A. Master: ‘I don’t know. ‘
Student: ‘Why don’t you know?’
Master: ‘Don’t tell anyone that I said I didn’t know.’
Commentary:
It is not for the sake of his reputation but for the sake of his student’s reputation that Master advises his student not to tell anyone that he said he didn’t know.
©Boo Ahm
A. Let me ask you a question. What is the quickest shortcut to the earth? The final goal is difficult to reach not because it is too far away from us, but because it is too near us. In a word, nearness is rather a barrier. The harder you look for a shortcut, the farther you will get away from the final goal. The root of the desire to take a shortcut is the very final goal you are eager to reach. You should look for it within, not without. When a thought that you need to take a shortcut occurs to you, trace back the thought to its root, which is the quickest shortcut.
Do you want to take a shortcut?
Don’t move even a single step.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Don’t eat lees but drink wine.
Commentary:
What is wine? And what are the lees?
Don’t make believe that you drank wine after eating the lees.
He who eats the lees plays a drunken frenzy.
He who drinks wine steals the whole universe.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Ancient masters always advised us not to read books if we hoped to reach the final goal. However good a book on enlightenment you may read, you can’t reach the final goal through reading books without practice. Masters discouraged us from reading books because reading leads us to feel as if we were approaching the final goal as we get more knowledge on the final goal. In fact, getting more knowledge is collecting more illusions and strengthening the solidity of your illusions while reaching the final goal means breaking illusions. Actually we are going farther away in the opposite direction from the final goal against our intention.
Why do few people reach the final goal though so many people are reading so many books including the Sutras and the Bible around the world? Are the Sutras and the Bible telling a lie? It is not because they are telling a lie but because we can’t digest what they mean. The final goal, the truth, is compared to a cure-all that gives an eternal life to ill people who take it. But the cure-all is so invisible that it is almost impossible to discern it. And what all books, including the Bible and the Sutras, are saying about it is not the cure-all itself but wrapping papers that can help people to recognise the contents, the cure-all. Most people mistake swallowing the wrapping paper for taking the contents, or cure-all. If we had taken a true cure-all, we would have become well instantly.
I don’t want to discourage you from reading books, but I’d like to invite you to change the way of reading books in order to take the cure-all, instead of swallowing the wrapping paper. You should bear it in mind that every single word of the book you read is the gate to the truth, the final goal. If you digest only a single word through your body from any book you read, you can reach the final goal. If you have not reached the final goal after reading so many books, it means that you have not understood even a single word of so many words you have read. You took only wrapping papers. Trace back to the root the word or a sentence you believe you understand, or you like. That is to try to see beyond the word, an illusion. This can be compared to tearing the wrapping paper. If you can see the root, you can be said to have digested the book perfectly, to have reached the final goal. Try to see the root of each word or each sentence as perfectly as possible, instead of trying to read as many books as possible. That is a kind of Zen practice as well.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. This is not an all or nothing game. In the course of trying to get there you can experience something new and positive. Everything looks more beautiful than before and your life feels simpler and easier. You find it easier and simpler to tackle your demanding life than before, feeling sometimes your problems solve themselves. Becoming more understanding and considerate, you are less apt to lose your head in a bad situation where you used to. You have less ups and downs and your life becomes more stable. You can feel your life becoming much happier than before with practice.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. A grandmother is female.
Commentary:
Don’t say you know a grandmother is female.
If I were asked this question, I would say, “A grandmother is male.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Not just a few people seem to have such an idea wandering around in search of a good place. It is like going around looking for Buddha, or God. In Zen, everything including God and Buddha is said to be an illusion. What is not an illusion when everything is an illusion? Is such a place not an illusion? The best place is also an illusion created by people’s discriminating mind.
Zen meditation is to eliminate illusions, but looking for such a place is creating and following another illusion. Looking for such a place for Zen practice is like making an illusion with one hand while trying to eliminate it with the other hand. The best place for practice is just where you are at this moment. The root which your idea of the best place comes from is the best place where you should be.
The best place for practice
should be where you can stay your whole life,
and be where others can’t come.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Though you know everything is an illusion, it can be said, you have never experienced the fact in person. Knowing everything is an illusion is quite different from experiencing in person the truth that everything is an illusion. If you were aware that everything is an illusion, why wouldn’t you know that you yourself are also an illusion and that your anger and your regret are also an illusion? What else would matter when not only your anger and regret but also you are an illusion?
Don’t rule out anything from everything.
Trace back your agony to its root, and you will experience the truth that everything including you is an illusion.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Let me tell you the answer when you have drunk all the water in the Pacific Ocean.
Commentary:
Don’t mistake the wrapping paper for the content.
If I were asked this question,
I would say, “The bottom of it is already dry because you drank it all, sir.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Why can’t we stop doing things as we please? Many people, for example, can’t stop smoking though they are eager to stop it and some are suffering intense agony because they can’t stop bad memories they want to forget from reviving. It is because we don’t know what, or who, allowed our body to do something in the past and wants it to stop doing it now. Saying, “I allowed myself to do it,” we don’t know who or what I am when my body is not me. Likewise, saying, “I want to stop smoking,” we don’t know who or what wants to stop smoking, since we don’t know what we are when our body is not us. How could you stop doing something when you don’t know who permits your body to do something and wants it to stop doing it?
The Bible 1 John 4:4 says, “The spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.” ‘The spirit who is in you’ means your true-self, the final goal, and ‘the spirit in those who belong to the world,’ implies your body, which is an illusion. Only when you know what you are when your body is not you, can you become more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.
If you realise what you are, you can be as free to stop doing it as you were to start to.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Zen Fools 