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. Master: “It’s in the Buddha hall.”
Student: “Isn’t it just a statue made of clay?”
Master: “Yes, it is.”
Student: “What is Buddha then?”
Master: “It’s in the Buddha hall.”
Commentary:
It is a top secret.
Keep away all your acquaintances when looking and listening.
Look and listen by yourself.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A.Fear is a very natural and instinctive feeling we have in order to protect ourselves. Its role is to warn us of danger that has or will come so that we may get ready to cope with it. It is like a sentry. If it were not for the feeling of fear, we would take less care of ourselves and therefore be more likely to lose our lives earlier by taking more reckless actions and having more accidents. In that sense, fear is very essential and useful for our survival.
However, sometimes fear itself can be more dangerous and harmful than the danger that it warns us of. In other words, you are more threatened by your sentry than by the danger itself. This is a good instance of showing how we are deluded by illusions.
Therefore, the best way to deal with it is to try to see fear as it is by tracing it back to its root, keeping in mind that everything is an empty illusion.
Student: “Sir, I am very afraid. How can I remove my fear?”
Master: “Bring it to me and I will keep it.”
Student: “I can’t find it anywhere.”
Master: “Then your fear is already removed.”
A. It has neither a figure nor a root, but it is active all the time without staying anywhere. When you go, it makes your body go, when you sit down, it makes your body sit down, and whatever you do, speaking or keeping silent, it makes your body do it.
Although it moves in countless ways, it has no fixed rule. The harder you look for it, the farther away it is, and the harder you try to obtain it, the more you forsake it. It is with you at this moment as usual, and you can’t separate from it even for a second. The problem is that you don’t recognise it. So, it is called an open secret.
What is it that is making your body read this writing now? Once you realise what on earth it is and what it is like, you will have completed your practice.
Student: “What is the true-self?”
Master: “Pardon?”
Student: “What is the true-self?”
Master: “Nothing else other than it.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. Master: “It is not difficult to say, but I wonder if you will believe what I say.”
Student: “Of course, I will believe what you say.”
Master: “I am your son.”
Commentary:
Master’s answer breaks all the world into pieces.
Who is master’s mother when he is older than his father?
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. In fact, we have always been and will be perfect forever, and there is nothing imperfect. ‘Perfect’ and ‘imperfect’ are all the products of our discrimination. How could there be ‘good’ and ‘bad’, or ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’, without discrimination? It is because of our discrimination that all things including us look imperfect.
To be perfect just as your Father in heaven is, means to realise the truth that you are perfect and not to turn ‘imperfect you’ into ‘perfect you’. In order to realise the truth, we must cease to discriminate, or remove illusions, and see everything as it is. Matthew 5:45 says, “He makes his sun shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil.” This is showing that God also doesn’t discriminate between good and bad.
Student: “How can I be perfect like Buddha?”
Master: “Don’t stain yourself with ‘perfect’.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
A. One is so blind that he can’t see his mother before him and so deaf that he can’t hear a crack of thunder.
The other is so sharp-sighted that he can see an ant in a forest thousands of miles away and so sharp-eared that he can hear an ant moving in a forest thousands of miles away.
Which is the greater of the two?
Each of us belongs to either of them.
Which do you belong to?
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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