A. Master: “Your corpse.”
Commentary:
The whole universe is loaded on a small cart.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. Image ©Avijit Datta
Category: root
Q313. What is the true-self and what is an illusion?
A. The true-self is an illusion and an illusion is the true-self. When you can see, for example, the cup put before you as empty, it is the true-self, but it is an illusion when you can’t see it as empty and see it only as a cup. This is true of everything that you can see and hear; your wife, your friends, your puppy, et cetera. In other words, when you can see things as empty, everything is the true-self. When you can’t see things as empty, everything is an illusion.
A thing doesn’t determine on its own whether it is seen as the true-self or an illusion, but it depends on whether or not you can see it as empty. When you can see everything as empty, you are said to have attained the eye of wisdom or enlightenment. So, an ancient master would say that if you get the eye of wisdom, all the rubbish heaps turn into treasure heaps. When you are enlightened, everything including yourself is perfection itself to you. That is referred to as the Pure Land or the Buddha Land.
Student: “What is the true-self?”
Master: “There is nothing that is not the true-self.”
Student: “Why can’t I see it?”
Master: “Because you seek it while seeing it.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q311. What shall we do when we have no master around us?
A. Don’t think that you have no master around but think that you are not ready to meet him. Ready yourself to meet a master by asking yourself the questions that you will ask a master when you meet him. When a student is ready, a master will appear. When not ready, a student can’t recognise a master even though he appears before him. In fact, he is already beside you and always ready to help you. He is waiting to be recognised by you.
All the people and everything around you are your master. Even you yourself are your master, too. They are giving Dharma talks to you every moment. Even you yourself are giving Dharma talks all the time. The point is that you are still not ready enough to hear the Dharma talk. Make yourself ready to meet him by practising hard and, sooner or later, he will suddenly appear before you.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q310. What does ‘should not follow the secondary while forsaking the primary’ mean? How can I do this?
A. The primary means emptiness or the true-self and the secondary forms or illusions. This means that you should not follow illusions while forsaking the true-self. But this doesn’t mean to sort out the true-self from illusions, but means to realise that illusions are no other than the true-self. If you fall into the division of the true-self and illusions and regard illusions as different and separate from the true-self, you come to think that you should follow the former and avoid the latter. This is to be deluded by the illusions of the true-self and illusions, which is to follow the secondary while forsaking the primary. You can stop this by ceasing to discriminate.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q309. Student: “What is the true-self?”
A. Master: “How can I explain it better than you?”
Commentary:
Wisdom never scolds or speaks ill of foolishness.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q307. What does the New Testament Matthew 5:29,30 mean?
Matthew 5:29,30: 29) “So if your right eye causes you to sin, take it out and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose a part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into hell. 30) If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose one of your limbs than to have your whole body go off to hell.”
A. Here your whole body means your true-self or your whole life, and parts of your body such as eyes and hands means illusions. To remove your eyes and hands means to stop following illusions. Having your whole body thrown into hell refers to leaving your true-self lost and living in the world of illusions. So, ‘losing parts of your body is much better than having your whole body thrown into hell’ means that to stop following illusions, although it is not easy, is much better than to live in the world of illusions.
Student: “How do you prevent your eyes and hands from sinning?”
Master: “I don’t have eyes and hands to sin.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q306. Student: “What happens when a tree withers and all its leaves are fallen?
A. Master: “Its body is revealed.”
Commentary:
Look look. Do you see its body now?
Don’t say that it is beyond words.
Even a child can explain it.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q304. My life is still full of troublesome problems even though I practice Zen meditation. How can I be perfectly free from them?
A. There is no one who has no problems at all in the world. For a joke, it is said that even Buddha and God have a lot of troubles all the time because people don’t follow them and do a lot of bad things against their teachings. If you were perfectly free from troubles, the monotony of life might be your serious trouble.
You should know that Zen practice doesn’t change what happens to you but your view of what happens to you. As mentioned repeatedly earlier, everything is empty and neutral. Whether it is good or bad, useful or harmful, is in the eye of the beholder. Try to see everything as neutral even though you have not realised the truth. Why don’t you see your problems as good omens of good fortune to come? Why don’t you think that you are paying in advance for what you will enjoy later? When your view is changed, your thoughts are changed. When your thoughts are changed, your acts are changed. When your acts are changed, what happens to you will also be changed.
Student: “How can I get rid of enemies?”
Master: “Why don’t you make them your friends?”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q300. Student: “What is the true self like?”
A. Master: “It is not the shape of male or female.”
Commentary:
Don’t measure others by your yardstick.
It is the shape of male and female.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathawa
Q296. How is it possible to remove all at once and not gradually the illusions that we have made up for decades?
A. Our practice is like trying to brighten an old room that has been dark since it was made, even though it is installed with a nice electric light. We are looking for the light switch of the old room that has never been lit so far. The key problem is that we have no idea of the switch; where it is and what it is like, because we have never used it, or even seen it before. We can be said to be fumbling for the switch in the dark room. It may take time to find it, but it doesn’t take time to lighten the room once you find the switch. The moment you switch on the light, all the darkness will disappear. Likewise, all illusions disappear at the moment you attain enlightenment.
Student: “How can I remove all the illusions in an instant that I have made up for decades?”
Master: “It takes no time and no effort to remove them because they are empty.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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