Questions & Koans

Q. How can we confirm the existence of God? Why doesn’t God reveal Himself?

A. According to the Bible, God is everywhere all the time, God is in us and we are in Him and it is impossible to escape His reach. If the Bible doesn’t tell a lie, we should be able to see and hear Him anytime. Why are we doubtful of His existence now? It is not because God is hiding His existence but because we don’t recognise Him, even though He is always with us. The reason why we don’t recognise Him is that we can’t see things as they really are. We can confirm the existence of God by seeing everything as it is.

 

The purpose of having a religion, you should know, is not and should not be to pray or make offerings to an unknown god but to confirm the existence of God in person by recognising Him. The former is not religion but merely superstition, which we should not mistake for religion.

 

Student: “Why doesn’t God reveal Himself?”

Master: “Because you are blind.”

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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

Nanquan Kills a Cat (2)

Once Nanquan saw the monastics of the eastern and western halls arguing over a cat.

He held up the cat and said to the monastics, “If you can say a turning word, I will not kill it.”

No one in the assembly could answer. So Nanquan cut the cat in two. Later he told the story to Zhaozhou. Zhaozhou took off his straw sandals, put them on his head, and walked away.

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

Master: “I see the cruelty of a sentient being.”

Student: “Why did Zhaozhou take off his straw sandals, put them on his head and walk away?”

Master: “I see the foolishness of a sentient being.”

Commentary:

Why can’t you see the huge elephant while seeing a speck of dust on it so clearly?

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Rinzai 36

Followers of the Way, as I see it, you are not different from the Buddha.

Today in your manifold activities, what is it that you lack? The numinous flow of the Six Senses never ceases. Whoever can see it like that is, for all his life, a man who has nothing further to seek.

Commentary:

‘You are not different from the Buddha’ implies that we are all the Buddha itself. What we should keep in mind is that the Buddha came to this this world not to give us something such as blessing, or good fortune, but to let us realise that we are already perfection itself, which lacks nothing, by ridding us of all illusions. Worshipping or praying to the Buddha for blessing or good fortune is the last thing that we should do because it is making an illusion of Buddha. ‘In your manifold activities, what is it that you lack?’ means that all your activities; speaking, working, walking, talking and so on, are all perfect as actions of the Buddha, the functions of the true-Self. It is because you see and hear them with your eyes and ears covered with illusions that they look defective and imperfect.

 

‘The Six Senses’ which means seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking are referred to as the six thieves before enlightenment because they lead us to discriminate and make illusions. After enlightenment, realising that everything is the true-Self, they are called all the numinous functions of the true-Self, which is in line with the words ‘Illusions are no other than the true-Self’. ‘See it like that’ means to see all illusions as the numinous functions of the true-Self. ‘A man who has nothing further to seek’ implies an enlightened man who, having realised that he is perfection itself, doesn’t struggle in vain to attain enlightenment.

In conclusion, to be able to see the Six Senses and all that we perceive through them as the numinous functions of the true-Self is enlightenment, which is to realise that we don’t differ from the Buddha.

 

Student: “What is the numinous function of the true-Self?”

Master: “How could you ask me such a question without it?”

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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

Q. Is it possible to go to Heaven without having a religion?

A. Going to Heaven is to a religion as mastering arithmetic rules is to a school. This is like asking if it is possible to learn arithmetic rules that are usually taught at school without going to school. We can see many people master their favourite subjects by teaching themselves or through home-schooling without going to school.

I think that it is possible if we try in the right way. A religion itself is not Heaven but only an institution in which we can learn how to go to Heaven, just as a school itself is not arithmetic rules but an institution for teaching and learning them.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Baizhang’s “Gate of Essential Nature”

During a work period at his monastery, Baizhang was ploughing the ground. A monastic heard the sound of the drum ending the work period. At that moment he held up his hoe, burst into laughter, and went back to the monastery.
Baizhang said, “Wonderful. This is Avalokitesvara entering the gate of essential nature.”
After Baizhang returned to the monastery, he sent for the monastic and asked, “What did you see to make you laugh like that?”
The monastic said, “I was hungry. As soon as I heard the drum, I returned to have the noon meal.”
Baizhang laughed.

Student: “Why did the monastic burst into laughter on hearing the sound of the drum?”
Master: “Every sound is a gate to the true-Self.”
Student: “Why did the monastic say, ‘I was hungry’ when he was asked by the master?”
Master: “Every sound is the sound of the true-Self.”

Commentary:
Realising that the ground you are ploughing with your hoe is the Pure Land is enlightenment.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Rinzai 35

Do you want to know the Buddha? None other than he who here in your presence is now listening to the Dharma. Just because you lack self-reliance, you turn to the outside and run about seeking. Even if you find something there, it is only words and letters and never the living spirit of the patriarchs. Do not be deceived. Venerable Zen students, if you do not meet Him at this very moment, you will circulate in the Three Worlds for ten thousand Kalpas and a thousand births. And, pursuing agreeable situations, you will be reborn in the wombs of asses and cows.

