illusion – Page 15

Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, self, Truth, Zen

Q66. Though I know everything is an illusion, I still get angry easily with small things, and regret it later. The regret lasts long, bothering me, which, in turn, makes me angry again. What shall I do?

June 15, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Though you know everything is an illusion, it can be said, you have never experienced the fact in person. Knowing everything is an illusion is quite different from experiencing in person the truth that everything is an illusion. If you were aware that everything is an illusion, why wouldn’t you know that you yourself are also an illusion and that your anger and your regret are also an illusion? What else would matter when not only your anger and regret but also you are an illusion?

Don’t rule out anything from everything.

Trace back your agony to its root, and you will experience the truth that everything including you is an illusion.

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

Bible, Enlightenment, God, illusion, Meditation, Practice, Truth, Zen

Q64. How can I stop smoking?

June 15, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Why can’t we stop doing things as we please? Many people, for example, can’t stop smoking though they are eager to stop it and some are suffering intense agony because they can’t stop bad memories they want to forget from reviving. It is because we don’t know what, or who, allowed our body to do something in the past and wants it to stop doing it now. Saying, “I allowed myself to do it,” we don’t know who or what I am when my body is not me. Likewise, saying, “I want to stop smoking,” we don’t know who or what wants to stop smoking, since we don’t know what we are when our body is not us. How could you stop doing something when you don’t know who permits your body to do something and wants it to stop doing it?

The Bible 1 John 4:4 says, “The spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.” ‘The spirit who is in you’ means your true-self, the final goal, and ‘the spirit in those who belong to the world,’ implies your body, which is an illusion. Only when you know what you are when your body is not you, can you become more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.

If you realise what you are, you can be as free to stop doing it as you were to start to.

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

Buddhism, Koan, Meditation, Truth, Zen

Q62. (Master was ill and a student visited him to ask a question.) Student: Sir, what are you when your body is not you?

June 14, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Master: Not ill.
Q. Student: What is it that is not ill when you are ill?
A. Master: Ouch! Ouch!

Commentary:
Master reveals himself naked when he who is not ill cries, “Ouch! Ouch!”
Why don’t you see him instead of hearing “Ouch! Ouch!”?
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.

illusion, Meditation, Mind, Zen

Q61. Masters say that we should eliminate discriminating mind. How can we live without discriminating mind?

June 14, 2015 Zen Fools

A. It seems to leave room for misunderstanding. It is impossible to live without discriminating mind in our everyday life. Our life is a series of discrimination every moment: crossing the street, buying things, meeting people and so forth. In a word we are living in the world created by a discriminating mind, which is also referred to as the world of illusion. The happiness and the success of our life can be said to depend on how good the decisions and choices that we make are, which rests on how well we discriminate things in our life. Our education is to provide us with the methods by which we can make good discrimination.

When masters advise us to eliminate discriminating mind, they mean not that we should not discriminate at all but that we should see both the world of illusion and the world out of illusion at the same time. In order to see the world out of illusion, we should be able to stop discriminating, when we can see the essence of things which is covered with an illusion. When we can see not just the illusion of a thing but also the essence of it, we can make better decisions and choices in our life. That’s why masters are encouraging people to eliminate discriminating mind.

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

Meditation, Truth, Zen

Q60. How can I obey the precepts (Buddhist commandments) well?

June 14, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Once upon a time there lived an old man in a village, who was well known as a good Buddhist and respected by all the people in the village. People often came to him for advice when they had problems in their lives. One day he happened to talk with an old monk.

Monk: I’ve heard that you are much respected as a very good Buddhist. How do you lead your life?
Old man: I always try to obey five precepts.
Monk: (looking surprised) Do you still obey the precepts?
Old man: (looking surprised) Of course, don’t you obey the precepts?
Monk: No, I don’t.
Old man: (looking more surprised) Do you break the precepts then?
Monk: Of course not.
Old man: What do you mean by that?
Monk: I neither break the precepts nor obey them.

Let me take an example. What do you think is the most important to keep your life? Of course, to be alive we need a lot of things such as food, water, air and so on. However, no one can deny that air is the most essential of all we need to keep our life because we can’t maintain our life even for a few minutes without air though we can stay alive for a few days without water and even for over a month without food. In other words, not a moment can we live without breathing. Then do we feel ourselves breathing every moment we breathe because breathing is very important?
Of course, we don’t feel ourselves breathing as long as we are healthy even though we can feel it if we try to feel it consciously. If someone, feeling himself breathing every moment, tries hard to breathe, he must have a problem in his health, especially in his breathing system of his body. Likewise, if someone, Buddhist or Christian, conscious of the precepts every moment, has to try to obey them, he must have a problem in his life.

How can we obey precepts as naturally as a healthy person breathes? In a word, the precepts should become part of ourselves, and we should be able to obey them so naturally that we can obey them unconsciously just as we breathe.
Only then can we be said to obey the precepts perfectly.
Strictly speaking, to obey precepts perfectly means not that we hold back our desires to break the precepts but that we have no precepts to obey in our mind because we have realised by practising that everything including desires to break the precepts and even the precepts themselves, is an illusion.

