Category: Zen

And why is this so? Because, Followers of the Way, you fail to realise the emptiness of the whole universe of three aeons; this is the obstacle that blocks you. The true Man of the Way doesn’t do so. He lets old karma melt away by letting things follow their own course. He dresses himself as is fitting; when he wants to go, he goes; when he wants to stay, he stays.

 

Commentary:

‘Why is this so?’ means ‘Why are you satisfied with merely completing the ten stages of the Bodhisattva and content with equality-awakening and subtlety-awakening?’ ‘This is the obstacle that blocks you’ means that failing to realise that everything is empty prevents you from seeing the true-Self. ‘He lets old karma melt away’ means that he lives his life without being deluded by illusions. ‘By letting things follow their own course’ implies ‘seeing things as they are’. ‘He dresses himself as is fitting; when he wants to go, he goes; when he wants to stay, he stays’ symbolises the life free from all suffering, which is called Nirvana, the Pure Land.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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A. It is very easy. The mind that is anxious to see the mind before a thought arises is the very mind you are looking for. The mind before a thought arises is not different from the mind having a thought at this moment. Seeing the latter is seeing the former because both are oneness, non-duality as emptiness. As mentioned previously, everything is from the same root, whether it be a thought or a thing, and whether a living thing or a non-living thing. If you come to realise the root of only a single thing, that is the root of all things and the mind before thought that you want to see. Whenever a thought arises, trace it back to its root.

 

Student: “Sir, what is the mind before thought?”

Master: “It is the mind that is asking me this question now.”

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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A monastic asked Caoshan, “It is said in the scriptures that the ocean does not harbour a corpse. What is the ocean?”

Caoshan said, “It contains myriad things.”

The monastic said, “Then why does it not harbour a corpse?”

Caoshan said, “Those who have stopped breathing cannot stay.”

The monastic said, “If the ocean contains myriad things, why can’t those who have stopped breathing stay?”

Caoshan said, “Myriad things do not stop breathing.”

 

Student: “Am I in the ocean, too?”

Master: “Considering your question, you are not.”

Student: “Why am I not in the ocean even though I am breathing now?”

Master: “The ocean contains a lot of stone. Can you breathe as the stone does?”

 

Commentary:

Ask any stone nearby how it breathes, and it will tell you the answer without fail.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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Followers of the Way, as I see it, once and for all sit down and cut off the heads – both of the Sambhogakaya Buddha and of the Nirmanakaya Buddha. Those satisfied with merely completing the ten stages of the Bodhisattva are like serfs. Those content with equality-awakening and subtlety-awakening are but fellows carrying a knife and chains around their necks. Arhats and Pratyeka-Buddhas are like cesspits. Awakening and Nirvana are like tethering posts for donkeys.

Commentary:

‘Cut off the heads – both of the Sambhogakaya Buddha and of the Nirmanakaya Buddha’ means that we should not be deluded by illusions such as the Sambhogakaya Buddha and of the Nirmanakaya Buddha since they are just names employed for the sake of convenience. It is said that there are the ten stages of the Bodhisattva which we should go through to attain enlightenment. We should not be satisfied with merely completing them because all of them are just illusions created as expedients. Equality-awakening and subtlety-awakening are said to be kinds of sub-enlightenment, and Arhats and Pratyeka-Buddhas symbolise the figures who reached such stages. They are also illusionary expedients made for the purpose of encouraging people. The true-Self, Emptiness is such a perfect state beyond description that even the words ‘Awakening’ and ‘Nirvana’ are a kind of illusion.

Student: “What is the true-Self?”

Master: “If you say a single word about it, you come to defile it.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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A. Before answering your question, I’d like to ask you whether you know what you are and whom you hate, or don’t love. If you don’t know what you are when your body is not you, how can you hate yourself? If you don’t know what you are, whom do you hate? In the same way, if you don’t know what you are, how can you love yourself? You cannot truly love yourself without knowing what you are.

 

If you hate yourself whilst not aware what you are, you should realise, you are fighting with the illusion of yourself created by you. I’d like to advise you to try to know who is producing the illusion of yourself, instead of struggling with it. Your steady effort to realise what you are will make your hatred for yourself wane and gradually turn it into love.

