A. Master: “Waves never leave the sea.”
Commentary:
Winds never return to air because they never leave air.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Tag: buddhist
Q236. I was unfaithful to my wife, and she wanted to get divorced from me. I apologised to her for my misdeed with all my heart and she promised to forgive me. We, as Buddhists, thinking that everything is empty, agreed to forget the matter. However, she still keeps bringing up the matter, which leads to arguments and we still talk about divorce.
A. To think that everything is empty seems to be a good way to solve your problem. Try to keep thinking that way even though you’ve not realised the truth and your life will gradually become more stable with your Zen practice growing mature. The most important thing that you should realise now is that if everything is empty, your wife’s attitude is also empty just like your misdeed is empty. Then, your situation is not a problem anymore.
You might think that she also should see your past deeds as empty and not be so angry with you, but she should take responsibility for her own behaviour. If she also viewed things as you want her to, it would be the most ideal solution. However, if you really believe that everything is empty, why does her attitude, rude or polite, matter. If you can’t accept her attitude as empty while saying that everything is empty, you are being self-contradictory after all.
Why don’t you think of her attitude as her struggle to forgive you. Her head may have forgiven you but her heart still might not since the latter takes longer to forgive you. She, I think, is determined to forgive you since she still loves you and wants to keep your family together, but she still feels suffering from the incident because her wound has not yet healed perfectly. It is your duty as her husband to comfort and help her to surmount her suffering and become what she used to be.
Seeing others’ suffering as yours is compassion.
Seeing your suffering as empty is wisdom.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q235. What is the true-self, Buddha?
All you see, hear and feel is your true-self. If you think of anything else as your true-self, Buddha, that is none other than an illusion of your true-self.
People, in fact, are chasing after the illusion of Buddha created by their imagination while always facing Buddha. The problem is that you don’t recognise Him while being together with Him all the time and never having left each other. If you pursue anything else other than what you are confronting now, it is to add another illusion which prevents you from seeing your true-self.
The true-self is one or non-dual, and it is the origin or the root of everything including ourselves. We have divided the true-self into many with imaginary lines, all labels. In fact, we have drawn so many complicated lines that we can neither see nor imagine the original shape of the true-self without any lines. We have been addicted to such imaginary lines for such a long time that we cannot recognise the One now. However, no matter how many lines there are and no matter how complicated the lines are, we are still the true-self itself, have never left it and can’t leave it, whether we are aware of this truth or not. The purpose of Zen meditation is to realise the truth by seeing the intact shape of the true-self.
Student: “What is the Buddha, Sir?”
Master: “Why do you only see an old man and not the Buddha?”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q234. Student: “How can I enjoy an eternal life without birth and death?”
A. Master: “Live in the land without light and shade.”
Student: “Where is the land?”
Master: “There.”
Student: “Where is there?”
Master: “There.”
Commentary:
You don’t have to dig the earth for gold with your hands full of gold.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q233. What’s the best way to act if I find someone’s behaviour really irritating and distracting?
A. Try to associate everything good or bad with your practice. Imagine you are being tested by a master and remember the following. Everything is neutral. Everything is non-dual. Everything is created by your discrimination. Everything is an action of your true-self. See and hear it as an action of your true-self or a Dharma talk. If you get angry, you don’t have to remember all of these things but only one of them, and try to trace your anger to its root. When you are faced with irritating and distracting behaviour, it will disappear by itself if you don’t think of it as irritating and distracting.
Student: “How can I avoid getting angry?”
Master: “Why do you try to avoid your true-self? Getting angry is none other than the action of your true-self that you are anxious to see.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q232. Shall I pray to Buddha for my enlightenment?
A. If you know what Buddha is, it means that you have already attained enlightenment. Then, you need not pray to Him for enlightenment any longer. If you are not enlightened, it means that you don’t know what Buddha is. Then, how would you pray to Him while not knowing what or who he is and where he is? If you want to pray to Him for your enlightenment, do your best to realise what He is before you pray. That is Zen meditation.
Student: “Shall I pray to Buddha for my enlightenment?”
Master: “Not bad. Tell me where He is. I also hope to pray to Him.”
Student: “I don’t know where He is.”
Master: “What nonsense! How can you pray to Him while not knowing where He is?”
Student: “What shall I do, Sir?”
Master: “Why are you, ‘King’, going to make yourself a beggar?”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q231. Student: “What is the true-self?”
A. Master: “What do you think it is?”
Student: “I have no idea.”
Master: “You are right.”
Commentary:
Master opens the shell and offers the flesh.
Why do you try in vain to eat only the hard shell?
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q230. My former master gave emphasis to sitting meditation. Do I have to sit for practice?
A. Zen meditation is not sitting itself but keeping your question. Sitting meditation is not the end but one of the means. No matter how long you may sit, it is far from Zen meditation if you don’t keep your question. Even dancing or singing, however, can be a good practice if you can keep questioning what is making your body dance or sing while dancing and singing. In fact, your posture doesn’t matter, whether sitting, standing, lying or walking, if you can keep the question.
Let me introduce a dialogue between an ancient master and his student:
One day, seeing his student sitting on the rock behind the temple, the master started to grind a brick against the rock before his student.
Student: “Sir, what are you doing with the brick?”
Master: “I am making a mirror out of a brick.”
Student: “How is it possible to make a mirror by grinding a brick?”
Master: “What are you doing now?”
Student: “I am trying to attain enlightenment.”
Master: “How is it possible to attain enlightenment by sitting?”
Student: “What shall I do then?”
Master: “Which is right, to hit the horse or hit the cart in order to move the load?”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q229. I practise Zen meditation no more than two hours a day. My problem is that my busy life doesn’t allow me to practise as much as I want. Could you recommend any way to help with my practice?
A. Remove all your time lines. They are only imaginary lines created by your imagination. There is no fixed time in the universe. Time is a typical illusion. Remove all time lines and you will become eternity itself. Think of eternity as your practice and you will become practice itself. Then, whatever you may do, whether eating, talking, or working, just question what makes your body do it. That is practice. In other words, you make yourself one with the question or your practice. Then, you can practise 24-hours a day 7-days a week. You can’t stop practising.
Student: “What is the best way to practise well?”
Master: “Don’t practise.”
Student: “Why do you tell me not to practise when I ask you the best way to practise?”
Master: “If you practise 24-hours a day, your practice is not practice any longer. That is true practice.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q228. Student: “What would you do if you are caught in a shower on the way?”
A. Master: “I would avoid it by entering an old shelter.”
Commentary:
Fish don’t think that they are wet.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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