A. Master: “A rat.”
Student: “Why do you say that you are a rat?”
Master: “Because of karma.”
Commentary:
Look and listen carefully.
It is not a rat but your eyes and ears that matter.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Category: zen
Q155. Why did masters say, “Don’t try to do good things”?
A. When you have a stick, can you remove either end of it? Even if you cut off one end of it, there will still remain two ends even though the stick becomes a little shorter. No matter how many times you may cut off either end of it, you will still have both ends and find that the middle part becomes the end. The fact is that you can’t avoid having one end as long as you have the other end. This shows that there is no fixed end and that any part can be an end according to circumstances.
When we have an intention to do something good, we can’t avoid having an idea of something bad because there can’t be a good thing without a bad thing. As long as we have an intention to do good things, we can’t avoid discriminating things. Discriminating things is against the purpose of Zen meditation.
So masters said “Don’t try to do good things” in order to advise their students not to have discriminating minds.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q154. How do you think Zen meditation can help Christians to overcome original sin?
A. According to the Bible, man can’t have eternal happiness or find salvation because of the original sin he committed in the beginning of time. The sin was eating the fruit of the tree of life, and as a result, our mind became discriminating, which prevents us from seeing God. The Bible says that we can be forgiven for the sin and find salvation only by believing in God.
To find salvation means to return to the original state prior to eating the fruit. And to believe in God means to see God, just as the old saying goes, ‘Seeing is believing’. Seeing God is possible by removing the discriminating mind.
The Sutras say that whatever good things we may do, we can’t enjoy eternal happiness without life and death, even though we can enjoy temporary happiness, unless we realise the true-self by removing the discriminating mind.
The core teachings of Christianity and Buddhism are the same in that we can enjoy eternal happiness by eliminating the discriminating mind. Zen meditation is a practice to remove the discriminating mind.
So, to help Christians to remove their discriminating mind is to help them to overcome original sin.
Q153. Student: “What am I when my body is not me?”
A. Master: “Where are you from?”
Student: “I am from New York.”
Master: “How did you come?”
Student: “By plane.”
Master: “How is the weather there these days?”
Student: “Very fine.”
Master: “That’s all. Nothing else.”
Commentary:
Is that all? What is that?
When lost, turn back the way you’ve just come.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q152. How can I drink just milk when it is mixed with water?
A. Milk. Milk.
Commentary:
Why do you see only water when the master says, ‘Milk’?
Look and listen the other way around.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q151. I heard that we should remove our ‘I’ and experience ‘non-ego’ in order to see the true-self. How can I remove my ‘I’?
A. Don’t try in vain to remove your ‘I’. You can’t do so because you don’t know what it is. Just try to know what you are when your body is not you. When you reach the final goal, you realise that it is not worth mentioning ‘I’. In short, the illusion of your ‘I’ will disappear. Then, you can be said to experience or realise ‘non-ego’.
When you can’t see yourself as you are, you see the illusion of your ‘I’ as yourself. When you can see yourself as you are, you come to realise the essence of your being, your true-self called Buddha Nature. When you don’t know what you are, your ego is you, but when you know what you are, you have no ‘I’ to remove. Then you feel oneness.
Q150. Does enlightenment have anything to do with gender?
A. Absolutely not. It is a very common belief that only males can attain enlightenment and so females have to be reborn as males in order to attain enlightenment. However, it makes no sense at all. That is against Buddha’s teaching that everything is empty and equal. Gender is also empty and is an illusion.
Enlightenment is to realise your true-self, that is, what you are when your body is not you. When your body is not you, how can you be male or female? Enlightenment has nothing at all to do with gender but a lot to do with how hard you practice and whether or not you practice in the right way.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q149. Does our true-self accompany us when we go to hell?
A. I think this is a question that can occur to you when you think your true-self is in your body and that it is so pure and holy that it has nothing to do with bad things like hell.
There is nothing larger than your true-self. Your true-self has infinite room left even when it houses millions of universes. All things imaginable, whether good or bad, happen only in your true-self. Nothing happens out of your mind. When you go to the hell, your going to hell happens in your true-self, and when going to the heaven, you go there in your true-self as well.
Your true-self never judges right or wrong since it is always neutral or empty. It has no heaven and no hell. It neither helps you go to the heaven nor prevents you from going to the hell and vice versa. It is your discrimination that creates heaven or hell and makes you go to it.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q148. Is happiness obtained through filling our mind or through emptying our mind?
A. This is not a matter of whether to fill or empty, but a matter of realising what the mind is. The ultimate end of Zen meditation is to realise what the mind that you are going to fill or empty is.
This question shows well how unaware we are of what we say and how imprudently we are seeking happiness. How could we fill or empty the mind while not knowing what it is? In fact, it is because you don’t know what your mind is that you have such an idea of filling or emptying it. Once you get to see it clearly, you will realise that it can’t be filled or emptied because it is perfect, and that you are happiness itself.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q.147 Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”
Master: “A rat.”
Student: “Why do you say that you are a rat?”
Master: “What shall I say I am?
Student: “Buddha Nature.”
Master: “My rat is much better than your Buddha Nature.”
Commentary:
What a wonderful rat! What poor Buddha Nature!
A rat swallows Buddha Nature in a single gulp.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
