A. Master: “Behold the puppets prancing on the stage, and see the man behind who pulls the strings.”
Student: “Who is the man?”
Master: “He is pulling the strings now.”
Commentary:
Seeing leaves fluttering, we can be aware of the existence of wind.
Seeing a feather flying in the air, we can be conscious of the existence of a bird.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Don’t be impatient. If you are practising correctly, practice itself is important. Never think you are trying to reach somewhere away from you.
Whether going fast or slow, don’t have any intention to reach a goal somewhere else other than yourself. Try to realise that each step you take is itself the final goal.
Student: “What is the true-self?”
Master: “Take a look at beneath your feet.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “A word”
Student: “Where is it?”
Master: “In your mouth”
Commentary:
It cooks, and chats.
It brings peace, and causes troubles.
It makes the light and the darkness.
It does all these things.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. No master says that he has attained enlightenment because it is also an illusion. Masters are those who have realised the truth that everything is empty as an illusion and there is nothing to gain or lose. When everything including the master himself is empty, who would attain what? It is, for example, like, after struggling a lot to reach the Earth, finding the truth that they are originally part of the Earth and there is no other place to reach than where they are. So after enlightenment, they would say that all the efforts they had made were of no use at all. In order to describe such people, we use the phrase ‘attained enlightenment’ for the sake of convenience. If a master happens to think that he has obtained anything, he is not enlightened.
Master: “Why did you come here?”
Student: “I came here to attain enlightenment.”
Master: “I don’t have such a thing here.”
Student: “Why do many people try to attain enlightenment?”
Master: “Because they have not confirmed the truth that there is nothing to gain or lose.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “A room”
Commentary:
To take you out of a room is not difficult.
However, it is very difficult to take the room out of you.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. If you are to forget and give up yourself, try to know what ‘yourself’ is prior to seeking to forget and give it up. One of the most common mistakes we make in Zen meditation is trying to do something we don’t know at all. The reason why you find it difficult to forget and give up yourself is that you don’t know what yourself is.
How could you forget and give up yourself without knowing what it is? Make every effort to realise what ‘yourself’ is, which is the core of Zen meditation. If you succeed in realising what it is, you will become oneness with the whole universe and realise that there is nothing worth being labelled as ‘you’; then, there is nothing to forget or give up.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. It’s a very common feeling that you can experience during practice. Whatever scenes and whatever emotions, good or bad, neither avoid nor follow them. They are all illusions. Just try to trace them back to the root from which they come. The purpose of Zen meditation is to realise what the root of all illusions is. It is because you are making a little progress that you have such feelings. From now on, do think of them as a gate to the final goal, your true-self, and your practice will make big progress.
Student: “Sir, I feel fear during my practice.”
Master: “That is an action of your true-self.”
Student: “You said that fear is an illusion.”
Master: “It is when you don’t know that fear is an action of your true-self that it is an illusion.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “It totally reveals its body.”
Commentary:
It stands on the Earth supporting the sky and filling the universe to the full.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Enlightenment is to realise that everything is empty and so there is nothing to gain or lose. That means that there is nothing that you should or shouldn’t do in the world. Zen meditation is to try realise the truth.
The key point is not what you are doing for a living, but whether or not you try to realise the truth in the right way, that is, try to realise what you are when your body is not you. If you try to realise what makes your body do your work while doing it, that is good practice. In terms of that, your job can be a good gate to enlightenment. Work and practice are one to a good Zen man.
Student: “What is the true-self?”
Master: “It is what is asking me the question now.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “Do good things and don’t do bad things.”
Student: “Even a five-year-old child could know it.”
Master: “Even though a five-year-old child can say it,
even an eighty-year-old man can’t easily put it into practice.”
Commentary:
Don’t try to distinguish good things from bad things, but try to realise what their root is.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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