A. Oneness doesn’t mean nothing but means that everything that seems to be separate and different from other things, including ourselves, is connected with them as one, just as all waves in the sea are connected as one as part of the sea, even though each of them has a different form and a different life span.
You can have more compassion, love for everyone and everything when you feel oneness than when you don’t. Then, you can love your neighbours as yourself, just as Jesus said.
A monk asked Joshu, “They say that the Great Way is not difficult only if we don’t make a choice. What is not to make a choice?” Joshu answered, “Only I exist above and below heaven.” The monk said, “That is still making a choice.” Joshu responded, “What a bumpkin! Where is the choice?” The monk couldn’t say anything.
Student: “What is it to make a choice?”
Master: “Saying words is.”
Student: “Then, why did Joshu say he had not made a choice although he said, ‘Only I exist above and below heaven’?”
Master: “Because he didn’t say a word.”
Commentary:
Misusing the Buddha’s mouth as you please is the source of all calamity.
Later, Issan asked Gyosan, “What is the meaning of Obaku’s beating the superintendent?” Gyosan said, “The real robber ran off; the pursuer got the stick.”
Commentary:
In the Zen community a robber, or a thief symbolises an enlightened person, who is thought to have attained the universe for nothing without being noticed. So, in Gyosan’s words ‘The real robber ran off; the pursuer got the stick’, the real robber implies Rinzai who grasped Obaku’s intention, and the pursuer the superintendent who, not conscious of Obaku’s intention, thought that Obaku had hit him with his stick. He was deceived by the illusions that Obaku had made as expedient to reveal the true-Self.
Student: “Are you a robber, too?”
Master: “No robber thinks that he himself is a robber. Only a robber can recognise a robber.”
A. Finding beauty is also finding an illusion. When we look for beauty, what does beauty mean? The standard of beauty varies depending on individual perspectives and culture. It changes with time even in the same culture. In short, beauty is an imaginary concept, not a concrete thing, which is referred to as an illusion in Buddhism. However, Buddhism doesn’t discourage us from pursuing beauty but encourages us to realise something called the true-Self that is beyond beauty, while pursuing beauty.
Master Uisan said to an assembly, “I will be reborn as a buffalo in a village down the mountain after one hundred years. Then, there will be the words ‘monastic Uisan’ written on the buffalo’s left side. If you call me monastic Uisan, what will become of the buffalo? If you call me buffalo, what will become of monastic Uisan? Tell me what you should call me.” Then, Angsan stepped forward and offered a bow.
Student: “What should we call him?”
Master: “I will call him buffalo.”
Student: “Then, what would become of monastic Uisan?”
Master: “I am more worried what will become of you.”
Commentary:
Illness becomes medicine to the wise, but medicine becomes illness to the foolish.
Rinzai and all the monks were out hoeing. When Rinzai saw Obaku approach, he stopped working and propped himself up on his hoe. Obaku said, “Would this fellow be tired?” Rinzai replied, “I have as yet not even lifted my hoe. Why should I be tired?” Obaku hit him. Rinzai grabbed the stick, gave Obaku a good blow and knocked him over. Obaku called the superintendent to help him up. The superintendent, doing so, remonstrated, “Venerable, how can you permit the impudence of this madman?” Obaku was hardly on his feet when he hit the superintendent. Rinzai, having started to hoe, remarked, “Cremation is the custom everywhere, but here, I bury everything alive with a single stroke!”
Commentary:
When Obaku said, “Would this fellow be tired?” he meant the true-Self by this fellow. Rinzai meant that the true-Self cannot be tired since there is nothing such as a hoe to lift in the state of the true-Self by saying, “I have as yet not even lifted my hoe. Why should I be tired?” Obaku tested Rinzai again to see if he could recognize the true-Self by hitting him, and Rinzai meant, “This is the true-Self you showed to me by hitting me” by grabbing the stick, giving a good blow and knocking him down. Unaware of the deep meaning exchanged between Obaku and Rinzai, the superintendent remonstrated, “Venerable, how can you permit the impudence of this madman?” Obaku, sensing that he had not grasped his intention, revealed the true-Self by hitting him as soon as he was on his feet. Rinzai’s remark ‘Cremation is the custom everywhere, but here, I bury everything alive with a single stroke!’ implied that he could make everything disappear, that is, make everything into the true-Self with a single stroke.
Student: “How is it possible to make everything into the true-Self with a single stroke?”
Master: “A drop of seawater is enough to know that all the seawater in the world is salty.”
A. An individual body is to the true-Self as a wave is to the sea and as wind is to air. What happens to a wave in the sea after its death? What happens to wind after its death? After a wave loses its form, that is, after it dies, the sea, the essence of the wave is still there. We don’t think that the sea dies or is destroyed when a wave disappears. After death, everyone, regardless of whether he or she is enlightened or not, still remains where he or she has been. You should know that the essence of our being is the true-Self, Oneness, and that everything we see and hear, including our individual bodies, is just part of, or the function of the true-Self, just as all waves of all shapes and all sizes are merely part of, or the function of the sea.
The difference between an enlightened person and an unenlightened person is that the former is aware of this fact while the latter is not. The former knows that death is not the end of our being but only a tiny part of the endless change of the everlasting true-Self. So, it is said that to the enlightened there is no death, whilst the unenlightened are haunted by a ghost of death that doesn’t exist.
When Rinzai was standing by Tokusan as his attendant, Tokusan remarked, “Today I am tired.” Rinzai said, “What is this old fellow mumbling in his sleep?” Tokusan hit him. Rinzai upended Tokusan’s seat cushion. Tokusan retired.
Commentary:
Tokusan tested Rinzai to see whether he could recognise the true-Self without being deluded by words by remarking, “Today I am tired.” Rinzai lost no time in responding by saying, “What is this old fellow mumbling in his sleep?”, which means, “My saying is the very true-Self you meant by saying, ‘Today I am tired’. Being deluded by forms and words is like mumbling during sleep.” Tokusan tested Rinzai again by hitting him, who responded to Tokusan’s hitting by upending Tokusan’s seat cushion.
Student: “I sometimes say, ‘I am tired’. What is the difference between my words and Tokusan’s?”
Master: “He was aware of the one who is not tired while you only know the one who is tired.”
A. Buddhism never says that ignorance is sin but says that it is the seed of wisdom because it can turn into wisdom through practice. According to Buddhism, there is neither sin nor any almighty being who punishes us for our sin. It says that sentient beings struggle to escape from the many kinds of imaginary ropes that they tied themselves with, one of which is a rope of sin.
To make matters worse, ignorant people worship and pray to the imaginary Buddha that doesn’t exist to free them from the ropes, which is rather to add another rope to existing ones. That is, the ignorant are haunted by the illusion of sin. This is why Bodhidharma said that there is sin when we are ignorant but that there is no sin when we can see things as they are. The purpose of Buddhism is to help people to escape from the ropes by realising that they are not real but just illusionary.
Zen Fools 