained enlightenment not by reading books but by practice. When he was asked by his disciples on his deathbed how they should practice after he passed away, he replied, “You should practice depending on the lantern of yourself and the Dharma”.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Zen Fools 