Tag: what am I?

Enlightenment, Meditation, Practice, true self, Truth, Zen

Q102. Student: “What are you when your body is not you, Sir?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “I can’t answer such a difficult question.”

Student: “What is an easy question, Sir?”

Master: “That is too easy a question to answer.”

Student: “What question shall I ask you then, Sir?”

Master: “Ask me a question which is neither difficult nor easy.”

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Commentary:

What is a question which is neither easy nor difficult?

How charitable the master is by giving a delicious and nutritious fish to a poor person!

Why is he struggling with its bone without eating its meat?

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Enlightenment, final goal, Koan, Meditation, Truth, Zen

Q99. Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “I won’t answer.”
Student: “Why not?”
Master: Because I know that you won’t believe in my answer.
Student: “Tell me the answer, sir. I will accept it.”
Master: “I answered.”

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Commentary:
The master is not telling a lie. Don’t break into pieces what he says.
©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

Buddha, Buddhism, Enlightenment, final goal, Koan, Meditation, mindful, mindfulness, true self, Truth, Zen

Q87. Student: “What are you when your body is not you, sir?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “Take a look carefully.”
Student: “What shall I look at?”
Master: “Listen carefully.”

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Commentary:
Don’t seek to approach it.
If you put your face near it in order to see it closely, you will have your face burnt.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.

Koan, Truth, Zen

Q84. Student: “Sir, what are you when your body is not you?”

Zen Fools

A. Master: “Go and ask Tom, your senior.”
(He goes to Tom and asks him.)
Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”
Tom: “Go and ask my friend, John. I can’t tell you the answer now because I have a bad headache.”
(He goes to John and asks him.)
Student: “What are you when your body is not you?”
John: “I can’t tell you the answer since I am busy now. Why don’t you ask such a question of the master?”
(He returns to the master and tells him what Tom and John said to him.)
Master: “Tom’s hair is white, and John’s hair is black.”

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Commentary:
A dog dashes to the stone when it is thrown to it but a lion to the thrower.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.

Koan, Truth, Zen

Q75. Student: ‘What are you when your body is not you, sir?’

Zen Fools

A. Master: ‘I don’t know. ‘
Student: ‘Why don’t you know?’
Master: ‘Don’t tell anyone that I said I didn’t know.’

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Commentary:
It is not for the sake of his reputation but for the sake of his student’s reputation that Master advises his student not to tell anyone that he said he didn’t know.

©Boo Ahm

Koan, Meditation, self, Truth, Zen

Q72. What are you when your body is not you?

Zen Fools

A. Don’t eat lees but drink wine.

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Commentary:
What is wine? And what are the lees?
Don’t make believe that you drank wine after eating the lees.
He who eats the lees plays a drunken frenzy.
He who drinks wine steals the whole universe.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.