Questions & Koans

Hsin Shin Ming: “4. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no option for or against.”

‘See the truth’ here means to see the true-Self or attain enlightenment. This phrase is very prone to be misunderstood as conditional: If we can hold no option for or against anything, then we can see the truth.

In fact, it is impossible to hold no option until we realise that everything is empty. To realise that everything is empty is to see the truth because the true-Self means emptiness. In other words, only when we see the truth do we automatically come to have no option. Holding no option is to seeing the truth as breathing is to being alive. You might say, “If you wish to be alive, you should breathe.” However, how could we breathe if we are not alive? Holding no option is the evidence of seeing the truth just as breathing is the evidence of being alive.

Another thing we ought not to misunderstand is that this scripture doesn’t mean that we should have no option for or against in our reality, but means that we may have clear options for or against. However, we should not be swayed or deluded by them, knowing that they are empty. Therefore, you should try to see things as they are prior to trying not to hold no option for or against.

Student: “How can I see the truth?”
Master: “How couldn’t you see it? I don’t know how not to see it.”
Student: “How can I have no option for or against?”
Master: “Don’t try to avoid it. It is the action of the truth you are looking for.”

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Master Langye’s “Original Purity”

A monastic asked Zen master Huijue of Langye, “Purity is originally all embracing. How is it that mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly appear?” Langye said, “Purity is originally all embracing. How is it that mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly appear?”

Student: “Why did the master repeat his student’s question when he was asked instead of answering it?”
Master: “Don’t think of his kind and considerate answer as repeating the question.”

Commentary:
When Purity is all embracing, there is nothing that is not Purity.
When there is nothing that is not Purity, both Langye himself and what he said are all part of Purity.

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/Ap3d1

Hsin Shin Ming: “3. Make the smallest distinction, however, and you are as far apart from the truth as heaven is from earth.”

‘Make distinction’ means to discriminate, which is to be ignorant of the fact that everything is empty. In other words, this means believing that all the labels which are our imaginary lines attached to things are real. Then, the imaginary lines are called illusions, and we are said to be deluded by illusions. ‘The truth’ means emptiness, the true-Self. Making the smallest distinction means thinking that there can be something, even if it is the smallest thing, that is not empty. So, this scripture can be rephrased as ‘If you think that something, however small it may be, is not empty, you are as far apart from realising the true-Self, emptiness, as heaven is from earth.

When you think that there is even a single tiny thing that is not empty, the tiny thing becomes the seed of all illusions, which will make the world of illusions in no time. For example, when a wooden table is not empty but real, everything, including the carpenter who made it and all the things used to make the table is also not empty but real. When the carpenter is real, his parents, his wife and his children are all real as well. Likewise, when all the things used to make the table are real, all other things and people that are related to them are also real. Seen in this way, everything becomes real in the end. So, if you make the smallest distinction, this is why you are as far apart from realising the truth as heaven is from earth.

You might wonder how it is possible for us to live our life without making the smallest distinctions. When you have realised that everything is empty, that is, when you are enlightened, your distinction or discrimination is called the action of the true-Self, whereas it is called distinction or discrimination when you are not enlightened. Once you are enlightened, whatever distinctions you may make, they are not illusions any longer since you are already aware that all of them are empty and so are not deluded by them. Therefore, making no distinction doesn’t mean not making any distinction but means making distinction without being deluded by illusions while knowing that everything is empty.

Student: “How is it when we don’t make the smallest distinction?”
Master: “Even if you make distinctions as different as heaven is from earth, you are not in the least apart from the truth.”

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/AkaBE

Hsin Shin Ming: “2. When love and hate are both absent, the true-Self becomes clear and undisguised.”

When we read this scripture, we might be faced with two questions ‘How can we make love and hate both absent?’ and ‘Should we not love anyone and anything including our spouse, our parents, our children, our friends and the beauty of nature?’. Should we have no feelings like stone and wood? Even the Bible says that we should love our neighbours as ourselves.

How can we make love and hate both absent?

