A. A grandmother is female.
Commentary:
Don’t say you know a grandmother is female.
If I were asked this question, I would say, “A grandmother is male.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Tag: answer
Q65. What are you when your body is not you?
A. Let me tell you the answer when you have drunk all the water in the Pacific Ocean.
Commentary:
Don’t mistake the wrapping paper for the content.
If I were asked this question,
I would say, “The bottom of it is already dry because you drank it all, sir.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q62. (Master was ill and a student visited him to ask a question.) Student: Sir, what are you when your body is not you?
A. Master: Not ill.
Q. Student: What is it that is not ill when you are ill?
A. Master: Ouch! Ouch!
Commentary:
Master reveals himself naked when he who is not ill cries, “Ouch! Ouch!”
Why don’t you see him instead of hearing “Ouch! Ouch!”?
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q58. Now I try to live at the present moment, trying not to think of the past or the future. Am I right?
A. Don’t try to live at the present moment. You can’t but live at the present moment. There is no one who doesn’t live at the present moment. Whether you think of the past or the future, your doing is happening at the present moment. If not thinking of the past or the future increases our happiness, why do schools teach history to students, and why do many people try to make correct forecasts about the future?
If you do want to live at the present moment, break away the present moment. As long as you are attached to the present moment, you can’t escape from the past and the future since the present moment exists based on the past and the future. How could the present moment exist without the past and the future? The moment you break the present moment, the past and the future will disappear as well. Only then can you be said to live at the present moment. ‘Live at the present moment’, referred to as ‘Live here now’ in Zen, is to live out of the illusions of time and place and not to be attached to the present moment.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q53. If the heaven and the earth are from the same root, what is the same root?
A. Your question is also from it.
Commentary:
Why don’t you grasp it clearly though the answer is showing even the inside of it?
If I were asked the question, I would answer, “It is revealing itself.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q50. Student: What are you when your body is not you?
Master: Two plus three is five.
Student: I know that, too.
Master: Then you are a master, too.
Student: I didn’t ask you about numbers.
Master: I didn’t talk about numbers, either.
Commentary:
Master is pointing to the moon with his finger.
Why aren’t you looking at the moon but the finger?
If I were the student, I would say, “You are wrong, sir. Two plus three is seven.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q44. What are you like when your body is not you?
A. The East gate, the West gate, the South gate and the North gate.
Commentary:
Don’t be pulled around to the four gates in vain. His answer is so detailed as to make people confused.
If I were asked the question, I would say, “Take a close listen.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q39. Could you describe what we are when our body is not us?
A. In fact it is beyond description and can’t be reached through words, but it is not separate from words and can’t be explained without words. When reading a text, or hearing a talk about it, you should take it as more than words.
It is called the truth, the mind, the true nature, the true self, or the Buddha in Buddhism. In Christianity, it is referred to as the truth, the spirit in you, the word, the lord, or God – as John 8:32 says, “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
Everything, whether living or non-living, or whether saints or sentient beings, belongs to nothing but the truth. The truth is neither blue nor yellow, and has neither any frame nor any form. It is neither existing nor non-existent, and since it is boundless like the empty air, not only does it have no inside and no outside but also it can’t be measured. It is with us all the time, and we can’t escape it even for a moment.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q38. Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”
A. Master: (Kept silent)
Commentary:
Don’t say the master kept silent.
His answer sounds deafening like thunder.
If I heard the answer, I’d say, “Thank you for your kind answer.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q37. Some masters advise us to stop thinking. How can we live our life without thinking?
A. When masters advise you to stop thinking, to stop thinking has two kinds: before and after reaching the final goal. When they use it in the former sense, they usually mean not that you should stop thinking in your life, but that you should not try to find the answer to the Zen question through thinking, or knowledge, during the practice. Since the purpose of Zen practice is to free you from the web of illusions but thinking produces illusions, the more thinking you do, the more complicated you make it. That is why masters urge you to stop thinking.
However, the latter is to stop thinking in the truest sense that is possible, when you have reached the final goal, which means to think without being trapped in illusions. In a word, when they tell us to stop thinking, what they mean is not to stop thinking, but to think without being trapped in illusions.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Zen Fools 