Tag: practise

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

Q223. Can you show the true-self to me?

Zen Fools

A. I can’t show it to you because you are already seeing it.

I can’t hide it from you because you are always seeing it.

 

When you can’t see it, it is not because it is hidden but because you can’t recognise it while seeing it.

When you can see it, it is not because I show it to you but because you can recognise it.

 

When you can’t see it, I can’t show it to you because it is none other than you.

When you can see it, I can’t hide it because it is none other than you.

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Student: “What is the true-self, Sir?”

Master: “Why do you ask me the taste of the food that you are chewing?”

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Q222. Master: “Where are you coming from?”

Zen Fools

A. Student: “From home, Sir.”

Master: “What did you see on the way here?”

Student: “I saw sheep.”

Master: “How many sheep did you see?”

Student: “Five sheep.”

Master: “No, you saw ten sheep.”

Student: “Sir, I saw five sheep. Why do you say I saw ten sheep?”

Master: “You still didn’t see the sheep.”

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Commentary:

Things go wrong when you look upon an official affair as a personal affair.

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Q221. I have heard that we are already enlightened but we don’t realise the fact. Why do we need to strive to attain enlightenment?

Zen Fools

A. The expression ‘We are already enlightened but we don’t realise the fact’ is a very incorrect expression. The right expression is ‘We are already perfect but we don’t realise the fact’. To realise the fact that we are already perfect is enlightenment. Then, you might ask, “Why should we try to attain enlightenment when we are already perfect?” The key problem is that we are not aware of the truth. However perfect we are, we can’t be said to be perfect if we struggle in vain to become perfect while not conscious of the truth that we are already perfect.

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We are like a billionaire who is living as a beggar because he is not aware of the fact that he has a great deal of money in his bank account and a lot of real estate to his name. Even though he is told that he is very rich, he can’t accept the fact easily since he has never seen the huge wealth and never lived a rich life lavishing the money freely. Can we say that he is rich? Whatever we say, he is no more than a poor beggar until he realises the fact that he is wealthy. Likewise, we cannot be said to be perfect until we realise and enjoy the truth that we are perfect. Enlightenment is to confirm the truth that we are perfect just like a rich beggar confirms that he is a billionaire.

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Q220. What does commitment to Zen practice really mean if Zen practice is also an illusion?

Zen Fools

A. It is true that Zen practice is also an illusion. However, the point is that, while saying that everything including Zen practice is an illusion, we actually don’t know the truth clearly because we have never acquired it through experience. It follows that we still mistake illusions for reality while saying that everything is an illusion with our mouths. If you can see everything as an illusion, you don’t need Zen practice any more. Ancient masters would say, after enlightenment, that all the efforts they had made in order to attain enlightenment were of no use at all. However, you should remember that only after enlightenment did they mention such words as a token of their realisation that everything is empty and an illusion.

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As long as you are not enlightened, Zen practice is important and necessary as a means to enlightenment until you realise the truth that everything is an illusion. Zen practice can be compared to medicine for a patient. However effective and essential a medicine may be to a patient, it is of no use at all or even harmful to a healthy person. Once the patient becomes well, the medicine is not medicine any more to him. However, it is very useful and important as a medicine to a patient until he gets well.

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Q219. Student: “What is the true-self?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “It feels full after eating hearty food.

Student: “I feel that, too.”

Master: “That’s it.”

Student: “I still don’t know.”

Master: “Not knowing is not wrong.”

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Commentary:

Don’t go to beg your neighbours for embers for cooking with a lamp in your hand.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, illusion, Meditation, Mind, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q216. Student: “What is the true-self?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “Behold the puppets prancing on the stage, and see the man behind who pulls the strings.”

Student: “Who is the man?”

Master: “He is pulling the strings now.”

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Commentary:

Seeing leaves fluttering, we can be aware of the existence of wind.

Seeing a feather flying in the air, we can be conscious of the existence of a bird.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Q215. How far is the final goal? I can’t feel myself nearing the final goal.

Zen Fools

A. Don’t be impatient. If you are practising correctly, practice itself is important. Never think you are trying to reach somewhere away from you.

Whether going fast or slow, don’t have any intention to reach a goal somewhere else other than yourself. Try to realise that each step you take is itself the final goal.

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Student: “What is the true-self?”

Master: “Take a look at beneath your feet.”

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, compassion, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, Mind, mindful, Practice, self, suffering, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q214. My husband was once unfaithful to me. I said that I would forgive him when he asked me for forgiveness. However, we have had a lot of trouble since, and now we are on the point of breaking up. What shall I do?

Zen Fools

A. The point is not whether to break up or not, but whether you forgave him or not. True forgiveness brings peace and happiness to the forgiver as well as to those who are forgiven.

Ask yourself if you really forgave your husband. Are you sure that you forgave him? If you are not sure, ask yourself whether or not you happen to have any concerns about his unfaithfulness and your forgiveness in your mind, or feel that you did something very big for him and that he should be grateful to you for your forgiveness and recompense you for it. If you think even a little in this way, your forgiveness is not forgiveness at all but a penalty wrapped in the sweet-sounding word ‘forgiveness’. You actually didn’t forgive him but are demanding reparation for your suffering.

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In Zen, forgiveness means to regard your husband’s affair as empty and think that there is nothing to forgive him for, and to realise that even your forgiveness is empty as well. If you can’t forgive him like this, try to see the situation as empty. Your effort to see your situation as empty will make your life peaceful and stable regardless of your husband’s reaction to your endeavour.

Don’t expect a quick reaction from him. A sick person usually takes time to return to what he was after his disease is cured. Likewise, it might take time for him to return to what he was because he still needs more time to forgive himself.

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Q213. Student: “What is the true-self?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “A word”

Student: “Where is it?”

Master: “In your mouth”

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Commentary:

It cooks, and chats.

It brings peace, and causes troubles.

It makes the light and the darkness.

It does all these things.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Q212. Did ancient masters obtain enlightenment?

Zen Fools

A. No master says that he has attained enlightenment because it is also an illusion. Masters are those who have realised the truth that everything is empty as an illusion and there is nothing to gain or lose. When everything including the master himself is empty, who would attain what? It is, for example, like, after struggling a lot to reach the Earth, finding the truth that they are originally part of the Earth and there is no other place to reach than where they are. So after enlightenment, they would say that all the efforts they had made were of no use at all. In order to describe such people, we use the phrase ‘attained enlightenment’ for the sake of convenience. If a master happens to think that he has obtained anything, he is not enlightened.

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Master: “Why did you come here?”

Student: “I came here to attain enlightenment.”

Master: “I don’t have such a thing here.”

Student: “Why do many people try to attain enlightenment?”

Master: “Because they have not confirmed the truth that there is nothing to gain or lose.”

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway