Tag: root

Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, self, true self, Truth, Zen

Q118. Where is the true-self when my mind is full of illusions?

Zen Fools

A. Your mind is no other than the true-self and all the illusions are the actions of your mind. What matters here is that, while saying that your mind is full of illusions, you, in fact, don’t know what your mind is. If you knew it clearly, you could be said to be enlightened.

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In order to know your mind clearly, try to trace illusions back to their root and know it clearly instead of trying to avoid or remove them in vain. Their root is your mind, which is the true-self. So you, it is said, can realise your true-self through illusions.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

final goal, meditaion, root, self, true self, Zen

Q110. What shall I do when I have hatred for my friend for no particular reason?

Zen Fools

A. Loving someone and hating someone, or loving someone today and hating him tomorrow, and the other way around is the way we live our lives. You don’t have to be worried about the fact that you hate your friend. The key point here is that you don’t know the root of the hatred you have for your friend. Saying you hate your friend, you actually don’t know who it is that hates your friend and who your friend is because you don’t know what you are. In brief, you don’t know who hates whom.

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Either trace back your hatred of your friend to its root, or ask yourself what makes your body hate him, instead of repressing emotion. When reaching the root, that is finding the answer to the question, you will realise all emotions you feel are only illusions and then you can accept everything you experience like seeing a movie.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

desire, Enlightenment, final goal, meditaion, sex, sexual, true self, Truth, Zen

Q106. What shall I do with my sexual desire?

Zen Fools

A. Many people think that an ascetic life is indispensable in order to practice Zen meditation, but this is incorrect, unless you are a monk or a nun.

Why don’t you consider the same question regarding your hunger or thirst? Sexual desire is also a natural feeling that normal people have, just like feelings of hunger or thirst. What matters is how to accept it. As mentioned earlier, everything is neutral in itself. Sexual desire may either be holy, or impure lust, just as hunger may be either good or bad, that is to say harmful to us. Hunger is thought to be an essential feeling for our survival, that makes life happy, but it can also lead people to a disastrous situation if not controlled. Sexual desire should be accepted in the same way, I think.

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To have sexual desire is the evidence that you are alive, healthy and normal, that is, you are very suitable for Zen meditation. In summary, Zen meditation has nothing to do with sexual desire just as it has nothing to with hunger. What matters here is not whether to have sexual desire or not, but whether or not to realise the root of it. Just try to realise the root, which is the root of compassion.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Truth, Zen

Q79. How can we remove illusions?

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.

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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

Bible, Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, sutras, Truth, Zen

Q71. Why should we not read books?

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.

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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.

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

illusion, Koan, Meditation, Mind, Zen

Q. 68 Life

Zen Fools

Life is sometimes sunny.
Life is sometimes moonlit.
Life is sometimes rainy.
Life is sometimes windy.
Life is sometimes snowy.
Life is sometimes cloudy.
Life is sometimes blooming.
Life is sometimes autumn-tinted.

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What is your life like at this moment?

Whatever your life is like,
All of these are from the same root, your mind.

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

Buddha, Meditation, Practice, Truth, Zen

Q67. People say a certain place is good for practising Meditation because they can get more energy. Is there really such a place? If there is, where is the best place for practice?

Zen Fools

A. Not just a few people seem to have such an idea wandering around in search of a good place. It is like going around looking for Buddha, or God. In Zen, everything including God and Buddha is said to be an illusion. What is not an illusion when everything is an illusion? Is such a place not an illusion? The best place is also an illusion created by people’s discriminating mind.
Zen meditation is to eliminate illusions, but looking for such a place is creating and following another illusion. Looking for such a place for Zen practice is like making an illusion with one hand while trying to eliminate it with the other hand. The best place for practice is just where you are at this moment. The root which your idea of the best place comes from is the best place where you should be.

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The best place for practice
should be where you can stay your whole life,
and be where others can’t come.

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

Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, self, Truth, Zen

Q66. Though I know everything is an illusion, I still get angry easily with small things, and regret it later. The regret lasts long, bothering me, which, in turn, makes me angry again. What shall I do?

Zen Fools

A. Though you know everything is an illusion, it can be said, you have never experienced the fact in person. Knowing everything is an illusion is quite different from experiencing in person the truth that everything is an illusion. If you were aware that everything is an illusion, why wouldn’t you know that you yourself are also an illusion and that your anger and your regret are also an illusion? What else would matter when not only your anger and regret but also you are an illusion?

Don’t rule out anything from everything.

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Trace back your agony to its root, and you will experience the truth that everything including you is an illusion.

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

Meditation, Truth, Zen

Q60. How can I obey the precepts (Buddhist commandments) well?

Zen Fools

A. Once upon a time there lived an old man in a village, who was well known as a good Buddhist and respected by all the people in the village. People often came to him for advice when they had problems in their lives. One day he happened to talk with an old monk.

Monk: I’ve heard that you are much respected as a very good Buddhist. How do you lead your life?
Old man: I always try to obey five precepts.
Monk: (looking surprised) Do you still obey the precepts?
Old man: (looking surprised) Of course, don’t you obey the precepts?
Monk: No, I don’t.
Old man: (looking more surprised) Do you break the precepts then?
Monk: Of course not.
Old man: What do you mean by that?
Monk: I neither break the precepts nor obey them.

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Let me take an example. What do you think is the most important to keep your life? Of course, to be alive we need a lot of things such as food, water, air and so on. However, no one can deny that air is the most essential of all we need to keep our life because we can’t maintain our life even for a few minutes without air though we can stay alive for a few days without water and even for over a month without food. In other words, not a moment can we live without breathing. Then do we feel ourselves breathing every moment we breathe because breathing is very important?
Of course, we don’t feel ourselves breathing as long as we are healthy even though we can feel it if we try to feel it consciously. If someone, feeling himself breathing every moment, tries hard to breathe, he must have a problem in his health, especially in his breathing system of his body. Likewise, if someone, Buddhist or Christian, conscious of the precepts every moment, has to try to obey them, he must have a problem in his life.

How can we obey precepts as naturally as a healthy person breathes? In a word, the precepts should become part of ourselves, and we should be able to obey them so naturally that we can obey them unconsciously just as we breathe.
Only then can we be said to obey the precepts perfectly.
Strictly speaking, to obey precepts perfectly means not that we hold back our desires to break the precepts but that we have no precepts to obey in our mind because we have realised by practising that everything including desires to break the precepts and even the precepts themselves, is an illusion.

I don’t mean that we need not obey the precepts until we realise that everything is an illusion. We should try to obey the precepts consciously because trying to obey the precepts is not only part of practice but also the minimum moral attitude we must take as human beings. Whenever you are tempted to break a precept, trace back the temptation to its root and the temptation will die away before you know it. That is a good Zen practice as well as a way to obey the precepts. With time the precepts will become part of you naturally like breathing.

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