I don’t mean that we need not obey the precepts until we realise that everything is an illusion. We should try to obey the precepts consciously because trying to obey the precepts is not only part of practice but also the minimum moral attitude we must take as human beings. Whenever you are tempted to break a precept, trace back the temptation to its root and the temptation will die away before you know it. That is a good Zen practice as well as a way to obey the precepts. With time the precepts will become part of you naturally like breathing.

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

Buddhism, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, Practice, Truth, Zen

Q57. Do we have to do away with all illusions in order to see the truth?

June 12, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Absolutely not. You should know that escaping from illusions means not removing or destroying them but realising that all illusions are also the truth. We are apt to judge what seems, or sounds nice or holy, to be the truth and what seems bad or ugly to be an illusion. In fact everything we can see, hear, feel and imagine, whether good or bad and right or wrong, is the truth. There is nothing but the truth, which we can’t escape from even a moment. Not seeing it is much more difficult than seeing it.

Why can’t we see it? It is because our eyes are covered with the truth and not because it is too far away. In other words it is so near us that we don’t recognise it.

Don’t look away from illusions for the truth. That is to go after illusions turning your back on the truth. The truth is not separate from illusions. What you regard as illusions is the truth and what you look upon as the truth is illusions. Don’t try to do away with illusions. You can’t make it because they are not illusions but the truth. People who strive to eliminate illusions are those who don’t know what they are. How can you remove them when you don’t know what they are? Faced with what you think is an illusion, trace back to the root which the idea of the illusion stems from instead of making efforts to get rid of it. That is the very Zen practice.

Never avoid illusions.
Never go after the truth.
If you stop avoiding and going after,
You will be motionless.
That is the way the truth is.

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

Happiness, mindfulness, Zen

Q54. What do masters mean when they insist that we possess nothing?

June 12, 2015 Zen Fools

A. It means we should escape perfectly from the trap of illusion without having a single illusion left. Ancient masters said that if we have a single illusion, it will fill the whole universe with illusions in no time. The Bible says that the poor are blessed. The poor here are those who have no illusion. People who have escaped from the trap of illusion are aware that everything in the universe is an illusion. Such people can be said to have nothing however much they have because they know all they have is nothing but an illusion.

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

Buddhism, Practice, Truth, Zen

Q51. What does it mean when masters say our true-self is holy?

June 12, 2015 Zen Fools

A. When it is said to be very pure or holy, it means that it is perfectly free of illusions. All words and ideas are illusions, so even the idea of its being pure or holy is an illusion and defiles it. The fact is that it neither pure nor dirty and can’t be dirtied or stained by anything. That is why ancient masters would keep silent as an answer when they were asked what they were when their body was not them.

Buddhism, Enlightenment, Happiness, Koan, Meditation, Practice, Truth, Zen

Q47. Student: What are you when your body is not you?

June 9, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Master: A piece of cake.
Student: How does it taste?
Master: Bitter.
Student: What happens when we eat it?
Master: All die.

Commentary:
How mysterious!
It tastes bitter and kills all.
Why do people struggle to eat it?

When all die, all illusions die.
When all illusions die, you are eternity itself.

Koan, Meditation, Truth, Zen

Q42. Why can’t we see things as they are?

June 9, 2015 Zen Fools

A. It is not because things don’t show themselves as they are, but our eyes and ears are veiled by illusions that have been accumulated since our birth.

I remember reading an article about implanting false memories. It said it is possible to manipulate and create false happy memories in mice during sleep, adding that they succeeded in creating false and happy memories in mice. The fact is that numerous information or knowledge has been implanted in us and the process is ongoing even at this moment; it will continue to our death and remain in us in the name of memory.

Memories become verbalised or are turned into languages for expression and conveyance, which makes languages essential to our life. Over time, we are so used to our languages that we can’t stop identifying words with our memories. A word always reminds us of a set memory associated with the word, which we are so accustomed to that we take words for reality. For example, a lady was so shocked to hear the terrible news that her daughter, studying abroad, had been killed by a car accident that she passed out and got sick in bed. A few days later, the news turned out to be wrong and she found that her daughter was in fact alive and could be around as usual soon. The lady was shocked and fainted because she took the words about her daughter for reality regardless of the truth. This is a good instance that shows how we mistake words for reality. In short, to identify words with reality is called ‘illusion,’ ‘form,’ or ‘boundary’ in Zen.

In our life, we not only get illusions implanted in ourselves but also implant them in others, and we often manipulate them in order that we may implant the ones that seem favourable to us. What counts here is that, when making our decisions, or choices, like whether a certain illusion is favourable to us or not, we depend on the illusions implanted in us. In a word, illusions create illusions, and we are so addicted to illusions that we cannot tell them apart from our reality, that is to say, we are trapped in the world of illusion. The purpose of Zen is to free people from the trap of illusion.

Of course, our life requires a lot of illusions and our education might mean to provide students with illusions that are thought to be necessary and useful in their future. Who dares to deny the fact that all the civilisations modern people enjoy rest on illusions? However, languages can be an obstacle in seeing things as they are, and conveying memories as they are, just as water gets in the way of a ship’s speeding up – though it is essential in the ship’s moving.

The purpose of Zen, it can be said, is to enable people to enjoy both the world of illusion and the world free of illusion at once.