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: “Why don’t you ask yourself?”
Commentary:
They are laughing at you.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Remove all the labels attached to you by others. Remove all words that can describe your identity. Let’s suppose you are a sixty-year-old British man named John who is living in London. When you say that you were born in London sixty years ago, what is left when all the labels are removed? ‘You’ or ‘I’, ‘were born’, ‘in London’, ‘sixty’, ‘years’ and ‘ago’ all are labels. You still have a lot of labels to represent your identity such as your parents, your job, your school records and so on. You think that you are human being, which is also an artificially coined label. Remove all artificial labels and see what is left, whatever it is. That’s it. What is it?
Master: “What is left now?”
Student: “Nothing is left.”
Master: “If nothing were left, what would be saying, ‘Nothing is left’?”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. What do you think the core teaching of the Sutras is? It is enlightenment. What all the Sutras say is nothing but how to attain enlightenment and what enlightenment is like, nothing else. If you are to grasp the core teaching of Buddha, don’t look for it in the Sutras. The Sutras are only like a map or an arrow pointing to your destination. They are not the place itself that you want to reach.
Don’t think of Zen meditation as being apart from the Sutras. Zen meditation is an expedient means to grasp the core teaching of the Sutras. The Sutras are maps and Zen is to move towards the destination indicated by the maps. So, the best way to grasp the core meaning of the Sutras is to experience what the Sutras say through practice.
Student: “How can I grasp the core meaning of the Sutras?”
Master: “Discard all the Sutras.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Student: “What is a guest?”
Master: “Just passed by.”
Student: “What is a thief?”
Master: “A guest.”
Commentary:
What you think is a guest is a thief, and what you think is a thief is a guest.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. If you have true faith in God and His perfection, you should not think that your life is troublesome. Thinking that your life is problematic is contrary to the truth that God never makes any mistakes since He is perfect. When He made you what you are, He had his intention. What you are is the exact expression of his intention. The reason why you think that your life is spoiled and troublesome is that you don’t understand his intention. Instead of blaming God for making your life troublesome, you had better try to know what God intends you to be like.
Student: “Why does God make my life so hard?”
Master: “Why don’t you ask God in person?”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. An ancient master said, “Everybody has a mirror. An unenlightened person’s life is like a monkey looking in a mirror, but an enlightened person’s is like a mirror looking at a monkey.” A monkey, when looking in a mirror, mistakes its reflection as another monkey and tries in vain to do something with it. However, a mirror, when something or someone is before it, just reflects the thing or the person as it is or as they are. It neither names, evaluates nor loves or hates it or them. In other words, it never discriminates. So, ‘being like a mirror’ represents the undiscriminating mind of the enlightened.
Student: “How do you feel when you are like a mirror?”
Master: “I become a big liar if I answer your question.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “What you think is the true-self is an illusion and what you think is an illusion is the true-self.”
Commentary:
Both the true-self and an illusion are illusions.
It is the true-self that tries to distinguish the true-self from an illusion.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. There is no fixed best posture for Zen meditation even though sitting upright is commonly said to be the best posture, especially for novices. The best posture is the posture that can enable you to focus all your attention to your question.
Student: “What is the best posture for Zen practice?”
Master: “Don’t sit. Don’t stand. Don’t lie down.”
Student: “What posture shall I take then?”
Master: “Any posture that helps you focus on the question is the best because your true-self neither sits, lies, nor stands.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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