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. Water represents our illusions. ‘Walking on the water’ symbolises ‘living free from the trap of illusions’, that is, Jesus didn’t sink in illusions, which means he was not fooled by them. The scenario that they were fishing in the water is symbolising our life that we are leading in illusions. The fact that Peter started walking on the water to Jesus means that he had a strong faith in Jesus and believed the water to be an illusion, even though he didn’t realise the truth himself. The scene, where noticing the strong wind, Peter was afraid and started to sink down in the water means that he didn’t realise the wind was also an illusion because he was not enlightened.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “A soldier”
Student: “What is a soldier?”
Master: ‘A General”
Commentary:
Don’t say that the General is hidden disguised.
He is so wise that he never plays such a cheap trick.
It is due to your own eye trouble that he seems to be hidden disguised.
©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
A. If you are anxious to know where you will go after death, you should know where you are now. How could you expect to know your future which is invisible, not knowing the present right before your eyes? Once you know where you are standing now, you can know not just where you will go after death but also where you were before you were born. In order to know where you are, you, first of all, should know what you are. How could you know where you are, not knowing what you are?
Your true-self is not born and does not die. It has always been and will be the same without any change forever. It never changes at all. You are eternity itself. Death and birth are only illusions. The problem is that you are not aware of this truth because you can’t see things as they are. The end of Zen meditation is to experience the truth through your body.
Do you want to know where you will go after your death?
Watch carefully what you are stepping on.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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
A. Master: “True-self.”
Student: “Could you open your mind and show it to me?”
Master: “Of course. Flower. Sky. Tree. Stone.”
Commentary:
A breeze stirs revealing the air.
The inside of the air is showing clearly.
Is it air or wind?
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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
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
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “I am you.”
Commentary:
Watch out!
You are prone to fall into the den of ghosts.
When the master is the student, what are they?
Daffodil.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Zen Fools 