A. Master: “Scattered.”
Commentary:
Scattered, scattered.
How clear it is!
One swallowed the other.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Tag: answer
Q279. Master: “Your true-self was before this world was created, and it will not collapse even when the whole universe collapses.”
Q. Student: “What is the true-self?”
A. Master: “Your body.”
Student: “This also collapses when the universe collapses. What is the true-self?”
Master: “Your body.”
Commentary:
Don’t say that your body collapses.
If you know how it collapses, your true-self will be clear before you.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q276. Student: “Why is the true-self so invisible?”
A. Master: “Don’t speak ill of it. It has never hidden itself.”
Commentary:
It’s like a lost child who has not seen his mother for so long that he can’t recognise her while being in her bosom.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q274. You say that everything is from the true-self. Is suffering also from the true-self?
A. Yes, it’s from the true-self as well. There is nothing that is not from the true-self. Everything from the true-self, however, is empty and neutral since the true-self is empty. It follows that not only the cause of suffering but also suffering itself is inherently empty and neutral. Whether a phenomenon is seen as a blessing or suffering is determined by our discrimination. A thing, or an incident, becomes suffering only because we think of it as suffering. Rain, for example, can be a blessing to umbrella sellers but a suffering to fan sellers, even though the rain has no intention to do good to the former or harm to the latter.
To conclude, suffering is from our discrimination that comes from ignorance of the emptiness of everything. To realise the truth that suffering is empty is to escape from suffering.
Student: “How can I remove my suffering?”
Master: “Don’t be deceived by yourself.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q273. Student: “Do a guest and a thief come together or separately?”
A. Master: “Together all the time.”
Student: “How can I tell them apart?”
Master: “Speak to them. One who speaks to you is a thief, and the other who doesn’t is a guest.”
Commentary:
Don’t mistake a guest as being dumb. If you ask him about the true-self, he never fails to give you a correct answer.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q264. Student: “The deepest lake, when dried up, reveals its bottom after all. Why can’t we see a person’s mind even when he dies?”
A. Master: “Because you try to see it.”
Commentary:
Cut the tendon in the air and you can see it clearly.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q262. The phrase ‘Striving to reach London while staying in London’ doesn’t make any sense to me. What does it mean?
A. The purpose of Zen meditation is to experience emptiness in person. London is a symbol of emptiness and reaching London means to experience emptiness. It means, in other words, that we are trying to experience emptiness while being emptiness itself. Reaching emptiness is realising the truth that we ourselves are emptiness, not reaching it by moving towards it.
In order to see whether you grasp these words clearly, ask yourself the following question.
Student: “How do you feel when you realise emptiness?”
Master: “I’ll be wrong if I answer your question.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q260. Why do you think that some Christians and Catholics deny and even detest homosexuals?
A. If they think that God is always perfect and everything is created by Him, they should accept the fact that homosexuals are created by God as well. To deny them is to deny God. If God, as they say, is perfect, He never makes a mistake. Then everything made by Him is perfect. To speak ill of homosexuals for being what they are is to find fault with what is created by God and blame Him for His error. That means that they don’t believe in God’s perfection.
When God made homosexuals what they are, He had His intention. What they are is the exact expression of God’s intention. The reason why they deny and detest homosexuals is that they are still lacking faith in God and don’t know His intention. Finding fault with and even cursing the perfect work by the greatest artist reveals their inability to appreciate His masterpiece, which runs counter to their belief that God is perfect.
Instead of showing their own self-contradiction, they had better try to know what God created homosexuals for.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q259. How can I grasp the core meaning of the Sutras?
A. What do you think the core teaching of the Sutras is? It is enlightenment. What all the Sutras say is nothing but how to attain enlightenment and what enlightenment is like, nothing else. If you are to grasp the core teaching of Buddha, don’t look for it in the Sutras. The Sutras are only like a map or an arrow pointing to your destination. They are not the place itself that you want to reach.
Don’t think of Zen meditation as being apart from the Sutras. Zen meditation is an expedient means to grasp the core teaching of the Sutras. The Sutras are maps and Zen is to move towards the destination indicated by the maps. So, the best way to grasp the core meaning of the Sutras is to experience what the Sutras say through practice.
Student: “How can I grasp the core meaning of the Sutras?”
Master: “Discard all the Sutras.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q258. Master: “When a guest comes, you should take care of him, but when a thief comes, you should turn him away.”
A. Student: “What is a guest?”
Master: “Just passed by.”
Student: “What is a thief?”
Master: “A guest.”
Commentary:
What you think is a guest is a thief, and what you think is a thief is a guest.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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