final goal – Page 8

Bible, Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, God, Happiness, love, Meditation, Mind, Practice, Prayer, Religion, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q178. Isn’t Zen meditation against Christianity? Do I have to cease being Christian in order to practice Zen meditation?

March 22, 2016March 22, 2016 Zen Fools

A. I never ask people to change their religions or cease keeping their religions, but encourage them to be better adherents of their religions than before. I tell people to realise what the object of their faith is, whether God or Buddha in order that they may be better followers of their religions.

Saying that you believe in Buddha or God without knowing what or who they are, is affronting them, not paying homage to them. Let’s suppose there is a person who always says that he loves you. He doesn’t know you, and never tries to find out where you are and what you are like. However, he always wants you to help him. Does his love for you make sense? That is blind faith and idol worship. There is an old saying, ‘Seeing is believing’. Only when you can see them can you have true faith in God or Buddha and be a genuine believer in your religion.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, master, Mind, Practice, root, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q174. Student: “What is your true-self?”

March 13, 2016March 13, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Master: “A gate.”

Student: “How can I see it?”

Master: “Open it.”

Student: “How can I open it?”

Master: “Break it open.”

Commentary:

All gates are wide open.

Don’t bump into the gate itself, just pass through the gateway.

Trying to open it is turning your back on it.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, root, self, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q171. Student: “What are you like when your body is not you?”

March 6, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Master: “It’s like a mountain.”

Commentary:
Oh! Mountain!
It’s also like a rat.
If I were asked the question, I would say, “A mountain runs like a rat.”
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, Koan, master, Meditation, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, Practice, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q169. I was told to put my mind down and not to think of anything by my ex-master. How can I put down my mind?

March 1, 2016March 1, 2016 Zen Fools

A. That is like telling a baby who can’t even stand on his own feet to run as fast as a sprinter. The first thing you should do in order to put your mind down is to know what your mind is. How would it be possible for you to put your mind down when you don’t know what it is? The key point in Zen meditation is whether or not you realise what your mind is, and not whether to put it down or not. Once you realise what your mind is, holding it or putting it down is up to you.

One of the most common mistakes we make is to think that we know what we don’t know. You seem to be making the same mistake of trying to put your mind down, thinking that you know your mind while in fact you don’t know it. If you are anxious to put your mind down, do try to realise what it is before trying to put it down in vain. In fact, once you realise what your mind is, you can be said to have completed your practice, or to have attained enlightenment. Should you see your master again, first of all ask him what your mind is.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, Practice, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q167. What changes can we experience as a result of Zen practice and how should we deal with them?

February 25, 2016February 25, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Once in a while, you can have new experiences or changes in your life. For example, your life feels even more simple than usual. You start to see what you couldn’t see; perceiving every single gesture or movement of people or things as a movement of the truth, or feeling oneness with things and people around you. Also, you start to hear what you couldn’t hear; hearing all sounds as Dharma talks and as the sound of the truth. However, these are not all but just a few of many examples, and not all people have the same experiences.

When these changes happen, some people are so attracted by them that they expect the same things to happen to them again, or even believe it to be the final goal and therefore cease to practice. Also, there are people who are so bewildered or scared that they hesitate to keep practising. You should neither be attached to these experiences nor be scared of them, but leave them alone, since all of them are not only signs indicating that you are making progress, but also illusions created by your mind. Trying to experience the same again, or struggling to avoid them is making other illusions.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Koan, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q165. What am I when my body is not me?

February 21, 2016 Zen Fools

A. You answered your question before you finished asking it.

Commentary:
Don’t complain that the bill is being given to you when you’ve not even seen your appetiser.
You are to blame for waiting for the appetiser without noticing the main course being served.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Meditation, Mind, Practice, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q164. To make concentration on the question feels very hard. Is Zen practice steadily difficult all the way until we reach the final goal?

February 18, 2016February 18, 2016 Zen Fools

A. In the beginning, you might feel it a little difficult to keep focused on the question for a long time. However, if you keep practising, your practice will grow easier and easier with time, and the duration of your concentration on the question becomes longer and longer until you reach the stage of becoming oneness with your question.

Once you get to this stage, your practice goes on by itself spontaneously all day long without your effort. You can’t separate your question from yourself or stop practising even though you try to stop it. Whatever you do; speak, listen or eat, you feel as if your question did it. Then your life itself becomes your practice and your practice is as easy as breathing.
©Boo Ahm

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Koan, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q163. I wonder why you say that we need no more practice after enlightenment, while most masters insist that we continue to practise after enlightenment.

February 16, 2016February 16, 2016 Zen Fools

A. What is enlightenment? It means to realise that everything is empty and an illusion. To the enlightened, there is nothing to obtain because everything is an illusion. They are aware that not only practice but also enlightenment is an illusion. Then, practice, to try to obtain enlightenment is to make another illusion. In brief, the purpose of practice is to remove illusions. Why should we make new illusions while trying to remove illusions?

Some people say it takes time to remove old bad habits that we have had for a lifetime even after enlightenment. However, the enlightened never make an artificial effort to remove them, but leave them alone to disappear by themselves of their own accord, because they know that not only old bad habits but also the disappearance of them is empty.
Waves in the sea, however wild, naturally grow calm with time when the storm stops.

©Boo Ahm

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, One, Religion, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q162. Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”

February 14, 2016February 14, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Master: “I am you.”

Commentary:
Watch out!
You are prone to fall into the den of ghosts.

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, Meditation, mindful, mindfulness, One, Practice, root, self, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q160. If everything, even enlightenment is empty and just an illusion, why should we try to attain enlightenment?

February 9, 2016 Zen Fools

A. If we really know that everything is an illusion, we don’t have to make an effort to attain enlightenment since enlightenment is also then an illusion. The reason for trying to obtain enlightenment is that we have not realised in person the truth while saying that everything is empty. The knowledge of enlightenment is not enlightenment itself. The former is as different from the latter as the knowledge of a meal is different from eating the meal. The knowledge of enlightenment can no more give us eternal happiness than the knowledge of food can satisfy our hunger. We practise in order to experience, in person, the truth that everything is empty.