A. Master: “If I answer your question, I become menial.”
Commentary:
Don’t blame the master for not answering.
He is soiling himself to answer the question.
What he is worried about is not his becoming menial but your becoming menial.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. It is true that it is almost impossible for unenlightened people to tell whether a teacher is enlightened or not. Only the enlightened have an eye for the enlightened, just like only those who know maths can tell if a maths teacher has real capacity. However, I am going to tell you a few essential requirements that I think a teacher should be equipped with as a teacher, regardless of whether he is enlightened or not.
A teacher should:
If someone satisfies all these conditions, he is worth following as a teacher, I think.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “Don’t ask me where your mouth is.”
Commentary:
It is standing on its single foot facing you.
You don’t forsake it.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “Your corpse.”
Commentary:
The whole universe is loaded on a small cart.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. Image ©Avijit Datta
A. Don’t think that you have no master around but think that you are not ready to meet him. Ready yourself to meet a master by asking yourself the questions that you will ask a master when you meet him. When a student is ready, a master will appear. When not ready, a student can’t recognise a master even though he appears before him. In fact, he is already beside you and always ready to help you. He is waiting to be recognised by you.
All the people and everything around you are your master. Even you yourself are your master, too. They are giving Dharma talks to you every moment. Even you yourself are giving Dharma talks all the time. The point is that you are still not ready enough to hear the Dharma talk. Make yourself ready to meet him by practising hard and, sooner or later, he will suddenly appear before you.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Our practice is like trying to brighten an old room that has been dark since it was made, even though it is installed with a nice electric light. We are looking for the light switch of the old room that has never been lit so far. The key problem is that we have no idea of the switch; where it is and what it is like, because we have never used it, or even seen it before. We can be said to be fumbling for the switch in the dark room. It may take time to find it, but it doesn’t take time to lighten the room once you find the switch. The moment you switch on the light, all the darkness will disappear. Likewise, all illusions disappear at the moment you attain enlightenment.
Student: “How can I remove all the illusions in an instant that I have made up for decades?”
Master: “It takes no time and no effort to remove them because they are empty.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “Empty.”
Commentary:
What counts is not whether Bodhidharma is enlightened but whether you are.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “You should melt everything and make it you.”
Student: “How can I do it?”
Master: “Make yourself melt into air.”
Commentary:
When there is no ‘I’, there is nothing that is not ‘I’.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. It is said that going one kilometre by studying books is not as good as going one metre by practising. It’s because the former adds to illusions whereas the latter decreases them. The former regresses rather than advances us in Zen meditation. So, ancient masters would say, “Trying to attain enlightenment through books is like trying to pick the moon with a pole.”
Instead of spending so much time reading the Sutra and Zen books, I would like to advise you to allocate 90% of this time to practising meditation. The remaining 10% of this time can still be used for reading.
Whatever you do, wherever you are, you are practising well only if you keep questioning what is making you do what you are doing. Reading the Sutras for ten hours is not as good as drinking tea, or washing the dishes for an hour with the question in your mind.
Master: “What did you do last night?”
Student: “I read the Diamond Sutra.”
Master: “How much did you read?”
Student: “I read three pages.”
Master: “You didn’t see the Sutra, let alone read it. The true Sutra has no pages.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Master: “Mountains and rivers.”
Commentary:
Mountains and rivers block your insight into mountains and rivers.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Zen Fools 