Questions & Koans

A patriarch said: “If you see quietude by staying in the heart, if you behold the outside by arousing the heart, if you make the inside clear by composing the heart, and if you enter Samadhi by concentrating the heart on one, all these are just to manipulate the heart.”

Commentary:

The state free of illusions is referred to as Samadhi which is another name of Emptiness. Having ideas such as ‘quietude’ ‘heart’ ‘outside’ ‘inside’ and ‘enter Samadhi’ is making illusions that block your view of Samadhi. That is why Master Rinzai said all these are just to manipulate the heart, which means that all these are just to make illusions.

Samadhi is not what can be entered because we are already Samadhi itself. Trying to enter Samadhi is as vain as trying to enter the earth. Realising that you are Samadhi itself, by removing all illusions, is enlightenment. Therefore, ancient masters said that whatever can be entered is not Samadhi and whoever can be met is not the Buddha.

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A. It resides where this question is from. Where was this question prior to being asked by you in this way? If you can know where it was, you can know where the karmic force resides because not only asking this question but also reading this answer is the karmic force.

Only when you are aware of where the karmic force is can you escape from it since the reason why we cannot escape from it is that we don’t know what it is and where it is. To realise where the karmic force is, is enlightenment because seeing what the karmic force is, is seeing the true-Self, since the karmic force is also the function of the true-Self. In conclusion, the way to escape from the karmic force is to attain enlightenment.

Student: “Where does the karmic force reside?”

Master: “Where did your question come from?”

Student: “How can I escape from it?”

Master: “See it clearly.”

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One night at the monastics’ hall of Zen master Weiyan of Yaoshan there was no lamp. The master said to the assembly, “I have a single phrase. When the iron ox gives birth to a calf, then I’ll tell you.”

A monastic in the assembly came forth and said, “An iron ox has just given birth to a calf. Still, you haven’t said it.” Yaoshan said, “Light the lamp.” The monastic returned to his seat.

Student: “What did the monastic mean when he said, ‘An iron ox has just given birth to a calf’?”

Master: “He said the master’s single phrase.”

Student: “Why did the master say, ‘Light the lamp’?”

Master: “In order to help the assembly to see clearly what the monastic showed.”

Commentary:

Iron oxen are giving birth to calves here and there and the calves’ cries are very noisy.

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There are shaven pates who eat their fill and then sit down to do sitting meditation. They arrest the flow (of the heart) and do not let it act. They dislike noise and seek quietude. These are the practices of other ways.

Commentary:

This part is advice for the people who are attached to sitting in a quiet place whilst regarding it as Zen practice, with the mistaken belief that to stop thinking is enlightenment.

‘They arrest the flow (of the heart) and do not let it act’ implies trying to stop thinking in order to cease to making illusions or to remove illusions. Thinking of this as right practice leads us to dislike noise and into being attached to quietude. You should know that the Buddhist way of ceasing to make, or to remove illusions is not to stop thinking but to realise that all illusions are empty, or that all illusions are the function of the true-Self. ‘These are the practices of other ways’ means that to arrest the flow (of the heart) and not to let it act is not the practice of Buddhism.

Student: “How can I get a lotus amidst flames?”

Master: “Flames are no other than the lotus.”

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A. Everything depends on you. All that you know are just illusions of your own creating. None of them have any original nature of their own that is not granted by human beings. Where they start and end depends on you. Fighting with them, or struggling to escape from them, without realising this fact is compared to drowning in the ocean of illusions.

If you define your physical body as yourself, then your identity begins at the moment you are felt by your mother in her womb. If you identify yourself with the universe, as part of the universe, who knows when and where your being started? You are eternity itself.

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One day a young monk visited a master. He had already met many other famous masters before. The master asked him, “How many masters did you meet before you came here?” The young monk listed the names of the ten masters who he had met previously. The master said, “All of them are impostors.” The monk asked, “How do you know that they were impostors if you did not see them?” The master replied, “Thanks to you.”

Student: “Why did the master refer to the other masters the young monk had met as imposters?”

Master: “Because they were not masters.”

Commentary:

The more masters you meet, the slimmer the chances are that you will see the Buddha.

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The Buddhas and patriarchs are men who have nothing further to seek. So that whether the heart moves or does not move, and whether consequently there is action or not, all are pure deeds.

Commentary:

‘The Buddhas and patriarchs are men who have nothing further to seek’ means that enlightenment is no other than to realise that there is nothing to chase after, or avoid, since everything is empty and there is nothing to gain or lose. That is why ancient masters said, “Enlightenment is not enlightenment if you think that you attained it.”

‘Whether the heart moves or does not move, and whether consequently there is action or not, all are pure deeds’ means that when we are enlightened, our deeds are free from Karma, whatever discrimination we may make, that is, whatever we may think or speak, or whatever we may do, because we know that they are all empty.

The Buddhas and patriarchs are not different from or superior to us sentient beings in essence and we are no less than them at all once we have realised that there is nothing to seek by seeing everything as empty.

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A. Although these two questions may sound different from each other, they are in fact the same. If you find the answer to one question, the other is solved by itself. In other words, if you realise who you are, you naturally come to see why you are here, or if you realise why you are here, you naturally realise who you are.

In order to find the answer to your questions, ask yourself what you are when all the names attached to you, which define your identity, are removed. Try to see and hear things without attaching the words describing them to them. They are all just imaginary labels created by people and not the essence of your or their being. That is why ancient masters would say, “Remove all you can from yourself, until only what cannot be discarded is left and you will see the essence of your being.”

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Fayan was once asked by a monastic, “How can we pass beyond sound and form?”

Fayan said to the assembly, “If all of you can understand the meaning of this monastic’s question, it will not be difficult for you to pass beyond sound and form.”

Student: “How should we understand the monastic’s question?”

Master: “Pass beyond sound and form.”

Commentary:

How can there be any difference between the Buddha’s talk and the monastic’s question when you pass beyond sound and form?

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To seek the Buddha, to seek the Dharma, those produce only Karma in hell. To seek the Bodhisattvas is again producing Karma. Reading the Sutras and Treatises also produces Karma.

Commentary:

‘The Buddha’, ‘the Dharma’ and ‘the Bodhisattvas’ are just names invented for the sake of teaching sentient beings and not the essence of what Buddhism says. To follow these words is also to be deluded by illusions, which is also to produce Karma that we are anxious to escape from. Reading the Sutras and Treatises also is no better than producing Karma if we cling to the words without grasping what is beyond the words. That is why the Buddha said, “Not a word have I said” on his deathbed, and ancient masters said, “Why do you look at the finger instead of the moon when it points to the moon?”

Once a monk asked the sixth Patriarch, “Who got the Dharma from the fifth Patriarch?” The sixth Patriarch answered, “One who knew the Buddha’s Dharma did.” The monk asked, “Did you get it?” The sixth Patriarch said, “No, I didn’t.” The monk asked again, “Why didn’t you get it?” The sixth Patriarch said, “Because I didn’t know the Buddha’s Dharma.” This story shows well that the enlightened are not deluded by the words such as the Buddha’s Dharma.

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