‘When love and hate are both absent’ means ‘when we realise that love and hate are both empty’. Then, how can we realise that love and hate are empty? It is possible only when we make no discriminations and can see everything as it is. So, the scripture means that when we make no discriminations, the true-Self is clear and undisguised.

Should we not love anyone and anything?

This doesn’t mean that we should not love and hate anyone and anything, but that we should know who loves and hates whom when we love and hate.

In fact, our problem is not that we love and hate someone or something, but that we don’t know the subject and the object of our love, or hate, because we can’t see things as they are. For example, we don’t know what we are when our bodies are not us. In the same way, we don’t know what our beloved spouses are when their bodies are not them. This means that we really don’t know who loves whom, even though we think that we love our spouses. So, I sometimes jokingly say, “Don’t let your spouse sleep with someone you don’t know.”

When we can see everything as it is, we can clearly know what we are when our bodies are not us and feel oneness, as emptiness, with the ones we love. When we feel oneness with our beloved, we can have unconditional pure love. This is to love our neighbours as ourselves. When we see ourselves and our beloved as emptiness, we can love without attachment. To love someone as oneself without attachment is compassion.

Student: “How can I make love and hate absent?”
Master: “Love truly.”
Student: “How can I love truly?”
Master: “Know clearly who loves whom.”

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/AgXv3

Master Basho’s staff

Master Basho said to his disciples, “If you have a staff, I will give one to you. If you have no staff, I will take it away from you!”

Student: “What did Master Basho mean?”
Master: “He showed off his staff.”
Student: “What is it like?”
Master: “A staff.”

Commentary:
A staff!
You can’t own it, nor can you give it away.

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/AcmeJ

The Hsin Shin Ming: “1. The Great Way is not difficult. It is to have no preference.”

This first scripture that expresses the core of Buddhism and enlightenment is critical enough to be said to represent the whole contents of this book, the Hsin Shin Ming. An ancient master would say that the first scripture is the core of this book and the rest are details to rephrase this first scripture.

‘The Great Way’ means enlightenment or the true-Self. ‘The Great Way is not difficult’ means that enlightenment is not difficult to attain or that the true-Self is not difficult to see. This scripture means that enlightenment is not difficult to attain, because it is just to have no preference.

According to this scripture, having no preference is attaining enlightenment, that is, we can attain enlightenment or see the true-Self if we have no preference. How can we have no preference then? Is it possible to maintain our life without having preference?

What would you do, for example, if you are asked to respond without preference to the question ‘which do you like better, beer or urine?’? Would you say that either one is fine because making a choice of beer is having preference? Would you say that you would make no choice in order to have no preference? To stick to having no preference is not true ‘having no preference’ but another ‘having preference’, because you prefer ‘having no preference’ over ‘having preference’.

To have no preference, we, above all, should be able to see things as they are and realise that everything is empty in essence. When everything is empty, everything is equal and non-dual as emptiness, however different things may look. When realising the truth, we become aware that there is neither superiority nor inferiority because ‘big’ and ‘small’ and ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are all equal with each other when everything is empty. Furthermore, even preference and non-preference are not different from each other because they are also empty. Besides, when everything is empty, not only the object to prefer but the subject that prefers the object is also empty. Realising that everything including object and subject is non-dual as emptiness is attaining enlightenment, and seeing everything as empty is seeing the true-Self.

Once you have realised that everything is empty, having a great preference for one thing over the other never matters because you know that not only one thing and the other, but also our preference and the result of it are empty.

Therefore, having no preference in this scripture doesn’t mean having no preference at all in our reality but rather being free to have preference without being caught or deluded by illusions, through realising that everything is empty. Then, whatever preference you may have, you are not more worried than necessary about whether your preference is right or wrong, and have no frustration about your preference especially even if it leads to an unexpected result that falls short of your anticipation because you know that everything is empty and equal in essence.

Student: “How can I have no preference?”
Master: “You don’t have to try to have no preference once you realise that it is empty.”

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/A7so9

Which of the two is real?

Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering about, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know that he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakeably Zhuang Zhou. But he didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and the butterfly there must be some distinction!