 

The source of our unhappiness is not knowing what we are and knowing what we are is the source of our eternal happiness.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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Dongshan was once asked by a monastic, “When cold or heat comes, how can we avoid it?”

Dongshan said, “Why don’t you go to the place where there is no cold or heat?”

The monastic said, “What is the place where there is no cold or heat?”

Dongshan said, “When it is cold, let the cold kill you. When it is hot, let the heat kill you.”

 

Student: “What happens when the cold kills me?”

Master: “There is no one who complains of being cold.”

Student: “How can I let the heat kill me?”

Master: “Enter the heat.”

 

Commentary:

Emptiness swallows everything. Every name is the name of Emptiness.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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Why do I speak thus? It is only because I see you, followers of the Way, all running about with an agitated heart, quite unable to stop, fretting yourselves over the playthings of the old masters.

Commentary:

‘The playthings of the old masters’ means the words of the old masters. ‘Fretting yourselves over the playthings of the old masters’ implies that we struggle to attain enlightenment by understanding Buddha’s and ancient masters’ words literally. Ancient masters would say, “However plausible and meaningful the words of Buddha and the masters may be, they are no better than poison.” However, this doesn’t mean that we should ignore all their words but means that we should accept them in the right way and that we should not miss their original meaning by clinging to their superficial meaning. Their words are pointing to what cannot be reached by explanations and thoughts.

 

Student: “What is it that can’t be reached by explanation and thoughts?”

Master: “It can’t be discarded by them, either.”

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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A. ‘Thinking prevents us from seeing our true-Self’ is often interpreted as ‘Zen practitioners and enlightened people should live without thinking’. This is a very common misunderstanding shared by Zen practitioners.

This means that we shouldn’t try to see the true-Self in the same way we seek answers to our problems at school. Trying to see the true-Self logically prevents us from seeing our true-Self. The harder we try in this way the farther we become away from the true-Self.

However, once you have attained enlightenment, or you have realised that everything is empty, you don’t have to worry about it, because you are aware that whatever you may think, your thinking is just the action of the true-Self. Then, you can widen the horizon of your thinking because you can see and hear what you couldn’t before and can be more insightful. Zen meditation does not make a person into an idiot without thinking but rather a wise man with insight.

©Boo Ahm

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But as I see it, there is nothing that is not profound, nothing that is not deliverance. Followers of the Way, the Dharma of the heart has no form and pervades the Ten Directions. In the eye, it is called seeing; in the ear, hearing; in the nose, smelling; in the mouth, talking; in the hands, grasping; in the feet, walking. Fundamentally, it is one light; differentiated, it becomes the six senses. When one’s whole heart comes to a full stop, one is delivered where one stands.

 

Commentary:

‘There is nothing that is not profound, nothing that is not deliverance’ means that there is nothing that is not the true-Self, Emptiness. ‘The Dharma of the heart’ implies the true-Self that is formless and boundless. ‘In the eye, it is called seeing; in the ear, hearing; in the nose, smelling; in the mouth, talking; in the hands, grasping; in the feet, walking. Fundamentally, it is one light; differentiated, it becomes the six senses’ means that ‘eye’ ‘seeing’ ‘ear’ ‘hearing’ ‘nose’ and ‘smelling’ are all illusions, imaginary lines created by us. In other words, these may look separate and different from each other due to our discriminating, but they are, in fact, Oneness. ‘When one’s whole heart comes to a full stop, one is delivered where one stands’ means that when we stop discriminating or making illusions, Oneness, the true-Self reveals itself before us.

 

The Sutras say, “Many are one and one is many.” This means that we make Oneness, the true-Self into many by drawing imaginary lines, illusions. This causes the true-Self to look like many, but the many are one in essence. Seeing only the many and clinging to them is to be deluded by illusions. Enlightenment is to be able to see and hear in both ways; many as one and one as many.

 

Student: “What is the difference between seeing this vase as many and seeing it as one?”

Master: “When you see this as many, it is a vase. When you see this as one, it loses its identity.”

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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