Questions & Koans

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, Practice, true self, Truth, zen

Q103. How can we feel oneness with our surroundings?

Zen Fools

A. Why do you think we can’t feel oneness? The habit of labelling prevents us from feeling oneness. Labelling is drawing lines that divide one into many. When we label a thing as red, we separate it from what doesn’t look red. The label, ‘red’ is a line that divides one into what is red and what is not red. When labeling a thing as good, the label ‘good’ is a line that divides one into what is good and what is not good.

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We have produced countless divisions and are so addicted to them that we have forgotten the root, the original shape that we come from. The labels or divisions are referred to as illusions in Buddhism because they are not real but imaginary. Zen meditation can be said to be a practice that makes many into one by eliminating all labels or illusions. The most common and difficult label to erase is ‘I’. In order to eliminate the ‘I’, you need to realise what you are when your body is not you. When we eliminate the imaginary line ‘I’, then we can feel oneness with our surroundings.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, Meditation, Practice, true self, Truth, zen

Q102. Student: “What are you when your body is not you, Sir?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “I can’t answer such a difficult question.”

Student: “What is an easy question, Sir?”

Master: “That is too easy a question to answer.”

Student: “What question shall I ask you then, Sir?”

Master: “Ask me a question which is neither difficult nor easy.”

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Commentary:

What is a question which is neither easy nor difficult?

How charitable the master is by giving a delicious and nutritious fish to a poor person!

Why is he struggling with its bone without eating its meat?

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Meditation, self, true self, Truth, zen

Q101. Why can’t we see our true-self?

Zen Fools

A. Don’t think that you can’t see it. You are seeing and hearing it even at this moment. You can’t avoid seeing and hearing it. The key problem is that you can’t discern it because your eyes and ears are covered with illusions. Never think that your true-self is somewhere else out of your reach. There is nothing that doesn’t belong to your true-self. Even you yourself are not an exception. Whatever you do, cry, smile, commit a cruel crime or do good deeds, they are all actions of your true-self. In summary, you can no more get away from your true-self even for a moment than you can get away from the universe. So if you chase it for a moment, it is said, you will be going the wrong way.

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Student: “What is the true-self like, Sir?”
Master: “Why do you ask me the taste of your saliva in your mouth?”
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Bible, Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Meditation, Religion, sutras, Truth, zen

Q100. I don’t understand that the Sutras and the Bible are also illusions.

Zen Fools

A. Ancient masters used to say that a nice saying which sounds reasonable can be a strong trap. A saying or a word, however great and nice, is nothing but an illusion. No one denies, for example, the truth that the sun is a mass of flames. However, your lips are never hot, not to mention being burnt, no matter how many times you may recite the word ‘sun’. In other words, sayings or words are not the truth itself but an illusion.

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The more reasonable a saying sounds, however, the stronger we tend to make our attachment to it while taking it for the truth itself. The Sutras and the Bible are very typical examples that have great sayings we are likely to be tempted to attach ourselves to. We have a very interesting metaphor for such cases that shows how we should accept spiritual teachings: Don’t look at the finger pointing to the moon but the moon itself. The Sutras and the Bible are just like fingers pointing to the moon for people who want to see the moon, but they are not the moon itself.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, final goal, Koan, Meditation, Truth, zen

Q99. Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “I won’t answer.”
Student: “Why not?”
Master: Because I know that you won’t believe in my answer.
Student: “Tell me the answer, sir. I will accept it.”
Master: “I answered.”

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Commentary:
The master is not telling a lie. Don’t break into pieces what he says.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Meditation, Truth, zen

Q98. How far is hell from heaven?

Zen Fools

A. It is as far as it is from the right to the left. All the time both are in the same place at the same time. As what is the right to one man can be the left to another, and what is the left today can be the right tomorrow, so what heaven is to one man can be hell to another, and what heaven is to a man today can be hell to him tomorrow. A jail, for example, is hell to the inmates there, but can be heaven to the officials who work there for a living these days when getting a job is so difficult. To a hungry, penniless man who is pursued and threatened by gangsters, prison can be heaven, a safe shelter because it provides him with food and security. In fact, there is neither hell nor heaven, just like there is neither the right nor the left. Whether a place is hell or heaven depends on the eyes of the beholder.

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©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, final goal, Meditation, Truth, zen

Q97. It is said everything looks different after enlightenment. Do things change after enlightenment?

Zen Fools

A. No, nothing changes. Everything looks different after enlightenment not because things themselves change but because your perspective changes. In other words, you can see what you couldn’t see before. In fact there is nothing that deceives you. You deceive yourself because you can’t see things as they are.

When you are scared of a piece of broken rope since you mistake it for a snake, which is to blame for it, you or the broken rope? If you, regarding a piece of broken glass as a piece of diamond, struggle to obtain it and get disappointed when failing to get it, which is to blame for it, you or the piece of broken glass? What does a hundred dollar bill mean? It means only a piece of paper, or sweets at most to a five year old child, but it means much more to an adult. Does the bill have ageism against children?

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What changes is not the object you see, but the way you see it.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, final goal, Meditation, Truth, zen

Q95. What does ‘enjoy being still’ mean?

Zen Fools

A. Most people think it means to enjoy sitting still with our mind focused on something like our breath or Zen question during the meditation practice. Of course we can have such a feeling during the practice, and the stillness we feel during the practice will grow deeper and deeper along with it. That is a very essential process which we go through in order to reach the final goal. However, that is not the stillness mentioned in Zen meditation because as soon as we stop the practice, the stillness breaks and we come back into the noisy world. The stillness that can be enjoyed only during practice is of no practical use in our life. The purpose of Zen meditation is not to change only a given part of our life at a given time, but to change our whole life. In other words, the stillness we pursue is not temporary but permanent stillness, which we can feel only when, after removing all illusions, we realise the whole universe is still all the time regardless of whether we practice or not. Then our life is always still and peaceful, and we can enjoy stillness all the time even in a busy street or a crowded market place.

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If I were asked what stillness is, I would say,

“Ten volcanos erupt at the same time.”

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

final goal, Meditation, Practice, zen

Q94. I can’t pay all my attention to Zen practice even though I’d like to because my family wants me to share as much time as possible with them. What shall I do?

Zen Fools

A. You should not allow your practice to a make mess of your normal life. If your practice makes your family unhappy in any way, I’d say, you’d better give up your practice. To practice Zen, while making your family unhappy is against the purpose of Zen meditation since it is to be happy.

If your family doesn’t want you to practice Zen, something is wrong with you, I think. If you practice in the right way, people around you including your family members are bound to like you more because you become more considerate, patient and open-minded.

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Don’t think that you will complete your practice in a short period of time. In that way, you can avoid overworking yourself, becoming ill and neglecting your family, which could cause you trouble. The idea of reaching the final goal quickly can make you impatient, which rather disturbs your practice.

Look upon each of your family members as a gate to the final goal. Their smiling, laughing, crying, eating, and sleeping are all actions of the truth you want to reach. Ask yourself what is making your wife smile, when you see her smile, and what is controlling your children’s bodies when you see them play. All of this is Zen practice. Do remember that spending time with your family can also be good practice.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway