A. Master: “A word”
Student: “Where is it?”
Master: “In your mouth”
Commentary:
It cooks, and chats.
It brings peace, and causes troubles.
It makes the light and the darkness.
It does all these things.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. It is not that God doesn’t listen to you, but that you are deaf to him because you are involved in listening to only your familiar noises. It is not that he hides himself from you, but that you are blind to him since you are preoccupied in keeping company only with familiar figures. He sometimes whispers and sometimes shouts. He sometimes shakes you, from time to time pushes you and once in a while pulls you. It is not God but you that are to blame for not receiving help from him. If you can cut off all images and names, his voice and figure will sound and look clear to you.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “A room”
Commentary:
To take you out of a room is not difficult.
However, it is very difficult to take the room out of you.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. No, you are not wrong at all. Feel free to choose any path that appeals to you and concentrate on seeking the root from which the path comes. Whichever path you may take, you will come to take the same way after all because they are from the same root, the truth that is not dual.
We should realise the fact that all other things, as well as all paths, are from the same root even though they may look different from each other. The root is the very truth. To realise what the root is should be the final goal of all religions.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. If you can feel that way, your practice can be said to have reached a stable stage. You are doing really well. As you said, what you are is the final goal, nothing else and nowhere else. The problem is that you don’t know what you are. You should know that it is not hidden but already revealing itself even at this moment.
The moment you realise, or see that ‘what you are’ is revealing itself, you become oneness with the whole universe without any exception. Then, you are your own Lord throughout heaven and earth because there is nothing that is not you in the universe. I do hope that you will realise it soon.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. They arise because you don’t know what they are. In fact, you don’t know what an illusion is even though you often mention it. You can’t remove or stop it from showing up because you don’t know what it is.
In fact, there are no illusions at all. There is only the truth, or the true-self. The problem is that you are mistaking the truth for illusions. Enlightenment is to realise that all illusions are the truth, or the true-self. As the Diamond Sutra says, to realise that a flower is not a flower, but emptiness, is enlightenment. To realise that an illusion is not real, but empty, is enlightenment. Realising that an illusion is not an illusion, but the truth, or the true-self is enlightenment.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “Get aboard.”
Commentary:
If you get aboard, you will sink.
If not, you won’t cross the river.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “An old well.”
Student: “What is it like?”
Master: “Its bottom is invisible.”
Commentary:
It is too deep to see the bottom of it.
It will quench your thirst forever if you drink it.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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
A. A foolish man tries to control his thoughts while a wise man tries to control his mind. If you want to control your thoughts as you please, you should conquer your mind, that is, realise your mind. Trying to control each of your thoughts is like trying to win the battle by fighting individually each of the thousands of enemy soldiers in the battle field. There is no hope for success in this way. The most efficient and best way to win the battle is to capture the General who directs all the enemy soldiers. To realise your mind which is the root of all your thoughts is to capture the General.
What makes it difficult to capture the General is that we can’t recognise him easily because he is hidden disguised as one of the enemy soldiers. You should capture a soldier and interrogate him deliberately to find out who orders him. If he dies, get another captive and examine him more deliberately. Be determined to continue this to the end. Before long, the General will appear and say, “Why are you wasting your effort while I am always with you?”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Zen Fools 