A. Master: “I would avoid it by entering an old shelter.”
Commentary:
Fish don’t think that they are wet.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Tag: realise
Q227. In Buddhism it is said that only humans can attain enlightenment. This seems to put humans on a pedestal and make them separate from other animals. How can this be true when we also say that everything is one?
A. The words ‘only humans can attain enlightenment’ have the same meaning as ‘only you can attain enlightenment’. This doesn’t mean that you are superior to others but that no one else can take the place of you in both attaining enlightenment and getting the whole world enlightened. In other words, only when you yourself are enlightened can you have all other things including other animals enlightened.
We can’t realise the truth that humans are one with and not separate from other things such as plants and animals or the living and the non-living, until we attain enlightenment. It is said that once you attain enlightenment, all the universe attains enlightenment as well at the same time. That is, you can have a firm belief that we are not separate from other animals and that everything is one, only when you can see things as they are. Even if all other people of the world should get enlightened, their enlightenment can never allow you to enjoy the truth that everything including you is perfectly one, as long as you stay unenlightened.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q226. How can I motivate myself to practise Zen when I feel that there is nothing to attain?
A. When we say that there is nothing to attain, this means that everything is so perfect that there is nothing to be desired. That is, there is nothing to attain because all is already yours. Our problem is that we are not aware of the truth and struggle to make our life perfect in our own way. In other words, we are like a rich beggar who is struggling for a living, not knowing that he has great wealth in his bank account.
Student: “Sir, why is there nothing to attain?”
Master: “Because everything is already yours.”
Student: “Why do I have to practise Zen when there is nothing to attain?”
Master: “Because there is still something for you to attain.”
Student: “You said that there is nothing to attain because everything is already mine. Why do you say there is still something for me to attain now?”
Master: “Because you don’t know the fact that everything is already yours. The purpose of Zen is to enable you to confirm the fact that all is already yours. It is like no matter how much money you may have in your bank account, you can’t be said to be rich if you, not conscious of the fact that you have the money, still struggle to make a living.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q225. Student: “What is the true-self?”
A. Master: “Discriminating mind.”
Commentary:
Even an enemy becomes your friend once you get to know him.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q223. Can you show the true-self to me?
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.
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
Q222. Master: “Where are you coming from?”
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.”
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
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?
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.
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
Q220. What does commitment to Zen practice really mean if Zen practice is also an illusion?
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.
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
Q219. Student: “What is the true-self?”
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.”
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
Q218. What does ‘no picking and choosing ‘ mean in everyday life and Zen practice?
A. It means ‘no discrimination’. However, what matters is not whether we pick and choose but how to pick and choose. You should not mistake it for making no discrimination and having no thought at all, which means death.
Picking and choosing is an essential part of your life. How is it possible to maintain your life with ‘no picking and choosing’? When shopping for instance, you have to pick and choose what to buy and when to go shopping before leaving the house. During your shopping, you also make a lot of discrimination about prices and brands. Your life can be said to be an endless series of ‘picking and choosing’. The enlightened also make ‘picking and choosing’ in their life.
The difference between your ‘picking and choosing’ and the enlightened’s is that the enlightened know that all their ‘picking and choosing’s are empty and illusions while you don’t. When you realise the truth that everything is empty, you come to know that both the objects of your ‘picking and choosing’ and the action of your ‘picking and choosing’ are empty. Then, your ‘picking and choosing’ is not ‘picking and choosing’ any more. Then you can be said to do without doing, or enjoy a life without ‘picking and choosing’ or discrimination.
There is a similar phrase about ‘chopping wood and carrying water before enlightenment and chopping wood and carrying water after enlightenment’. Both the ‘chopping wood and carrying water’s look and sound the same, but the latter is quite different from the former because the latter is not ‘chopping wood and carrying water’ any more. In fact, they are actually so subtle and different from each other that only the enlightened can be conscious of the difference.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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