Category: Uncategorized

Q. What does ‘stop discriminating’ mean?

A. Discriminating means to make labels or imaginary lines such as car, pen, or house and bad, good, useful or harmful and to believe that they are real. We remember such previously drawn lines and produce new ones based on them, which are no other than words. And we live our lives according to these lines. That is to live in the world of memory or in the realm of form.

Many people mistake ‘stop discriminating’ or non-discrimination as stopping thinking. How could we maintain our life without thinking or discriminating? How could we feel happy without discrimination? Why should we continue to live if we became motionless like stone?

‘Stop discriminating’ in Zen meditation doesn’t mean to stop thinking but means to stop being deluded by the lines by realising that everything is empty. Once you have realised the truth, whatever lines and however many lines you may draw, it doesn’t matter because you know that they are just illusions when you know that they are all empty.

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/wEQOM

Q. Which is their real daughter, his real wife?

Once upon a time there was a beautiful maiden who fell in love a handsome young man. She wanted to get married to him, but her parents who were very rich and high class would not allow her to marry him, not only because they had another son in law candidate from a rich and respectable family in their mind, but also because her boyfriend was a poor man whose parents had passed away when he was young. She felt so frustrated that she came to be ill in bed. There was nothing her boyfriend could do against her powerful father, and he finally gave up everything in the village and decided to leave in order to forget her.

After leaving the village, having walked for a few hours, he heard a very familiar female voice calling his name from behind. It was his girlfriend who had escaped from her parents in order to follow him. In the end, they ran away together to a strange village far from their native land where no one could recognise them.

After 10 years, they came to be very well off and happy since they had one son and one daughter and were successful in their business. The woman always felt guilty and sorry for her parents, and missed them more and more with time. Her husband, sensing her feelings, suggested to her that they visit her parents. They decided to go to see her parents and implore their forgiveness.

As they approached the village where they had lived 10 years before, where her parents still lived, they became very nervous and worried that her parents might be still upset and not forgive them. So, they decided that her husband would go to her parents’ house alone to see whether they would forgive them or not while she stayed in a village nearby.

When her husband visited her parents, and told everything to them, her parents were more perplexed and puzzled than furious or happy. They led him to their daughter’s room. Then he not only understood why they had been so puzzled to hear his story, but he himself was also at a loss. In the room there was their daughter, his wife, ill in bed.

Which is their real daughter, his real wife, the woman ill in bed or the woman waiting in the neighbouring village?

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/wEPA8

Is there any teaching no master has ever preached before?

A monk asked Nansen, “Is there any teaching no master has ever preached before?”

Nansen replied, “Yes, there is.” “What is it?” asked the monk. Nansen answered, “It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things.”

Student: “Other masters also said, ‘It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things’ earlier than Nansen did. Why did he think that no other master had not preached that before?”
Master: “His saying was wrongly reported.”
Student: “What did he say then?”
Master: “He said, ‘It is mind, it is Buddha, it is things’.”
Student: “They were also mentioned by other masters.”
Master: “Don’t be friends with those who report wrongly.”

Commentary:
A tree is known by its fruit, and a man by his friends.
It is because man doesn’t know who is good and who is bad that he is friends with bad people.
Don’t try to distinguish good friends from bad friends.
Having no friends is better than having good friends.

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/wmGno

Q. Isn’t the lamp fire?

A. Once upon a time there lived a couple whose only son was away for his job in the city. One day their son came back late at night and his mother was going to cook for him. However, she happened not to have any fire lit in the fireplace. She had to ask her husband to get some embers from one of their neighbours because at that time people had no matches and had to keep their fire alive 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for cooking and heating.

So, her husband went to his next-door neighbour for embers while carrying a lamp. When he asked his neighbour for fire, his neighbour said to him with a curious look on his face, “What are you talking about? Why do you ask me for fire while holding it in your hand? Isn’t the lamp fire?”

