illusion – Page 14

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Meditation, self, true self, Truth, Zen

Q101. Why can’t we see our true-self?

August 20, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Don’t think that you can’t see it. You are seeing and hearing it even at this moment. You can’t avoid seeing and hearing it. The key problem is that you can’t discern it because your eyes and ears are covered with illusions. Never think that your true-self is somewhere else out of your reach. There is nothing that doesn’t belong to your true-self. Even you yourself are not an exception. Whatever you do, cry, smile, commit a cruel crime or do good deeds, they are all actions of your true-self. In summary, you can no more get away from your true-self even for a moment than you can get away from the universe. So if you chase it for a moment, it is said, you will be going the wrong way.

Student: “What is the true-self like, Sir?”
Master: “Why do you ask me the taste of your saliva in your mouth?”
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Bible, Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Meditation, Religion, sutras, Truth, Zen

Q100. I don’t understand that the Sutras and the Bible are also illusions.

August 18, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Ancient masters used to say that a nice saying which sounds reasonable can be a strong trap. A saying or a word, however great and nice, is nothing but an illusion. No one denies, for example, the truth that the sun is a mass of flames. However, your lips are never hot, not to mention being burnt, no matter how many times you may recite the word ‘sun’. In other words, sayings or words are not the truth itself but an illusion.

The more reasonable a saying sounds, however, the stronger we tend to make our attachment to it while taking it for the truth itself. The Sutras and the Bible are very typical examples that have great sayings we are likely to be tempted to attach ourselves to. We have a very interesting metaphor for such cases that shows how we should accept spiritual teachings: Don’t look at the finger pointing to the moon but the moon itself. The Sutras and the Bible are just like fingers pointing to the moon for people who want to see the moon, but they are not the moon itself.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Bible, Buddha, Buddhism, illusion, Meditation, self, sutras, Truth, Zen

Q86. If all is an illusion, are koans also illusions?

July 16, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Of course they are also illusions. When I want people to stop making noise in a room, I can say to them, “Be quiet, please.” My words, “Be quiet, please” are also noise. Then I can be said to use noise in order to remove noise. Likewise, Zen questions, which are known as koans, are illusions used for the purpose of eliminating other illusions.

In fact, not only koans but also the Sutras and the Bible are illusions.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.

Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, Truth, Zen

Q85. Why am I still unhappy even though I know that all is an illusion?

July 15, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Let’s suppose there is an sick man whose illness is so serious that he can’t move around. You give him medicine that can cure him of the illness. The next time you meet him, finding him still ill, you wonder if he took the medicine. You ask, “Did you take the medicine I gave to you?” He answers, “Of course, I did.” You say, “You don’t seem to have taken it. You still don’t look well.” He says, “I did take it. I will show you the evidence that I took it.” He throws up the medicine you gave him in front of you and shows it to you. It must be the very medicine you gave to him. Do you think he took the medicine? This is the way we accept spiritual teachings and read spiritual books.

When a patient takes medicine, the medicine must be absorbed into the system of his body and its form should disappear, in order to help him. The evidence that the patient took the medicine is not that he keeps the medicine intact in his stomach, not feeling better, but that he acts energetically and is in good shape after the medicine disappears into his tissues of his body.

We often regard remembering teachings from masters and the contents of books you read as mastering it. Knowing something as knowledge is one thing and experiencing it is another. Just keeping the truth as your knowledge without experiencing it through your body is like keeping medicine undigested in your stomach. Zen knowledge without experiencing the truth is no more helpful to your life than undigested medicine is to your body.

Don’t say you know that all is an illusion.
You are not aware of the truth at all.
What is worse,
you are not conscious of even the fact that you don’t know the truth.

You don’t know what you say since you can’t see yourself as you are.
When all is an illusion, you are also an illusion.
Who on earth is unhappy when you are an illusion?

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.

Buddha, final goal, illusion, Koan, Meditation, self, Zen

Q80. What did ancient masters mean when saying, “Kill the Buddha”?

July 2, 2015 Zen Fools

A. It is from the well-known saying in Zen, “If you want to see the Buddha, kill him if you should meet him.”
It means that you should break away the illusion of a thing when it comes to you if you are to see the essence of it. Most people have images of the Buddha although they have never seen him. It is indeed a very good example of an illusion. Illusions die hard because we are highly addicted to them, so masters employed strong language like that in order to put emphasis on eliminating illusions.

Likewise, if you are to see the essence of you, you should remove the image of you. The very typical image of you is your body, and I can tell you to kill yourself to convey my meaning that you should remove your established image of yourself, instead of telling you to ask yourself what you are when your body is not you. So “Kill the Buddha” mentioned above, means to perfectly remove the illusion of a thing in order to see the essence of it.

©Boo Ahm

Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Truth, Zen

Q79. How can we remove illusions?

