Tag: one

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, God, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, self, sutras, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q244. How do I know if I am enlightened or not?

Zen Fools

A. If you practice Zen meditation in the right way, you can experience small and big changes in the course of your practice. You can come across a moment when you feel a big unexplainable change. During this experience, feeling oneness with the whole universe, you realise simultaneously that everything is empty and you are eternity itself.

SRH_1425a_thumb

 

From then on, you can see things as form and emptiness at the same time. Then masters’ records, or the Sutras, read like your own stories, and you can understand them as clearly as if experiencing them through your whole body rather than understanding them with your head. Then, you have nothing to ask others since there is nothing that you don’t know. An ancient master once said, “When you are full after hearty food, you need not ask others whether or not you are full.” If you experience the changes mentioned above, you can be said to be enlightened even if you are not checked by a master.

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Koan, Meditation, Mind, mindful, Practice, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q243. Student: “What is pure mind?”

Zen Fools

A. Student: “What is pure mind?”

Master: “Rotten shit.”

Student: “What is dirty mind?”

Master: “Beautiful flowers.”

_SRH2470a_thumb

Commentary:

Don’t aim at the shadow on the ground of a game bird when it has flown away high in the sky.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Meditation, Mind, Practice, Religion, root, self, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q242. What would they think of people?

Zen Fools

A. People think that a cow is very beneficial and that a snake is very harmful because the former gives us milk, sometimes working power and even gives its body as food, but the latter makes poison and can harm us with it. It is said that we should be altruistic like a cow.

_SRH0689a_thumb

A cow has no intention to sacrifice itself to help people although it produces milk and has a huge body and a lot of power.

A snake has no intention to harm people although it produces poison.

It is only because of people’s discrimination that a cow is helpful and a snake is harmful.

What would they think of people?

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Koan, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q240. Master: “Are you married?”

Zen Fools

A. Student: “Yes, Sir.”

Master: “Do you know your wife?”

Student: “Of course, Sir. I share the same bed with her.”

Master: “How many hairs does she have on her head?”

Student: “I don’t know. How could I know that?”

Master: “Don’t say that you know your wife then.”

File19122a_thumb

 

Commentary:

Don’t try to extract juice by squeezing dry sticks.

The number of the fingers of a hand is five.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, compassion, desire, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, love, Meditation, Mind, root, self, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q239. If love and hate are neutral and both are illusions, then, what difference does it make whether I am loving or cruel?

Zen Fools

A. It’s true that love and hate are neutral and both are illusions. In fact, it doesn’t make any difference whether you are loving or cruel. To realise the truth means to realise that everything is empty and feel oneness with the whole universe. Then, your feeling of love and hatred cannot help but be different from the feeling that you have had before realising the truth.

Above all, when you feel your hate as empty, your hate seldom develops into being cruel. Your cruel feeling, if or when it occurs, is not as strong or acute as before and doesn’t last long even though you don’t struggle to control your emotion. Rather, your cruel feeling turns into sympathy as you feel oneness. That is called compassion.

SRH_5738a_thumb

 

In fact, as many people become unhappy because of love as do those who become unhappy because of hatred. As often as not cruel feelings result from love. If you realise the truth mentioned above, you will not be obsessed with, or attached to love, to the extent that your love makes people feel burdened or even tortured rather than happy. And you will not become so frustrated by the loss of love, if it happens, that you stray from your normal life. That is called wisdom.

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, Enlightenment, final goal, Koan, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q237. Student: “All forms return to emptiness. Where does emptiness return to?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “Waves never leave the sea.”

SRH_1329a_thumb

 

Commentary:

Winds never return to air because they never leave air.

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, Photography, Practice, Religion, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q235. What is the true-self, Buddha?

Zen Fools

All you see, hear and feel is your true-self. If you think of anything else as your true-self, Buddha, that is none other than an illusion of your true-self.

People, in fact, are chasing after the illusion of Buddha created by their imagination while always facing Buddha. The problem is that you don’t recognise Him while being together with Him all the time and never having left each other. If you pursue anything else other than what you are confronting now, it is to add another illusion which prevents you from seeing your true-self.

The true-self is one or non-dual, and it is the origin or the root of everything including ourselves. We have divided the true-self into many with imaginary lines, all labels. In fact, we have drawn so many complicated lines that we can neither see nor imagine the original shape of the true-self without any lines. We have been addicted to such imaginary lines for such a long time that we cannot recognise the One now. However, no matter how many lines there are and no matter how complicated the lines are, we are still the true-self itself, have never left it and can’t leave it, whether we are aware of this truth or not. The purpose of Zen meditation is to realise the truth by seeing the intact shape of the true-self.

SRH_9400a_thumb

 

Student: “What is the Buddha, Sir?”

Master: “Why do you only see an old man and not the Buddha?”

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, master, Meditation, Mind, Photography, Practice, Religion, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q234. Student: “How can I enjoy an eternal life without birth and death?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “Live in the land without light and shade.”

Student: “Where is the land?”

Master: “There.”

Student: “Where is there?”

Master: “There.”

File0160a_thumb

 

Commentary:

You don’t have to dig the earth for gold with your hands full of gold.

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, Religion, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q232. Shall I pray to Buddha for my enlightenment?

Zen Fools

A. If you know what Buddha is, it means that you have already attained enlightenment. Then, you need not pray to Him for enlightenment any longer. If you are not enlightened, it means that you don’t know what Buddha is. Then, how would you pray to Him while not knowing what or who he is and where he is? If you want to pray to Him for your enlightenment, do your best to realise what He is before you pray. That is Zen meditation.

_SRH6440a_thumb

 

 

Student: “Shall I pray to Buddha for my enlightenment?”

Master: “Not bad. Tell me where He is. I also hope to pray to Him.”

Student: “I don’t know where He is.”

Master: “What nonsense! How can you pray to Him while not knowing where He is?”

Student: “What shall I do, Sir?”

Master: “Why are you, ‘King’, going to make yourself a beggar?”

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, final goal, illusion, Koan, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q231. Student: “What is the true-self?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “What do you think it is?”

Student: “I have no idea.”

Master: “You are right.”

_SRH0878a_thumb

 

Commentary:

Master opens the shell and offers the flesh.

Why do you try in vain to eat only the hard shell?

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway