Questions & Koans

Q. Trying to be compassionate all the time can become a mental burden. It can be oppressive. Is there another way one can think about it?

A. Don’t try to be compassionate. Compassion maintained by your artificial effort is not compassion but an illusion of compassion. True compassion is a natural emotion like the maternal love mothers feel for their children, like the friendship you feel when you have a good friend and like the fullness you feel when you have had enough food.

No woman tries to have maternal love without having a child, but she comes to have it spontaneously as soon as she has a child. No one tries to have friendship without a friend, but we can feel friendship when we have a good friend. No one tries to be full without eating food, but we can feel full spontaneously when we have eaten enough food.

Likewise, true compassion is the emotion toward others that comes to you as you feel oneness with them. In other words, when you feel oneness with others, you come to see and feel others’ suffering as yours, which is compassion. So, trying to be compassionate without feeling oneness is like trying to have maternal love without having a baby.

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Mimoyan’s Pitchfork

Priest Mimoyan of Mount Wutai always held a two-pronged pitchfork. When he saw a monastic coming, he would hold up the pitchfork and say, “What kind of demon has made you leave the household? What kind of demon has caused you to wander? If you can say it, you will be killed with this pitchfork. If you can’t say it, you will be killed with this pitchfork. Say it now, quickly!”

Student: “What should the monastic say in order to avoid being killed with the pitchfork?”
Master: “He should snatch it away from the master and threaten back to kill him if he couldn’t say.”

Commentary:
If you can say what can be said, you will be killed.
If you can’t say what can’t be said, you will be killed.
You should be able to say what can’t be said.

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Hsin Shin Ming: “32. If you cling to anything, you are subject to losing the true-Self and going the wrong way.”

Enlightenment is to realise that things are to the true-Self as winds are to air. That is to realise that everything including us is not different and separate from the true-Self but one with it just like winds are not different from air but one with it even though there are countless types of wind. If you believe that there is something special other than what you see, hear and feel, and cling to it, that is losing the true-Self and going the wrong way. That is like winds trying to see or become air. The harder they try, the vainer their effort is and the further they are off the mark.

The objects that we, as Zen practitioners, are most likely to cling to are Buddha, the true-Self and enlightenment. In order to warn us of the mistake of clinging to them, ancient masters would advise their students to kill Buddha when they saw him and ignore enlightenment if they encountered it.

Student: “How can I realise the true-Self without clinging to it?”
Master: “Do you know what the true-Self is?”
Student: “No, I don’t. How could I know it when I am not enlightened?”
Master: “Clinging to what you don’t know is a problem, which is to cling to an illusion.”

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Q. If I try not to discriminate, isn’t that still making discrimination?

A. It is true that trying not to discriminate is still making discrimination. You are advised to focus all your attention on the given questions in order to stop you from discriminating. Your discriminations reduce noticeably when you are involved in your question. In other words, all your thinking can stop whilst you are lost in your question. However, this doesn’t mean to stop discriminating in Zen meditation, although it is regarded as non-discrimination by many people. If this stopping of thinking were non-discrimination, how could we live our lives without thinking?

In fact, to stop discriminating is not to stop thinking but simply to realise that everything including our thoughts is empty. When everything is empty, our discriminations are also empty. When we have realised that our discriminations are empty, we are not deluded by them anymore, whatever discriminations you may make. What would it matter to make discriminations if we were not deluded by them? This is true non-discrimination.

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Disclosing Is Not as Good as Practice

Zen master Huanzhong of Mount Daci said to the assembly, “To speak about ten feet is not as good as to practise one foot. To speak about one foot is not as good as to practise one inch.”

Dongshan Liangjie said, “Speak what cannot be practised. Practise what cannot be spoken.”

Student: “How can I speak what can’t be practised?”
Master: “Make what you speak become what you practise.”
Student: “How can I practise what can’t be spoken.”
Master: “Make what you practise become what you speak.”
Student: “Why can’t I do this?”
Master: “Because you don’t see and hear what you do and speak.”

Commentary:
When you hear with your eyes, what you speak becomes what you practice.
When you see with your ears, what you practise becomes what you speak.

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Hsin Shin Ming: “31. If you doubt based on limited views like a fox’s, the more you hurry, the slower you go.”