July 1, 2015 Zen Fools

A. When we say that we practice Zen meditation to escape from the trap of illusions or remove illusions, it never means separating them from ourselves, but realising the fact that illusions are the truth which is the root of everything; the final goal we long to achieve. However, many people, believing that an illusion is different from the truth, make the mistake of trying to stop thinking, when thoughts, good or bad, come to them, regarding them as illusions. That is one of the most common mistakes we make when practising Zen meditation.

Therefore, try your best to see yourself as you are or try to trace back to the root of the thinking that you look upon as an illusion. When you can see either yourself as you are, or the root of your thinking, all illusions will disappear by themselves.

Don’t avoid illusions
since they are a form of the truth.
Don’t follow the truth
since it is also an illusion.

©Boo Ahm

final goal, illusion, Truth, Zen

Q77. Buddhism says, ‘Don’t kill a living thing.’ Can we live without killing any living things?

June 26, 2015 Zen Fools

A. As long as we want to remain alive, we have to kill some living things to keep ourselves alive. Though, as a vegetarian, we don’t touch meat or fish, we can’t avoid killing countless invisible living things. All plants such as vegetables, for example, are living things, and countless micro-organisms, living things too small to see with naked eyes, are living on their surface. Feeding on plants, being a vegetarian means killing such living things as well.

So asking us not to kill a living thing is asking us to get out of illusions because we can’t help killing living things while living in the world of illusion. Getting out of illusion also means escaping from the trap of birth and death. In the world free of illusion, not only ourselves but also all other living things, escape from birth and death. Leaving ourselves to stay in the world of illusion is leaving both ourselves and all other living things to die. In other words, not trying to get out of illusions is to leave ourselves and all other living things alone to die, and to leave dying people and things alone that you can save is not different from killing them. So it means you should save not only yourself but also all living things by getting out of illusions, reaching the final goal.

©Boo Ahm

Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Truth, Zen

Q76. How different is an illusion from the final goal, the truth?

June 24, 2015June 24, 2015 Zen Fools

A. In fact both are not different from each other, but they are one, just as sea and waves are not separate. There is nothing but the truth. If, regarding illusions as different from the truth, we try to remove illusions and reach the final goal, it is like trying to remove waves in order to see the sea. We should keep in mind that to eliminate illusions doesn’t mean to put the illusions away to another place, but means to change our viewpoint and realise that all illusions including us, are the truth itself we are looking for. ©Boo Ahm

Bible, Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, sutras, Truth, Zen

Q71. Why should we not read books?

June 16, 2015June 16, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Ancient masters always advised us not to read books if we hoped to reach the final goal. However good a book on enlightenment you may read, you can’t reach the final goal through reading books without practice. Masters discouraged us from reading books because reading leads us to feel as if we were approaching the final goal as we get more knowledge on the final goal. In fact, getting more knowledge is collecting more illusions and strengthening the solidity of your illusions while reaching the final goal means breaking illusions. Actually we are going farther away in the opposite direction from the final goal against our intention.

Why do few people reach the final goal though so many people are reading so many books including the Sutras and the Bible around the world? Are the Sutras and the Bible telling a lie? It is not because they are telling a lie but because we can’t digest what they mean. The final goal, the truth, is compared to a cure-all that gives an eternal life to ill people who take it. But the cure-all is so invisible that it is almost impossible to discern it. And what all books, including the Bible and the Sutras, are saying about it is not the cure-all itself but wrapping papers that can help people to recognise the contents, the cure-all. Most people mistake swallowing the wrapping paper for taking the contents, or cure-all. If we had taken a true cure-all, we would have become well instantly.

I don’t want to discourage you from reading books, but I’d like to invite you to change the way of reading books in order to take the cure-all, instead of swallowing the wrapping paper. You should bear it in mind that every single word of the book you read is the gate to the truth, the final goal. If you digest only a single word through your body from any book you read, you can reach the final goal. If you have not reached the final goal after reading so many books, it means that you have not understood even a single word of so many words you have read. You took only wrapping papers. Trace back to the root the word or a sentence you believe you understand, or you like. That is to try to see beyond the word, an illusion. This can be compared to tearing the wrapping paper. If you can see the root, you can be said to have digested the book perfectly, to have reached the final goal. Try to see the root of each word or each sentence as perfectly as possible, instead of trying to read as many books as possible. That is a kind of Zen practice as well.

Buddha, Meditation, Practice, Truth, Zen

Q67. People say a certain place is good for practising Meditation because they can get more energy. Is there really such a place? If there is, where is the best place for practice?

June 15, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Not just a few people seem to have such an idea wandering around in search of a good place. It is like going around looking for Buddha, or God. In Zen, everything including God and Buddha is said to be an illusion. What is not an illusion when everything is an illusion? Is such a place not an illusion? The best place is also an illusion created by people’s discriminating mind.
Zen meditation is to eliminate illusions, but looking for such a place is creating and following another illusion. Looking for such a place for Zen practice is like making an illusion with one hand while trying to eliminate it with the other hand. The best place for practice is just where you are at this moment. The root which your idea of the best place comes from is the best place where you should be.

The best place for practice
should be where you can stay your whole life,
and be where others can’t come.