Category: true self

Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, self, true self, Truth, Zen

Q118. Where is the true-self when my mind is full of illusions?

Zen Fools

A. Your mind is no other than the true-self and all the illusions are the actions of your mind. What matters here is that, while saying that your mind is full of illusions, you, in fact, don’t know what your mind is. If you knew it clearly, you could be said to be enlightened.

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In order to know your mind clearly, try to trace illusions back to their root and know it clearly instead of trying to avoid or remove them in vain. Their root is your mind, which is the true-self. So you, it is said, can realise your true-self through illusions.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

final goal, illusion, Meditation, true self, Truth, Zen

Q116. How can I remove illusions that cover my true-self?

Zen Fools

A. Even though most people think illusions cover the true-self and try to see it by removing them, they in fact don’t know what illusions are and what the true-self is. In brief, they can’t distinguish illusions from the true-self because they’ve never seen the true-self. So they are not aware of the truth that the illusions are no other than the true-self.

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Whatever you think of as illusions, don’t try to remove them by force. You can’t eliminate them since they are the true-self. Don’t strive to attain your true-self. You can’t not get it because it is already with you.
Don’t think we are looking for something that is hidden in a secret place we don’t know just like hunting for treasure on a treasure island. We are trying to ascertain in person the fact that we are the truth, i.e. eternity itself. Never try to remove illusions, but try to find the root from which they come.
The moment you find it, all the illusions will turn into the truth, your true-self.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, final goal, Koan, Meditation, self, true self, Zen

Q112. Why do you explain the true-self to us while saying it can’t be expressed with words?

Zen Fools

A. It’s true that it can’t be explained with words, but paradoxically we can’t avoid using words to express it.
When masters, saying that it can’t be expressed with words, use words, we should know that they have another intention in using their words besides using them as a language. This alternative intention is primary and the language is secondary. So masters used to advise their students not to follow the secondary forsaking the primary. You should know their teachings are not the true-self itself, but signposts to the true-self.

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©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, final goal, meditaion, true self, Truth, Zen

Q111. What are you when your body is not you?

Zen Fools

A. Come again tomorrow.
I can’t tell you the answer today because I am not well today.

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Commentary:
Come again tomorrow?
Don’t be fooled any more by the master.
His answer would be the same even if you were to come to him hundreds of times again.
If I were given the answer, I would say to him, “I am not asking him who is not well.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

final goal, meditaion, root, self, true self, Zen

Q110. What shall I do when I have hatred for my friend for no particular reason?

Zen Fools

A. Loving someone and hating someone, or loving someone today and hating him tomorrow, and the other way around is the way we live our lives. You don’t have to be worried about the fact that you hate your friend. The key point here is that you don’t know the root of the hatred you have for your friend. Saying you hate your friend, you actually don’t know who it is that hates your friend and who your friend is because you don’t know what you are. In brief, you don’t know who hates whom.

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Either trace back your hatred of your friend to its root, or ask yourself what makes your body hate him, instead of repressing emotion. When reaching the root, that is finding the answer to the question, you will realise all emotions you feel are only illusions and then you can accept everything you experience like seeing a movie.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, meditaion, Meditation, self, true self, Truth, Zen

Q109. If everything is the true-self, can I say that I am looking at my true-self while looking at this cup?

Zen Fools

A. No, you can’t, because you are looking at a cup. As long as you see a cup as a cup, you can’t say that you see your true-self. Seeing a cup as a cup means seeing a car as a car and a person as a person, which means that all the labels or lines dividing one into many still remain. Your eyes, it is said, are covered with illusions or you are an open-eyed blind man.

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The Buddha said, “If you realise that form is not form, you will see your true-self.”
Being able to see the cup as non-cup means that a car is not a car, a person is not a person any more to you and you are not you because all illusions have disappeared. The disappearance of all illusions means the disappearance of the lines that divide one into many. When all the lines disappear, many become one. There is no seer and no seen and no speaker and no listener in the situation where a cup is not a cup. It can be said that the seer is one with the seen, and speaker is one with the listener. There is nothing to mention, and speech is not speech any more here. Then everything, it is said, is the true-self. To experience this through your body in person is to realise the true-self.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, meditaion, Meditation, Mind, Practice, true self, Truth, Zen

Q107. Can we realise the true-self through logic? If not, why not?

Zen Fools

A. Your logic, however perfect it may be, might enable you to explain that everything is empty, but it prevents you from reaching the final goal.
To see your true-self means to remove all illusions, but trying to build a perfect logic means strengthening your established illusions and adding to your illusions by creating new ones, or adopting the ones created by others. That is to go against your original intention of eliminating illusions, which is like fuelling a fire by pouring oil onto it, thereby making it more ferocious while intending to extinguish it. That is going in the opposite direction of your goal, against your intention.

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©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

desire, Enlightenment, final goal, meditaion, sex, sexual, true self, Truth, Zen

Q106. What shall I do with my sexual desire?

Zen Fools

A. Many people think that an ascetic life is indispensable in order to practice Zen meditation, but this is incorrect, unless you are a monk or a nun.

Why don’t you consider the same question regarding your hunger or thirst? Sexual desire is also a natural feeling that normal people have, just like feelings of hunger or thirst. What matters is how to accept it. As mentioned earlier, everything is neutral in itself. Sexual desire may either be holy, or impure lust, just as hunger may be either good or bad, that is to say harmful to us. Hunger is thought to be an essential feeling for our survival, that makes life happy, but it can also lead people to a disastrous situation if not controlled. Sexual desire should be accepted in the same way, I think.

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To have sexual desire is the evidence that you are alive, healthy and normal, that is, you are very suitable for Zen meditation. In summary, Zen meditation has nothing to do with sexual desire just as it has nothing to with hunger. What matters here is not whether to have sexual desire or not, but whether or not to realise the root of it. Just try to realise the root, which is the root of compassion.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway