meditation – Page 25

Q84. Student: “Sir, what are you when your body is not you?”

July 12, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Master: “Go and ask Tom, your senior.”
(He goes to Tom and asks him.)
Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”
Tom: “Go and ask my friend, John. I can’t tell you the answer now because I have a bad headache.”
(He goes to John and asks him.)
Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”
John: “I can’t tell you the answer since I am busy now. Why don’t you ask such a question of the master?”
(He returns to the master and tells him what Tom and John said to him.)
Master: “Tom’s hair is white, and John’s hair is black.”

Commentary:
A dog dashes to the stone when it is thrown to it but a lion to the thrower.

©Boo Ahm

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

Meditation, Truth, Zen

Q83. What would they think of people?

July 10, 2015July 10, 2015 Zen Fools

Autumn wind has no intention at all to cool people,
but they say it is cool.
A cow, producing milk, has no intention to give it to people,
but they say it is a beneficial animal.
A snake, producing poison, has no intention to harm people,
but they say it is a harmful animal.
What would they think of people?

©Boo Ahm

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

Buddhism, Koan, Meditation, Truth, Zen

Q81. Student: “Sir, my mind is very uncomfortable.”

July 5, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Master: “Bring your mind to me, and I’ll make it comfortable.”
Student: “I can’t find it anywhere.”

Commentary:
Oh! Poor fellow.
It is like he’s saying that he can’t find his mouth.

©Boo Ahm

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

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

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

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

Koan, Truth, Zen

Q75. Student: ‘What are you when your body is not you, sir?’

June 22, 2015June 22, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Master: ‘I don’t know. ‘
Student: ‘Why don’t you know?’
Master: ‘Don’t tell anyone that I said I didn’t know.’

Commentary:
It is not for the sake of his reputation but for the sake of his student’s reputation that Master advises his student not to tell anyone that he said he didn’t know.

©Boo Ahm

illusion, Koan, Meditation, Mind, Zen

Q74. What does ‘escape from the trap of birth and death’ mean?

June 18, 2015June 18, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Birth and death are like the right and the left. There is no fixed right side and no fixed left side. The right can be the left anytime and the other way around. Besides, when we are not conscious of right and left, there is neither the right nor the left.

Nobody can deny the fact that we are part of the whole universe. Then is the universe dead or alive? It’s neither alive nor dead. Then are we, part of it, alive or dead? Though we define a given part of universe as birth or death, actually there is no birth and no death unless we divide the universe into many with the imaginary lines we produce.

There is no birth and no death unless we are conscious of them. To conclude, to experience in person the fact that birth and death are nothing but an illusion, like the right and the left, is to escape from the trap of birth and death.

©Boo Ahm

Enlightenment, Meditation, Practice, Truth, Zen

Q73. Is there a shortcut to the final goal? What is it if any?

June 17, 2015June 17, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Let me ask you a question. What is the quickest shortcut to the earth? The final goal is difficult to reach not because it is too far away from us, but because it is too near us. In a word, nearness is rather a barrier. The harder you look for a shortcut, the farther you will get away from the final goal. The root of the desire to take a shortcut is the very final goal you are eager to reach. You should look for it within, not without. When a thought that you need to take a shortcut occurs to you, trace back the thought to its root, which is the quickest shortcut.

Do you want to take a shortcut?
Don’t move even a single step.

©Boo Ahm

Koan, Meditation, self, Truth, Zen

Q72. What are you when your body is not you?

June 16, 2015June 16, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Don’t eat lees but drink wine.

Commentary:
What is wine? And what are the lees?
Don’t make believe that you drank wine after eating the lees.
He who eats the lees plays a drunken frenzy.
He who drinks wine steals the whole universe.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.

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.