‘Doubt based on limited views like a fox’s’ means to try to attain enlightenment by figuring out what it is through knowledge. Enlightenment is the capability to see things as they are. Put simply, we are not enlightened because we can’t see things as they are. To see things as they are means to see things without any imaginary lines which are labels, words. It is because our views are clouded by words which are just imaginary lines that we can’t see things as they are. So, enlightenment can be described as escaping from the net of imaginary lines.

Trying to work out what enlightenment is through knowledge is trying to attain enlightenment by making use of words that are only imaginary lines. The more knowledge we want for better understanding, the more words we need. This is contrary to our intention to see things without any imaginary lines. So, if we try to attain enlightenment through knowledge, the more we hurry, the slower we go.

Student: “Why can’t I attain enlightenment even though I have heard a lot about it?”
Master: “Because you have not heard what can’t be spoken.”
Student: “How can I hear what can’t be spoken?”
Master: “It is hidden in what is spoken.”
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Q. I had a new experience during a week-long Zen retreat under a master’s guidance and was approved as being enlightened by him. However, I still don’t know what I attained or what enlightenment is. Am I really enlightened?

A. No matter what your eye doctor says, you still have a problem with your eyes if you can’t see things clearly, or if you have some pain in them. If you believe that you are enlightened while not knowing what enlightenment is, only just because a master said that you were enlightened, it is like leaving your diseased eyes uncured while believing that they are fine only because a quack doctor says so.

Enlightenment is not a vague and obscure experience. Ancient masters would say that it is as clear as if you awaken from a dream, or as if you feel full after eating enough food. So, my answer to your question is “No”.

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Zhaozhou’s Brightness and Darkness

Zhaozhou asked Nanquan, “Does brightness accord, or does darkness accord?” Nanquan got off his seat and went back to the abbot’s room.
Zhaozhou said, “That old priest is always talking, and yet he couldn’t say a word when I asked a question today.” The head monk said, “Don’t say the abbot could not say a word. It’s only that you didn’t get it.”
Zhaozhou slapped him and said, “This slap is for the abbot.” The head monk was silenced.

Student: “Why was the head monk slapped by Zhaozhou?”
Master: “Because he understood Nanquan, but misunderstood Zhaozhou.”
Student: “Why did Zhaozhou say, ‘This slap is for the abbot’?”
Master: “He did two things; taught the head monk and thanked Nanquan again for his good teaching.”

Commentary:
The poor head monk got a slap for mistaking words of gratitude as criticism.
That was Zhaozhou’s compassion.

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Hsin Shin Ming: “30. The Great Way is all-embracing, not easy, not difficult.”

The Great Way that means the true-Self, or Emptiness, is the essence of our being. ‘The Great Way is all-embracing’ means the Oneness of the Great Way, which implies that there is only the Great Way and nothing else that doesn’t belong to the Great Way. Here ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’ means that the Great Way is neutral in its essence as Emptiness; not easy, not difficult, not beautiful and not ugly.

The reason why there are ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’ is not that the Great way is easy, or difficult, but rather that we draw the imaginary lines ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’ on it depending upon our views. Everything is neutral, and there is nothing fixed as ‘easy’ or ‘difficult’. Everything can be easy and difficult at the same time according to the beholder’s view. For example, the maths question ‘What is two plus three?’ is very easy to grownups but can be very difficult to three-year-old children. Therefore, not only ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’, but other labels such as ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ are also just illusionary, not real.

Student: “Why is it still so difficult for me to see the Great Way?”
Master: “Because you think that it should be easy.”
Student: “Why can’t I see the Great Way?”
Master: “Because you separate yourself from the Great Way.”

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Q. Great artisans and artists are said to become one with their work when they are engaged in it. Is their becoming one with their work the same as becoming one with the question when we practise Zen?

A. Both might seem to be the same in that they have strong concentration. However, they are different in that artisans and artists focus on creating new illusions, new imaginary lines, whereas Zen practitioners concentrate on removing them.

The former tries to discriminate as much as possible, but the latter strives to stop discriminating. The former’s job is to make illusions or strengthen them, but the latter’s job is to remove them. The former is evaluated by how many illusions they have and how beautiful these illusions are, but the latter is evaluated by how destitute he is of illusions.

Ancient masters would say, “No matter how beautiful the illusions you may have are, it is not as good as having no illusions.” So, it can be said that both are the same in that they are running hard. However, they are different because they are running in opposite directions to each other.

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