A. Master: “Am I not within your sight?”
Commentary:
Why can’t the student see what is within his sight even though there is no barrier between them?
Instead, put up a barrier and he will see it.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. It’s true that everything is the true-self and there is nothing that is not the true-self. However, it is also true that everything is an illusion and there is nothing that is not an illusion. To remove illusions doesn’t mean to detach illusions from the true-self and throw them away to a remote place. If you happen to think this way, you are going in the opposite direction away from your goal because you separate illusions from the true-self and make them two.
As we have mentioned many times, the purpose of Zen meditation is to realise oneness or non-duality. Jesus also said, “When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male is not male nor the female female; then will you enter the kingdom.” To remove illusions means to realise the truth that all illusions are the true-self and both of them are one. Therefore, when we are not enlightened, that is, when we can’t see things as they are, everything is an illusion, but when we are enlightened, there is nothing that is not the true-self.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
Q. Student: “What is the true-self?”
A. Master: “Your body.”
Student: “This also collapses when the universe collapses. What is the true-self?”
Master: “Your body.”
Commentary:
Don’t say that your body collapses.
If you know how it collapses, your true-self will be clear before you.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. There is nothing that is not your true-self. The way all things are showing themselves is the way your true-self reveals itself. The problem is that you don’t see them as they are. In other words, it is not they but you that deceive yourself. The very things that you hear and see are called illusions when you can’t see them as they are, but called your true-self when you can see them as they are. The Sutras say that illusions are the true-self.
So, seeing and hearing what you are looking at, or listening to, at this moment as they are, is both eliminating illusions and seeing your true-self. Jesus said, “Recognise what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest.”
Student: “How can I see my true-self?”
Master: “Don’t forsake your true-self.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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: “Together all the time.”
Student: “How can I tell them apart?”
Master: “Speak to them. One who speaks to you is a thief, and the other who doesn’t is a guest.”
Commentary:
Don’t mistake a guest as being dumb. If you ask him about the true-self, he never fails to give you a correct answer.
©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
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