A. Master: “Am I not within your sight?”
Commentary:
Why can’t the student see what is within his sight even though there is no barrier between them?
Instead, put up a barrier and he will see it.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. The more the better, but you should never allow your practice to a make mess of not only your normal life but also your Zen meditation by practising too hard. In the beginning, in order to get used to keeping the question, you had better make it a rule to practice for at least an hour a day at a set time everyday, for example, before going to bed or immediately after waking up. However, once you have learned how to keep the question, you need not confine your practice to a given period of time and be bound by time since time is a typical illusion which we should remove.
Then, erase all time lines from your mind and think that you practice all the time forever. Identify yourself with the question. Then whatever you do, your question will do it. Your question, for example, will drink tea when you drink tea, and your question will chat even when you chat. Then, your practice will go on by itself. Until you reach this stage, practice at least an hour a day and try to keep the question all the time.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “Scattered.”
Commentary:
Scattered, scattered.
How clear it is!
One swallowed the other.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q. Student: “What is the true-self?”
A. Master: “Your body.”
Student: “This also collapses when the universe collapses. What is the true-self?”
Master: “Your body.”
Commentary:
Don’t say that your body collapses.
If you know how it collapses, your true-self will be clear before you.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “Don’t speak ill of it. It has never hidden itself.”
Commentary:
It’s like a lost child who has not seen his mother for so long that he can’t recognise her while being in her bosom.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Yes, it’s from the true-self as well. There is nothing that is not from the true-self. Everything from the true-self, however, is empty and neutral since the true-self is empty. It follows that not only the cause of suffering but also suffering itself is inherently empty and neutral. Whether a phenomenon is seen as a blessing or suffering is determined by our discrimination. A thing, or an incident, becomes suffering only because we think of it as suffering. Rain, for example, can be a blessing to umbrella sellers but a suffering to fan sellers, even though the rain has no intention to do good to the former or harm to the latter.
To conclude, suffering is from our discrimination that comes from ignorance of the emptiness of everything. To realise the truth that suffering is empty is to escape from suffering.
Student: “How can I remove my suffering?”
Master: “Don’t be deceived by yourself.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “Together all the time.”
Student: “How can I tell them apart?”
Master: “Speak to them. One who speaks to you is a thief, and the other who doesn’t is a guest.”
Commentary:
Don’t mistake a guest as being dumb. If you ask him about the true-self, he never fails to give you a correct answer.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Holding on to the meaning of the Sutras means keeping the words without perfect understanding, in other words keeping food undigested in the stomach. Letting go of it means to ignore and forget it. For better understanding, let’s take the following as an example.
Buddha had a student who was notorious for having killed many people and even tried to kill Buddha before becoming a monk. One day this monk happened to visit one of Buddha’s lay students, when his wife was having a hard time being in labour. The layman said to the monk, “Please relieve my wife of this terrible suffering with your power.” The monk responded, “I still don’t have such divine power. I will go and ask my master, Buddha for this favour for your wife.” Upon returning to Buddha, the monk explained the situation and asked him what he should do. Buddha answered, “You go back to the house, and tell her that you have never killed anyone.” The monk did as he was told to, and then, on hearing his words, she was relieved of her suffering.
This metaphor implies that everything is empty.
When Buddha said to his disciple, “Tell her that you have never killed anyone”, he meant that whatever bad and cruel things, or whatever good and beautiful things we may do, they are all empty, so the young monk’s murder was also empty. He likened her childbirth to the young monk’s murder. The woman in labour, on hearing what the monk said, realised the truth that the suffering she was going through was also empty, just as the murders the monk committed were empty.
We should understand what the Sutras say, in the same way that the woman in labour understood Buddha’s remark passed on by his student. The moment she heard Buddha’s message, she made it part of herself. If she had ignored, let go of the message or remembered it only as a meaningful saying, or held on to the meaning of it, she couldn’t have been relieved of her suffering.
Master: “What did Buddha tell his student to say to the woman in labour?”
Student: “He told him to say, ‘I’ve never killed anyone’.”
Master: “Why did Buddha tell him to say so?”
Student: “Because He wanted to teach her that everything is empty.”
Master: “You are still holding on to the meaning of Buddha’s teaching.”
Student: “Then, what did He say?”
Master: “He didn’t say anything, and his student didn’t go to her house.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “It’s already open”
Commentary:
If you stick to ‘open’, it’s already locked.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “Because you try to see it.”
Commentary:
Cut the tendon in the air and you can see it clearly.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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