Student: “Which of the two is real?”
Master: “You are a father to your children, a child to your parents and a friend to your friends. You are a boss wearing a suit in your company but can be a student wearing a swimming suit to a swimming coach in a swimming pool. Which of them is the real ‘you’?

Which is real, you who were sleeping in your bed a few hours ago, or you who are listening to me now? During your sleep, you lived for a short period of time thinking of yourself as a butterfly, and you live now thinking of yourself as a human being. Which is your real life, and which is your false life? Can you say that the time you spent dreaming of being a butterfly, was not your life?

What matters is to know clearly who or what distinguishes a butterfly from a human being, reality from dream and you of today from you of yesterday. It is neither a butterfly nor Zhuang Zhou. A butterfly and Zhuang Zhou as a human being are all labels attached to him just as a father, a child, a friend and a boss are to you. All the labels, however nice or terrible they may be, are just imaginary and not real. Thinking that the labels are real is said to be dreaming, or being deluded by illusions.

What is left when all the labels are removed? It has no name but controls your body to do whatever it does, such as distinguishing a butterfly from a human being. You should know what it is because it is the essence of your being. It is eternal and never changes although some labels are removed from it, and some new ones are attached to it according to circumstances.”

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/A1AKE

Q. Why did Tokusan burn his commentaries on the Sutras?

A. One-night Tokusan went to Ryutan to ask for his teaching. After Tokusan’s many questions, Ryutan said to Tokusan, “It is late. Why don’t you retire?” So Tokusan bowed, lifted the screen and was ready to go out, observing, “It is very dark outside.” Ryutan lit a candle and offered it to Tokusan. Just as Tokusan received it, Ryutan blew it out. At that moment the mind of Tokusan was opened. “What have you realised?” asked Ryutan to Tokusan, who replied, “From now on I will not doubt what all old masters said.”

The next day Ryutan ascended the rostrum and declared to the monks, “Among you there is one monk whose teeth are like the sword tree, his mouth is like the blood bowl. Strike him with a stick, he won’t turn his head to look at you. Some day he will climb the highest peaks and carry out my teaching there.”

On that day, in front of the lecture hall, Tokusan burned to ashes his commentaries on the Sutras and declared, “In comparison to this awareness, all the most profound teachings are like a single hair in vast space. However deep the complicated knowledge of the world, compared to this enlightenment it is like one drop of water in the ocean.” Then he left the monastery.

Student: “When Tokusan was asked what he had realised by Ryutan, he said to Ryutan, ‘From now on I will not doubt what all old masters said’. What did he mean by this?”
Master: “He showed his own Sutra to Ryutan.”
Student: “Tokusan said that he would not doubt what all old masters had said. Why did Tokusan burn his commentaries on the Sutras even though the commentaries were also what masters had said?”
Master: “He was showing what he had realised, after realising at long last what masters had said.”

Commentary:
Don’t blame Tokusan for having burnt his commentaries on the Sutras.
He was showing off his own Sutra which he had found after losing it for a long time.
Don’t think that the Sutras are what Buddha said.
He said that he had said nothing.

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/zYhCr

“When we cannot see what we believe in, we have faith, but when we can see what we believe, we become faith itself.” Boo Ahm http://ow.ly/i/zXr1U

Q. What is God like?

A. Let’s take for example a few of the descriptions of God in the Bible; Genesis 1:27 So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. Numbers 14:21 God filled the world with his creation, and his presence and glory continue to inhabit the whole earth. Psalm 139 “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” the Lord declares. John 1:1 In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God and the Word was God. Deuteronomy 30:14 The Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

As mentioned above by the Bible, He is always with us all the time. According to Genesis 1:27, God is like human beings, according to Numbers 14:21, His presence and glory continue to inhabit the whole earth, and Psalm 139 says that God fills heaven and earth. What is more, Deuteronomy 30:14 says that God is in your mouth and in your heart. These mean that there is nothing that is not God in the whole universe and that all movements of all things are just the actions of God. What you see and hear are all what God is and the way He is. How couldn’t you see it even for a moment? Even your reading this writing is also the action of God.

Student: “What is God like?”
Master: “You are already showing Him to me.”

©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway http://ow.ly/i/zUB9N