truth – Page 14 – Zen Fools

Buddha, Buddhism, emptiness, empty, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, Meditation, mindful, mindfulness, One, Practice, root, self, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q160. If everything, even enlightenment is empty and just an illusion, why should we try to attain enlightenment?

February 9, 2016 Zen Fools

A. If we really know that everything is an illusion, we don’t have to make an effort to attain enlightenment since enlightenment is also then an illusion. The reason for trying to obtain enlightenment is that we have not realised in person the truth while saying that everything is empty. The knowledge of enlightenment is not enlightenment itself. The former is as different from the latter as the knowledge of a meal is different from eating the meal. The knowledge of enlightenment can no more give us eternal happiness than the knowledge of food can satisfy our hunger. We practise in order to experience, in person, the truth that everything is empty.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, Koan, Meditation, Mind, mindful, Practice, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q159. How can I clap with one hand?

February 7, 2016 Zen Fools

A. You already did.

Commentary:
The banker informs him that he is a billionaire, but he is still worried about his next meal.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, Meditation, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, Practice, Religion, root, self, Uncategorized, Zen

Q158. How can we, sentient beings, know Buddha?

January 25, 2016 Zen Fools

A. I never ask you to try to know Buddha that seems to be far above us. Now I am encouraging you to realise what a sentient being is because you know that you are a sentient being.
The key problem, however, is that you don’t know what a sentient being is, because you don’t know what you are even though you say that you are a sentient being. What matters is that Buddha is he who knows what a sentient being is, since Buddha is he who can see himself as he is because Buddha and sentient beings are from the same root. In brief, Buddha is none other than a sentient being who can see himself as he is.

A Buddha who can’t see his True-self is a sentient being.
A Sentient being who can see his True-self is a Buddha.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, illusion, Meditation, Mind, Practice, suffering, Uncategorized, Zen

Q157. How can we have less suffering when an unhappy thing happens to us?

January 19, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Why do we have less fear than children when we get an injection in the hospital? Do we have less pain than children? When do we feel more pain, getting an injection while awake or while asleep? We feel much less suffering while awake because we can know the context before and after the injection: why we have to get it, what will happen after we get it, and what the feeling will be like, and we can get ourselves mentally ready to take it in advance.

However, being injected while asleep will make me feel more pain because we are not ready. Likewise, children feel more pain or suffering than grown-ups because they can’t understand the context including the fact that the injection will relieve them of the suffering they are undergoing now. In the same way, when we can see the essence of things we are going through by seeing things as they are, we can feel much less suffering than those who can’t see things as they are.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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

Q156. Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”

January 17, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Master: “A rat.”

Student: “Why do you say that you are a rat?”

Master: “Because of karma.”

Commentary:

Look and listen carefully.

It is not a rat but your eyes and ears that matter.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Happiness, illusion, master, meditaion, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, now, Practice, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q155. Why did masters say, “Don’t try to do good things”?

January 14, 2016January 14, 2016 Zen Fools

A. When you have a stick, can you remove either end of it? Even if you cut off one end of it, there will still remain two ends even though the stick becomes a little shorter. No matter how many times you may cut off either end of it, you will still have both ends and find that the middle part becomes the end. The fact is that you can’t avoid having one end as long as you have the other end. This shows that there is no fixed end and that any part can be an end according to circumstances.

When we have an intention to do something good, we can’t avoid having an idea of something bad because there can’t be a good thing without a bad thing. As long as we have an intention to do good things, we can’t avoid discriminating things. Discriminating things is against the purpose of Zen meditation.
So masters said “Don’t try to do good things” in order to advise their students not to have discriminating minds.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, illusion, master, Meditation, Mind, Practice, root, student, true self, Uncategorized, Zen

Q153. Student: “What am I when my body is not me?”

January 10, 2016January 10, 2016 Zen Fools

A. Master: “Where are you from?”
Student: “I am from New York.”
Master: “How did you come?”
Student: “By plane.”
Master: “How is the weather there these days?”
Student: “Very fine.”
Master: “That’s all. Nothing else.”

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, Koan, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q151. I heard that we should remove our ‘I’ and experience ‘non-ego’ in order to see the true-self. How can I remove my ‘I’?

December 15, 2015December 6, 2015 Zen Fools

A. Don’t try in vain to remove your ‘I’. You can’t do so because you don’t know what it is. Just try to know what you are when your body is not you. When you reach the final goal, you realise that it is not worth mentioning ‘I’. In short, the illusion of your ‘I’ will disappear. Then, you can be said to experience or realise ‘non-ego’.

When you can’t see yourself as you are, you see the illusion of your ‘I’ as yourself. When you can see yourself as you are, you come to realise the essence of your being, your true-self called Buddha Nature. When you don’t know what you are, your ego is you, but when you know what you are, you have no ‘I’ to remove. Then you feel oneness.

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Happiness, illusion, Koan, Mind, mindful, mindfulness, true self, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q148. Is happiness obtained through filling our mind or through emptying our mind?

December 8, 2015December 6, 2015 Zen Fools

A. This is not a matter of whether to fill or empty, but a matter of realising what the mind is. The ultimate end of Zen meditation is to realise what the mind that you are going to fill or empty is.

This question shows well how unaware we are of what we say and how imprudently we are seeking happiness. How could we fill or empty the mind while not knowing what it is? In fact, it is because you don’t know what your mind is that you have such an idea of filling or emptying it. Once you get to see it clearly, you will realise that it can’t be filled or emptied because it is perfect, and that you are happiness itself.

©Boo Ahm

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Meditation, Mind, root, Truth, Uncategorized, Zen

Q146. What should I depend on in order to attain enlightenment?

December 4, 2015December 4, 2015 Zen Fools

A. You should depend on what you are depending on each moment. In fact, what matters now is not what to depend upon but whether or not you know what you are depending on this moment. Whatever you are doing now: speaking, listening, standing, sitting, drinking, and so on, you are doing it by depending on it. You are even reading this writing by being dependent upon it. You can’t do anything without it. The problem is that you don’t know what it is while relying on it.

To realise what you are depending on at this moment is to attain enlightenment. Ancient masters would say, “You are wandering around in search of a cow while riding it.”