Tag: student

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, Enlightenment, final goal, master, Meditation, Mind, Religion, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q223. Can you show the true-self to me?

Zen Fools

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.

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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

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q222. Master: “Where are you coming from?”

Zen Fools

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.”

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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

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, Photography, Practice, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q219. Student: “What is the true-self?”

Zen Fools

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.”

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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

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, illusion, Meditation, Mind, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q216. Student: “What is the true-self?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “Behold the puppets prancing on the stage, and see the man behind who pulls the strings.”

Student: “Who is the man?”

Master: “He is pulling the strings now.”

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Commentary:

Seeing leaves fluttering, we can be aware of the existence of wind.

Seeing a feather flying in the air, we can be conscious of the existence of a bird.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q215. How far is the final goal? I can’t feel myself nearing the final goal.

Zen Fools

A. Don’t be impatient. If you are practising correctly, practice itself is important. Never think you are trying to reach somewhere away from you.

Whether going fast or slow, don’t have any intention to reach a goal somewhere else other than yourself. Try to realise that each step you take is itself the final goal.

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Student: “What is the true-self?”

Master: “Take a look at beneath your feet.”

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, master, Meditation, Mind, now, Practice, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q213. Student: “What is the true-self?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “A word”

Student: “Where is it?”

Master: “In your mouth”

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Commentary:

It cooks, and chats.

It brings peace, and causes troubles.

It makes the light and the darkness.

It does all these things.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, One, Practice, root, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q212. Did ancient masters obtain enlightenment?

Zen Fools

A. No master says that he has attained enlightenment because it is also an illusion. Masters are those who have realised the truth that everything is empty as an illusion and there is nothing to gain or lose. When everything including the master himself is empty, who would attain what? It is, for example, like, after struggling a lot to reach the Earth, finding the truth that they are originally part of the Earth and there is no other place to reach than where they are. So after enlightenment, they would say that all the efforts they had made were of no use at all. In order to describe such people, we use the phrase ‘attained enlightenment’ for the sake of convenience. If a master happens to think that he has obtained anything, he is not enlightened.

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Master: “Why did you come here?”

Student: “I came here to attain enlightenment.”

Master: “I don’t have such a thing here.”

Student: “Why do many people try to attain enlightenment?”

Master: “Because they have not confirmed the truth that there is nothing to gain or lose.”

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q210. Student: “What is the true-self?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “A room”

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Commentary:

To take you out of a room is not difficult.

However, it is very difficult to take the room out of you.

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, self, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q209. I was advised to forget and give up ‘self’ by my former master. How can I do it?

Zen Fools

A. If you are to forget and give up yourself, try to know what ‘yourself’ is prior to seeking to forget and give it up. One of the most common mistakes we make in Zen meditation is trying to do something we don’t know at all. The reason why you find it difficult to forget and give up yourself is that you don’t know what yourself is.

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How could you forget and give up yourself without knowing what it is? Make every effort to realise what ‘yourself’ is, which is the core of Zen meditation. If you succeed in realising what it is, you will become oneness with the whole universe and realise that there is nothing worth being labelled as ‘you’; then, there is nothing to forget or give up.

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, final goal, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, mindfulness, Practice, root, student, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q208. During my practice, I sometimes feel fear, as well as joy and bliss. Is this normal? How should I react to it?

Zen Fools

A. It’s a very common feeling that you can experience during practice. Whatever scenes and whatever emotions, good or bad, neither avoid nor follow them. They are all illusions. Just try to trace them back to the root from which they come. The purpose of Zen meditation is to realise what the root of all illusions is. It is because you are making a little progress that you have such feelings. From now on, do think of them as a gate to the final goal, your true-self, and your practice will make big progress.

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Student: “Sir, I feel fear during my practice.”

Master: “That is an action of your true-self.”

Student: “You said that fear is an illusion.”

Master: “It is when you don’t know that fear is an action of your true-self that it is an illusion.”

 

 

©Boo Ahm

 

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway