Questions & Koans

Once a monk asked a master what the true-Self is. The master answered, “I will answer your question if you pull a person out of a hundred-foot well without using any ropes, or ladders.” The monk didn’t know what to say.

Student: “How is it possible to get the person out of a well without using anything at all?”

Master: “Why are you in the well?”

Student: “How can I get out of it?”

Master: “Your body is already out, but your clothing is caught on the edge of the well.”

Commentary:

Getting a well out of you is much more difficult than getting you out of a well.

©Boo Ahm

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Followers of the Way, only a great teacher dares to disparage the Buddhas and patriarchs, dares to criticise everything, to defy the Teachings of the Three Baskets, and abuse immature students, and so, finds the man within the straight or the crooked.

Commentary:

‘Only a great teacher dares to disparage the Buddhas and patriarchs’ means that a great teacher is never deluded by the illusions of the Buddhas and patriarchs. ‘Dares to criticise everything, to defy the Teachings of the Three Baskets’ implies that a great master grasps the core meaning of the Buddha’s teaching without following the literal meaning of the Teachings of the Three Baskets which symbolises all Buddhist teaching. Master Rinzai once said that all the Sutras are just Mara’s talk, which is a good example of defying the Teachings of the Three Baskets. However, this doesn’t mean that all the Sutras are of no account but that we should not miss the core teaching by clinging to literal interpretation. That is why ancient masters said that all the dead words in the Sutras come to life when we grasp the core of them. ‘Finds the man within the straight or the crooked’ means that he sees the true-Self within diverse forms such as straight or crooked since he is not deluded by the illusions of the Buddhas and patriarchs and the Teachings of the Three Baskets.

©Boo Ahm

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A. Koans are used to express what cannot be explained in words, which is why people who struggle to solve koans with words in the same way they solve academic questions are likely to regard koans as unanswerable. 

Every koan has an exact answer. The answer can be expressed in countless ways, just as ‘two plus three is five’ can be expressed in numerous ways such as ‘six minus one’, ‘seven minus two’, ‘ten divided by two’ and so on.

Koans are also used to check whether we have clear-cut understanding of the Buddha’s teaching. If we cannot answer koans correctly, it testifies that we have only superficial understanding of Buddhism and still have not grasped the core of Buddhism. Koans look unanswerable not because they are really unanswerable but because we have not grasped Buddhist teaching.

The key point is that you don’t know the answer to such questions whilst you are answering them perfectly.

©Boo Ahm

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Yunmen came out from the assembly and said, “What is the edge of Dharma body?”

Shushan said, “A dead camellia.”

Yunmen said, “What is going beyond Dharma body?”

Shushan said, “Not a dead camellia.”

Yunmen said, “Would you allow your student to speak about it?”

Shushan said, “Yes, I would.”

Yunmen said, “Does a dead camellia clarify the edge of Dharma body?”

Shushan said, “Yes, it does.”

Yunmen said, “Does something that is not a dead camellia clarify going beyond Dharma body?”

Shushan said, “No, it doesn’t.”

Student: “Why did Shushan say ‘No’ when he was asked if something that is not a dead camellia clarifies going beyond Dharma body although he had said ‘Not a dead camellia’ when asked what is going beyond Dharma body?”

Master: “Because the questioner didn’t go beyond a dead camellia.”

Student: “What is going beyond a dead camellia?”

Master: “Still a dead camellia.”

Commentary:

Whether ‘Dharma body’ is Dharma body, or the edge of it, is up to you.

©Boo Ahm

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Followers of the Way, you take the words that issued from the mouths of old teachers, saying “This is the true Way, this old sage is wonderful; I am but an ordinary fellow and dare not compare myself with such great masters.” Blind fools! Your whole life you hold such views, going against your two intact eyes, trembling like asses on ice, your teeth clenched with fear. I am not afraid of producing karma by speaking ill of masters.

