enlightenment – Page 14

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Meditation, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, Practice, present, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q139. Do you think that all kinds of meditation can lead to enlightenment like the saying, ‘All roads lead to Rome’?

November 17, 2015November 17, 2015 Zen Fools

A. It is true that all roads lead to Rome. However, why have most people who have tried to reach Rome failed to do so? Even if we take the right road but go in the wrong direction we will never get to Rome. Only when we take the right road in the right direction can we reach Rome. If we go in the wrong direction, then the harder we try the further we will get from Rome.

Which road we should take doesn’t matter since all roads lead to Rome. However, in order to take the right road in the right direction, we should first of all know exactly where we are. The most important and the first thing to do in order to reach your destination, is to find out where you are standing when you are lost in a strange place. When you can realise your location, then your destination, Rome will reveal itself.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Meditation, Zen

Q131. Do we have to keep practising to maintain the final goal after reaching it?

October 29, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Would you try to reach the universe even while knowing that you are part of it? Once you realise the fact that you cannot escape being part of the universe whatever you may do, why should you keep struggling to reach the universe? Likewise, once you reach the final goal, you don’t have to make any effort to maintain or stay in it because you can’t escape from it; you are the goal itself. Instead, you may well pity and help those who strive to reach the final goal to realise that they are already there.

There are people who insist that we should continue to practice even after reaching the final goal. They believe that we will fall back to what we were if we do not continue practicing. In fact, we can no more return after reaching the final goal than a hatched chicken can go back into its egg. Once we reach the final goal, we will even feel that all the effort made was useless because we will realise that we were like a man struggling to reach his home while sitting in his living-room. If someone makes even a little effort to reach or stay in the universe, it shows that he still doesn’t know what the universe is. Likewise, if someone makes an effort to maintain or stay in the final goal, that is evidence that he is still blind to what the final goal is.

Though medicine is essential to a patient,
It is of no use to him any more once he gets well.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Meditation, Practice, Zen

Q127. Can I reach the final goal in a year if I focus all my attention to practising Zen?

October 21, 2015October 21, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Who could say, “No”? However, the fact is that no one knows how long it will take. Be determined but don’t be impatient. Impatience can cause attachment, which can raise side effects. The harder you try to reach it, when you are impatient, the farther you can get away from it. Watering a flowering plant twice as much as usual doesn’t make it grow and bloom twice as fast as usual; rather it can damage its root. Likewise, a hen, however hard it incubates its eggs, can’t shorten the period of incubation and move the hatching time a few days forward. You should be patient enough to wait for the time to grow ripe. If you get lost in your practice, you will reach the stage where you become indifferent even to the final goal. That is a sign of your being close to the final goal.

If you tune the string of a violin too loosely, it doesn’t make a sound.
If you tune it too tightly, it breaks.
Only when you tune it properly does it make a beautiful sound.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, final goal, Koan, Meditation, Zen

Q126. What is enlightenment?

October 19, 2015October 19, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Enlightenment.

Commentary:
Master gave food that was too rich.
It is impossible to swallow or spit it out.
Don’t say that your master said ‘enlightenment’.
You will be laughed at by others.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, final goal, Meditation, root, Truth, Zen

Q125. If we reach our final goal through what we see and hear, how can the blind and the deaf reach the goal?

October 16, 2015October 16, 2015 Zen Fools

A. They can in the same way that you do. Your question shows how you are addicted to illusions. Why do you think they can’t practice because they can’t see and hear? If they had no sight, how could they feel that they can’t see? If they had no hearing, how would they realise that they are deaf? The blind and the deaf see and hear in a different way from ours, and have illusions of their own making in their way. If they think they are blind or deaf, the thoughts are also illusions. If they try to realise where such thoughts come from, that is a good Zen practice. They are as likely to reach the final goal, enlightenment, as you are.

Buddhism, desire, Enlightenment, Happiness, illusion, Meditation, Mind, poisons, Practice, true self, Truth, Zen

Q122. What are the antidotes for the three poisons against happiness?

October 8, 2015October 8, 2015 Zen Fools

A. The antidote for the poison of ignorance is wisdom, which means the ability to see everything as it is. That enables us to see a piece of broken rope as a piece of broken rope and rotten food as rotten food.

The antidote for the poison of greed is the precepts, which aim to control greed. We should suppress greed artificially before getting enlightened. To obey the precepts in the strictest sense, however, is not to suppress greed artificially but to have no greed to control through realising that everything is an illusion. Only then can we be said to obey the precepts. For example, when we have the wisdom to see everything as it is, we don’t have any desire to run away from the piece of broken rope, or to chase after rotten food because we can see rope as rope and rotten food as rotten food.

The antidote for the poison of anger is stillness, which naturally comes about when we obey the precepts. That is, when we obey the precepts, we have no greed. Then we need not struggle to fulfill our greed. When we don’t have to strive to satisfy our greed, there is no anger or disappointment that comes from the failure to meet our greed. Then our life becomes still.

In fact, the core of the three poisons is ignorance, and that of the three antidotes is the wisdom to see things as they are.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, self, true self, Truth, Zen

Q118. Where is the true-self when my mind is full of illusions?

September 29, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Your mind is no other than the true-self and all the illusions are the actions of your mind. What matters here is that, while saying that your mind is full of illusions, you, in fact, don’t know what your mind is. If you knew it clearly, you could be said to be enlightened.

In order to know your mind clearly, try to trace illusions back to their root and know it clearly instead of trying to avoid or remove them in vain. Their root is your mind, which is the true-self. So you, it is said, can realise your true-self through illusions.
©Boo Ahm

Enlightenment, final goal, Meditation, Truth, Zen

Q97. It is said everything looks different after enlightenment. Do things change after enlightenment?

August 11, 2015 Zen Fools

A. No, nothing changes. Everything looks different after enlightenment not because things themselves change but because your perspective changes. In other words, you can see what you couldn’t see before. In fact there is nothing that deceives you. You deceive yourself because you can’t see things as they are.

When you are scared of a piece of broken rope since you mistake it for a snake, which is to blame for it, you or the broken rope? If you, regarding a piece of broken glass as a piece of diamond, struggle to obtain it and get disappointed when failing to get it, which is to blame for it, you or the piece of broken glass? What does a hundred dollar bill mean? It means only a piece of paper, or sweets at most to a five year old child, but it means much more to an adult. Does the bill have ageism against children?

What changes is not the object you see, but the way you see it.

©Boo Ahm

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Meditation, Truth, Zen

Q92. What is the truth, the final goal we are seeking like?

July 31, 2015August 3, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Not seeing it is more difficult than seeing it. In fact it is impossible not to see it. If you try to chase it even for a while, you are going the wrong way. Everything you see and hear is the shape and the sound of the truth itself and is showing and telling itself to you. If you can see or hear only a single thing that comes to your eyes or ears just as it is, you’ll have reached the final goal without moving a step. ©Boo Ahm All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway