Category: zen

Even though one lives on a lonely mountain peak, eats a single meal a day in the morning, meditates without lying down for twenty-four hours a day, he is only a Karma-producing man. Even though one gives away as alms all that he has: his head, eyes, marrow, brain; his home, wife and children; elephants and horses — the seven precious things, all such actions cause only suffering to body and heart, and contrary to expectation bring about troublesome causation again. Far better it is to have nothing further to seek, to be simple and plain.

Commentary:

The core of Zen meditation, or enlightenment is to cease being attached to things by seeing everything as empty. No matter how hard you may practise, it is empty in essence. Practising whilst being attached to the image and idea of practising hard is not so much practising as making karma. In the same way, whatever precious things you may offer as alms, they are not true alms that help to release you from the yoke of karma but just a cause of new karma if you cling to the image and idea of the alms you offered. Trying to attain enlightenment by accumulating things such as good practice and alms is heading for the west with a mind to go to the east. It is not different from trying to build a castle by piling up shadows. That’s why ancient masters would say that doing a good thing is not as good as doing nothing.

Student: “It is said that enlightenment is attained as the result of having accumulated a lot of practice and alms in previous lives. You also advise us to practise hard. Why does Rinzai say that this is not as good as doing nothing?”

Master: “Because that is the right way to accumulate practice and alms.”

©Boo Ahm

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A. If you struggle with vengeful thoughts during meditation, your meditation is not going well. Such an illusion as the idea of revenge could not penetrate your mind if your meditation was going well. You should be free from such illusions at least during your meditation if it were going well.

Let me tell you two ways to cope with the thoughts of revenge plaguing you; one is to replace such thoughts with a koan, Zen question as soon as they come to you and the other is to trace them back to the root from which they come instead of struggling to remove or stop them. When you feel such bad memories in the same way that you remember your dreams from the previous night, your healing is complete.

©Boo Ahm

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Yangshan was asked by Guishan, “Where have you been?” Yangshan said, “In the midst of the rice fields.” Guishan said, “How many people were there in the rice fields?” Yangshan held his hoe in folded hands and kept standing. Guishan said, “Nowadays there are many people weeding here in South Mountain.” Yangshan walked away, dragging the hoe.

Student: “Why did Guishan say, ‘There are many people weeding in South Mountain’ although Yangshan didn’t mention any number?”

Master: “Because Yangshan showed the weeding people to Guishan so that he might count them in person.”

Commentary:

How many fingers do you have when two is not a pair and one is not single?

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And why is this so? One who, entering the Way, doesn’t master its principle will return to the flesh and has to pay back the alms received by the faithful. The story ‘When the respected man reached the age of eighty-one, the tree no longer bore mushrooms’ is a good example.

Commentary:

‘One who, entering the Way, doesn’t master its principle will return to the flesh and has to pay back the alms received by the faithful’ implies that when a monastic fails to attain enlightenment, he cannot escape from the yoke of causation or reincarnation. However, this is true of not only monastics but also everyone else. The story of the tree that bore mushrooms presents an example of being trapped in the yoke of causation.

Once upon a time there was a respected rich man in India who was Buddhist. He had a tree that continued to bear mushrooms immediately after they were harvested. One day he asked a master named Ganadeba, “I have a tree in my garden that continues to bear delicious mushrooms in no time after we pick them. What is the cause of it?” The master said, “A long time ago before your birth, your ancestor allowed a monk to stay in his house and served him for many years. The monastic just received the alms in vain from your ancestor without attaining enlightenment. He becomes mushrooms in order to repay the alms he received in his previous life. The tree will cease to produce mushrooms when you become 81 years old.” The tree stopped yielding mushrooms when the man turned 81 years old just as the master predicted.

©Boo Ahm

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A. The Buddha is not so foolish that he is deceived by your cunning calculation. The Buddha’s foolishness is wiser than your wisdom. Nirvana is not subject to worldly bargaining. Nor is it what can be obtained by the calculation of secular interests.

Whatever you may say about the Buddha, whatever you may think of the Buddha, and however you may accept His teaching, don’t delude yourself into thinking of intellectual understanding as accepting his teaching just because the Buddha never says that you are wrong. It is not because he is less wise than you but because you cannot hear him that he remains speechless. It was not because ancient masters were not as wise as you are that they expended so much time accepting the teaching.

©Boo Ahm

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A monastic bid farewell to Guizong. Guizong said to him, “Where are you going?” The monastic said, “I am going to many places to study the five-flavour Zen.” Guizong said, “There is one-flavour Zen in my place.” The monastic said, “What is your one-flavour Zen?” Guizong hit him.