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/wzQ0X

Q. What does pure mind mean?

A. Many people interpret ‘pure mind’ as keeping pure or beautiful thoughts such as love, compassion, the Buddha or God. In Zen, pure mind means a mind without illusions. An illusion is an imaginary line or a label produced by us. Then ‘beautiful’, ‘love’, ‘compassion’. ‘Buddha’ and ‘God’ are all illusions. There can’t be such relative ideas as pure and dirty in the mind without illusions. So ancient masters used to say that a good thought, however good and great, is not as good as no thought. The mind without any illusion is the very pure mind that we are pursuing, which is referred to as Buddha, God or true Self.

Student: “What is the pure mind?”
Master: “You are staining it now.”

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/wzPUj

Why did Nansen cut the cat in two?

One day Nansen saw the monks of the eastern and western halls fighting over a cat. He seized the cat and said, “If any of you can say a right word, you can spare the cat. Otherwise I will kill it.” No one could answer. So, Nansen cut the cat in two.

That evening Joshu returned and Nansen told him what had happened. Joshu thereupon took off his sandals and, placing them on his head, walked away. Nansen said, “If only you had been there, you could have saved the cat.”

Student: “Why did Nansen cut the cat in two?”

Master: “Because his students thought as you do now.”
Student: “Why did Joshu take off his sandals and place them on his head?”
Master: “Because he thought as Nansen did.”

Commentary:
Nansen was never so cruel as to kill a living thing.
Joshu was never so crazy as to put his sandals on his head.
Cutting the cat in two is to taking off his sandals and placing them on his head as father is to dad.

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/vB4b3

Q. Why do I seem to have more challenges in my life after starting Zen meditation?

A. A few people think that they seem to have more challenges in their life after starting Zen meditation. It makes no sense at all. If you feel that way, it’s because you may have anticipated that Zen meditation would bring you some good luck, or curb bad things from happening in your life. Zen meditation neither brings happiness nor prevents suffering, but gives you power to surmount your suffering by leading you to realise that everything is empty and neutral.

If you hit upon something that you think is unhappiness or suffering, you should take it as an opportunity to check your practice. The time when you have emotional ups and downs is a good time to see what you are when your body is not you. It can be a good stepping stone to take a big jump on in your practice. Trace the suffering to its root, or try to realise what sees your situation as suffering, and your suffering will be gone by itself.

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/wqSNm

Q. Is it true that the enlightened don’t dream during sleep?

A. They act and feel as we do. They can dream at night. Their way of accepting what happens to them and what they do, is different from ours though. That is why the enlightened are said to have transcended life and death although they can’t avoid ageing and dying in reality, just as we can’t.

The difference between them and us is that they can see everything as empty, but we can’t. When everything is empty, life and death are empty. And then dreams are also empty. When life and death are empty, they are not life and death any more. In the same way, when dreams are empty, dreams are not dreams any more. So, the enlightened are said not to dream during sleep.

Student: “Do the enlightened have dreams during sleep?”
Master: “How can a man without life and death have sleep and dreams?”

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/wqWFV

Q. Why are they not allowed to smoke during prayer?

A layman asked a minister, “May I pray while smoking?”
The minister said, “Of course, you may.” The layman said again, “May I smoke while praying?”
The minister answered, “No, you must not.”

Student: “Why are they not allowed to smoke during prayer while being allowed to pray during smoking?”
Master: “Because praying is profitable to a smoker but smoking is harmful to one who is praying.”

Commentary:
All bad things are empty, but emptiness is never bad.

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/vB56U

Q. What does the true Self feel and sound like?

A. Your question is like ‘What does the air feel and sound like?’. It feels and sounds like every wind. The true Self feels and sounds like what and how you feel and hear. Whatever you see and hear, whatever you do or say, and however you feel, all of these are actions of the true Self because not only you but also all your surroundings are part of the true Self.

Air is non-dual, but there are a lot of different forms of wind. No matter how many different forms of wind there are, they are one as air. The true Self is to forms or illusions as air is to winds. In other words, however many different forms there are, all of them are one as the true Self. Our problem is that we don’t know the truth that everything is one as the true Self just like every wind is one as air.

The reason that things look and sound different is that each of us has a different viewpoint according to his karma. That is, each of us has a different perspective according to the memories he has; what memories he has and how many memories he has. In brief, each of us lives a different life due to different illusions resulting from different karma.

Student: “What is the true Self like?”
Master: “You already showed it.”

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/wvgrs