 

Commentary:

Master Rinzai is saying that the Buddha is none other than he who is listening to his Dharma talk. In other words, it is the Buddha that is controlling your body to read this writing now. ‘Turn to the outside and run about seeking’ means to look for something else, following words and forsaking him who is listening to Rinzai’s Dharma talk. ‘Even if you find something there, it is only words and letters and never the living spirit of the patriarchs’ means that if you, not knowing that he who is listening to Rinzai’s Dharma talk is the Buddha, try to find something or someone else by following words, you will get at most some knowledge about the Buddha but not the core of the Patriarchs’ teachings.

 

Rinzai is showing compassion one more time by revealing the Buddha by saying, ‘If you do not meet Him at this very moment’, which means, ‘If you, not recognising the Buddha that you and I are revealing now, follow my words’.

 

‘Circulate in the Three Worlds for ten thousand Kalpas and a thousand births’ means to struggle in the ocean of illusions, or the ocean of causation and reincarnation. And, ‘pursuing agreeable situations, you will be reborn in the wombs of asses and cows’ means that if you go after agreeable situations and avoid offensive situations, say, if you are deluded by the illusions of ‘agreeable’ and ‘offensive’, that is, if you fail to stop discriminating, you cannot escape from the suffering of reincarnation.

 

Simon: “Rinzai told his students to see the Buddha at this very moment. How can I see Him at this very moment?”

Boo Ahm: “Thank you for showing Him to me.”

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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

Q. Non-attachment vs keep fighting; which is better?

Let me ask you back. Non-attachment vs keep eating; which is better? Non-attachment vs keep taking care of one’s children; which is better? Non-attachment or keep seeing a doctor; which is better? You should not mistake non-attachment for giving up everything. When you are not attached to anything, you should not have attachment even to ‘not keeping fighting’ because clinging to ‘not keeping fighting’ is also a kind of attachment. True non-attachment is not whether you do something or not, but whether you cling to it or not, or whether you can see it as empty or not.

 

Let’s suppose that you play with a paper plane with your children. You can stop playing with it anytime without your mind being hurt whenever things require you to stop it, whereas your children feel sorry or unhappy when they are forced to stop playing, for one reason or another, when they are preoccupied with it.

 

For example, when the paper plane happens to break for some reason during the play, you don’t feel your emotion swayed, whereas your children, heartbroken or disappointed, may burst out crying. Your attitude towards the same paper plane is quite different from your children’s because you have no attachment to it, but your children do. Having non-attachment to a paper plane doesn’t mean that you should not play with it together with your children but means that you don’t cling to it.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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

Nanquan Kills a Cat (1)

Once Nanquan saw the monastics of the eastern and western halls arguing over a cat. He held up the cat and said to the monastics, “If you can say a turning word, I will not kill it.”

No one in the assembly could answer. So Nanquan cut the cat in two. Later he told the story to Zhaozhou. Zhaozhou took off his straw sandals, put them on his head, and walked away.

Student: “What did Nanquan mean by cutting the cat in two?”

Master: “He doused the people with water who were feeling thirsty whilst being in the water.”

Student: “What did Zhaozhou mean by taking off his straw sandals and walking away with them on his head?”

Master: “He doused Nanquan with water.”

 

Commentary:

A gale is not different from a breeze in that both are air.

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

 

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

Rinzai 34

But students nowadays do not succeed because they suffer from lack of self-reliance. Because of this lack, you run busily hither and thither, are driven around by circumstance and kept whirling by the ten thousand things. You cannot find deliverance thus.
But if you can stop your heart from its ceaseless running after something by being deluded by each illusion, you will not be different from the Buddha and patriarchs.

Commentary:
Self-reliance means the belief that you are the true-Self itself. ‘Being driven around by circumstance and kept whirling by the ten thousand things’ means to be deluded by what you see and hear, that is, illusions. ‘Run busily hither and thither’ means both wandering around in the hope of getting enlightenment from someone else and following words. ‘Stop your heart from its ceaseless running after something’ means to stop discriminating, following words, or being deluded by illusions. In other words, running after something is as vain as exhausting ourselves by chasing shadows, which drives us away from our goal, enlightenment. So, if we stop being deluded by illusions and running here and there after something, we are not different from the Buddha and patriarchs because we can realise that we are the true-Self when we are not deluded by illusions.

 

To attain enlightenment doesn’t mean to find something hidden somewhere else, or to get something we don’t have from someone else. We should know that Buddha and all the Patriarchs didn’t try to give us something new which we don’t have but tried to find us what we have lost whilst having it in our hands. In other words, their job was not to bestow something valuable such as genuine insight upon sentient beings but to get sentient beings to realise that they are already equipped with it. They never tried to give us something but rather tried to rid us of illusions because genuine insight reveals itself only if we are not deluded by illusions. That’s why masters are often called thieves.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Q. After my wife passed away, I told my young son that his mother had left us forever and has gone to God’s house. My son wants to fight with God and bring his mother back, saying that God is very bad and should not have taken his mother away. He asks, ‘Where does God live?’

 

A. Your young son’s question ‘Where does God live?’ is a beautiful question that is worth trying to find the answer to. When you come to know where God is, you can also find out where your wife is because she has gone to where God resides. Your child is right. You must fight with the bad god who your son thinks took your wife away since he is not the true God but a fake god, an illusion of god. The true God never does such a mean thing as taking a mother and wife from her children and husband. When you defeat the bad god, you will not merely come to know where the true God lives but also see Him in person.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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