Student: “What is the difference between the five-flavour Zen and one-flavour Zen?”

Master: “The five-flavour Zen is from one-flavour Zen.”

Student: “What is one-flavour Zen?”

Master: “Ten-flavour Zen.”

Student: “How can I tell them apart?”

Master: “Chew well what is in your mouth now.”

Commentary:

One is many and many are one.

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Venerable ones, I cannot these days cease from using a lot of words, and come out preaching many inept things due to unavoidable circumstances, but do not let yourselves be deceived! As I see it, there are not really this many principles. If you want to use it, just use it; and if you do not want to use it, then rest. It is said that the Six Paramitas and the Ten Thousand Practices are the Buddha-Dharma. I say they are but methods for spiritual adornment and for building the Buddha’s work; they are not the Buddha-Dharma. And furthermore, observing the rules of Buddhist ceremony strictly and conducting them carefully enough to carry a bowl full of oil without spilling a drop, you cannot help but fall into debt if you don’t make the eye clear. The day will come when you must repay your debt.

Commentary:

Rinzai means that he knows the true-Self is unexplainable with words, but that he uses a lot of words as expedients for the sake of convenience. We should see what he points to without being deluded by his words. The true-Self you are looking for is everywhere and so you should be free to use it anytime if you want to. However, whatever great things such as the Six Paramitas and the Ten Thousand Practices you may do and no matter how strictly you may observe the rules of Buddhist ceremony, they have nothing to do with attaining enlightenment. They rather become your karma, causation, and you will be doomed to repay it someday. 

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A. The true-Self is often compared to an ox, and finding the ox is enlightenment. We have lost the ox, the essence of our being, for such a long time that it has become as uncontrollable as a wild ox. We are sometimes kicked, butted and once in a while trampled by it since it is out of our control because we cannot see it, although it is always with us. The pain of the injuries from the kicks, butting and trampling of the ox is referred to as suffering in Buddhism. To find the lost ox and control it as we please is to make our lives happy.

Student: “What is the ox?”

Master: “You are riding it now.”

©Boo Ahm

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Shilou was once asked by a monastic, “I don’t know the original nature yet. Master, please show me by skilful means.” Shilou said, “I have no ears to hear you.” The monastic said, “I know I have shortcomings.” Shilou said, “This old monastic has faults too.” The monastic said, “What are your faults?” Shilou said, “My fault lies in your shortcomings.” The monastic bowed. Shilou hit him.

Student: “What are their shortcomings?”

Master: “They are your shortcomings.”

Student: “What is my shortcoming?”

Master: “Taking their shortcomings for shortcomings is your shortcoming.”

Commentary:

See and hear things as non-things and you will see the Buddha.

©Boo Ahm

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One monk asked, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?” The master said, “Had he had any meaning, he could not even have liberated himself.” The monk asked, “If he had no meaning, how could the Second Patriarch attain the Dharma?” The master said, “To attain is not to attain.” The monk asked, “If it is not to attain, then what is the meaning of not attaining?” The master said, “It is because you are running about seeking everywhere and cannot put your heart at rest that the patriarchs say, ‘How lamentable it is for a man with his head on his shoulders to look for his head!’ If on hearing this you return your own light to yourself, don’t look anywhere else for it, and come to have no work to do at that moment by realising that your body and your mind do not differ from the patriarchs and the Buddha, that is called attaining the Dharma.

Commentary:

To attain enlightenment means to realise that everything is empty. The Emptiness is called by many other names such as the true-Self and the Buddha. So, enlightenment is said to be seeing the true-Self. When everything is empty, not only Bodhidharma, the Second Patriarch and the Dharma but the Buddha is also empty. Master Rinzai who gave this talk is empty, and even we who are reading this writing are empty as well. We are not different from one another but all the same as emptiness. There is no Dharma or enlightenment to attain and no one to attain the Dharma. This is why Rinzai said that there is no meaning.

Everything we see and hear is not real but consists of imaginary figures created by our minds. To teach this, the Buddha said in the Diamond Sutra, “If you see everything as a dream, you will see the true-Self.” Many ancient masters would compare all things to the horns of a rabbit, or the hairs of a turtle so that they might explain that things are not substantive but imaginary. This is why Rinzai said that to attain is not to attain. Our trying to see the true-Self while we are the true-Self itself is no better than a man with his head on his shoulders looking for his head. The moment we realise that everything is empty, we feel that there is no work to do, nothing to gain or lose. Therefore, the enlightened man is often referred to as a man of leisure.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

#zen #meditation #zenmeditation #enlightened #enlightenment #zenfools #photography