Commentary:

You should not cling to the shapes of masters and their words however plausible they may sound. The historical Buddha, to prevent people from attaching themselves to his form and his words, taught them to kill him when they met him and, on his deathbed, he said that he had never spoken even a single word. Believing that you are inferior to the Buddha and great masters, clinging to their forms and words is going against the Buddha’s teaching that you are no less great than the Buddha and ancient great masters. ‘Going against your two intact eyes’ means failing to see things as they are, and ‘trembling like asses on ice, your teeth clenched with fear’ implies to be deluded by illusions. ‘I am not afraid of producing karma by speaking ill of masters’ means that master Rinzai himself is free from being deluded by the illusions of ‘masters’ and ‘karma’. In the same sense, many ancient masters would say to their students, “You should be able to scold and blame the Buddha and patriarchs.”

©Boo Ahm

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A. Nirvana that has been as it is, as the foundation of all things since time immemorial, can be neither created nor destroyed. We have been there all the time and are there even at this moment. There is no escaping from it even for a moment because everything, including us, is also part of it.

The reason why we cannot enjoy it is not that we are not there, but that we are not aware that we are already there, owing to us being deluded by illusions. So, people who are struggling to enter Nirvana are compared to those who are looking for their houses in their living rooms.

We can realise the truth that we are in Nirvana only when we are free from being deluded by illusions. Therefore, being fooled by illusions can be likened to destroying Nirvana. 

Student: “How can I enter Nirvana?”

Master: “It breaks if you try to enter it.”

©Boo Ahm

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When a monk said to Master Namwon, “Where have all the ancient masters gone now?”, the master answered, “They have gone either to Heaven or Hell.” The monk asked again, “What about you then?” The master said, “Do you know what I mean?”

Student: “What did the master mean by ‘Do you know what I mean?’?”

Master: “If the monk didn’t know where the master was, the monk was not where the master was although they seemed to be together.”

Commentary:

Being with a rich person is quite different from being rich.

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Do you not know that he who is right now listening to the Dharma is the true-Self? How would you attain and make it majestic by practising?  It is neither what can be attained by practising nor what can be made majestic. Moreover, if it would be exalted, then everything could be exalted. Do not be deceived.

Commentary:

He who is right now listening to this talk is none other than the true-Self you are struggling to find. In fact, you not only need not but also cannot attain the true-Self because it is none other than you yourself. That is why ancient masters would say, “The true-Self is neither what can be attained nor what can be lost. If you think you attained it, it is not the true-Self but just an illusion of it.”  Trying to approach it is like making futile effort to approach yourself. It follows that the harder you try to approach yourself, the further you become from realising what yourself is.

The true-Self is perfection itself. If someone tries to make it majestic or more beautiful, he will defile it rather than make it so, since ‘majestic’ or ‘beautiful’ is a kind of illusion. That is why an ancient master said, “Don’t soil it with ‘pure’,” when he was asked, “How can I keep it pure?” ‘If it would be exalted, then everything could be exalted’ means that everything we see and hear is no other than the true-Self that cannot be exalted.

©Boo Ahm

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A. This question can be applied not only to Buddhism but also to all other religions, and no one can deny the likelihood of this being the case. Each of us makes his or her judgements depending on what he or she is. That’s why there are various religions and even diverse interpretations of the same scriptures. People can only understand within the limits of their own capacity.

What is certain is that Buddhism is not a religion that induces people into begging for happiness from an imaginary deity that does not exist but a religion that helps them to realise the fact that they are happiness itself and perfection itself, by enabling them to see things as they are. That is why the historical Buddha said to his students, “He who tries to see me through shapes and sounds cannot see me”, and ancient masters advised their students to kill the Buddha upon meeting him, in order to prevent people from idolising the image of Buddha.

©Boo Ahm

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Zhaozhou said, “The eye that grasps the universe is so perceptive that it does not miss even a single thin thread. I want you to see into this. How do you understand it?”

Student: “What is the eye that grasps the universe?”

Master: “It neither opens nor closes.”

Commentary:

It sees everything in the daytime as clearly as at midnight.

©Boo Ahm

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