A. Master: “Bring your mind to me, and I’ll make it comfortable.”
Student: “I can’t find it anywhere.”
Commentary:
Oh! Poor fellow.
It is like he’s saying that he can’t find his mouth.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Tag: student
Q78. Master: ‘What are you doing here?’
A. Student: ‘I am doing nothing.’
Master: ‘Then you are sitting at leisure.’
Student: ‘Sitting at leisure is also doing.’
Master: ‘You say you are doing nothing. What are you not doing?’
Student: ‘Even saints don’t know it.’
Commentary:
He can be said to know how to do nothing.
If you knew who does what, you would know how to do nothing.
©Boo Ahm
Q62. (Master was ill and a student visited him to ask a question.) Student: Sir, what are you when your body is not you?
A. Master: Not ill.
Q. Student: What is it that is not ill when you are ill?
A. Master: Ouch! Ouch!
Commentary:
Master reveals himself naked when he who is not ill cries, “Ouch! Ouch!”
Why don’t you see him instead of hearing “Ouch! Ouch!”?
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Q41. Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”
Master: “Did you have lunch?”
Student: “Yes, sir.”
Master: “Why don’t you wash your dish?”
Commentary:
The master was very kind but too talkative.
If I had been the student, I would have thrown my dish at him.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Zen Fools 