A. A rat.
Commentary:
Don’t be deluded into thinking that it is crazy about chocolate and frightened by a cat.
It swallows the whole universe in a mouthful and gives birth to a cat.
If I had heard the answer, I would have said, “Very nice to meet my species.”
All writing ©Boo Ahm.
A. We are both living in an ideal world and aiming for it. We can be said to be pursuing an ideal world in that we doing something, practising Zen, for a better life. However, the truth is that we are living in the ideal world as part of it. Therefore, the purpose of practising Zen is not to create an ideal world, or reach an unknown ideal world other than this world where we live, but to realise that we are already residing in the ideal world we are anxious to reach. We are like a fish looking for water in the water.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. In Zen practice, you can feel the same way as if you were in caught in a trap. It seems that the harder you struggle to get of it, the more complicated you make it. As a matter of fact, that is the way you feel when you strive to find your way out of it by the use of language and thinking. Such a Zen practice is compared to a struggling insect caught in a spider’s web.
Trying to free yourself from it through language and thinking is like trying to wash a mud-stained dress with muddy water because it is your language and thinking that are the trap keeping you bound. We are so addicted to the trap that we cannot distinguish ourselves from the trap. Actually, we can’t see a trap as a trap because our eyes are veiled by the trap. To rid yourself of the trap of language and thinking and see yourself free of the trap is the purpose of Zen practice and that is to see yourself as you are. Remember you can’t escape the trap by means of your language and thinking, and keep the question “What am I when my body is not me?” When your practice is going well, your life seems to become simpler.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. What do you think your former life is? Yesterday was your former life and tomorrow is your future life. Suppose you had no meal yesterday. Now you can’t move away from feeling very hungry, but whether you will continue to be hungry, or not, depends on whether you eat food now or not. Every moment is not just the result of your former life but also the cause of your future life.
What counts here is that how you accept the result of your former life determines your future life. So it is said that we can know what your former life was like and what your future life will be like by seeing your present life. The result you face today may look advantageous to you but you should not be too much attached to it. It may look unfavourable to you but you should not be frustrated. You should see things as neutral. What is the best today can be the worst tomorrow and what is the worst today can be the best tomorrow. History shows that many of the great figures who helped mankind were those who accepted their misfortune as their stepping stone. In fact nobody can move from the result of his former life. However, if you can see it as neutral, you feel no need to move away from it. Then we say, “You’ve moved away from the result of your former life.”
When you can see things as they are, you can see things as neutral.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Mind is boundless and formless. It is neither lacking nor surplus.
Don’t exert yourself to attain mind.
It is neither attainable, nor disposable.
If you were to attain mind, it would not be mind any more.
Don’t strive to clean or empty your mind.
That is to stain your mind.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. As I mentioned earlier, we do whatever we do for the purpose of attaining happiness. So we fight and tear the planet apart, it can be said, to increase our wealth in the hope that the more wealth we have, the more happiness we will have. The key problem here is that we don’t know what we are because we cannot see things as they are. Regarding ourselves as separate from nature, we very often don’t realize the fact we human beings are also part of nature.
In fact, fighting and tearing the planet apart is fighting and tearing ourselves apart. This happens, I think, because we don’t experience in person the fact we are one, even while saying we are one with our mouth. If we can truly feel that we are one and that nature is part of us, how couldn’t we try to preserve her as we try to keep ourselves healthy?
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Some people prefer one to multiple and others like multiple better than one, believing that one will bring them more happiness than the other. Some of them regret the choices of their own making.
One is multiple and multiple is one.
Why not multiply?
Whichever choice you may make, one or multiple, the result is all the same when you can see things as they are.
Why not be free to make a choice as you like?
A. This is a good question. Many people have a similar question, I think. Now I will ask you back, “What makes you angry?” “I can’t control my anger when people speak ill of me for what I have never done. “I think your words make sense. The reason you mention can be a part of the cause that makes you angry. All people, like you, have their own reasons why they are angry when angry. They tend to try to evade the responsibility for being angry by justifying their anger. However, I will ask you one more question. “Are you angry when you don’t know the fact at all that others spoke ill of you?” I think you aren’t because we can’t be angry, or happy, with what we don’t know. How could you be angry with what you don’t know? In fact, no matter how much someone speaks ill of you, their act itself doesn’t lead you to lose your temper, unless you know the fact.
It means that the fact that others speak ill of you unduly is not the direct cause that makes you angry. If the fact were the direct cause, it would make you angry regardless of whether you know the fact or not. Then what will be the main cause that makes you angry? It is you that are responsible for being angry. You are angry only when you perceive the fact and feel it is undue. You won’t be angry if you don’t think it is unwarranted even though you perceive the fact. In a word, everything is up you. Whatever others may say about you, their words can make you neither angry, nor happy, if you don’t accept them as bad or good. You are angry when you accept them as names or abuse, and happy when you accept them as praises.
I remember Buddha’s answer to a question one of his disciples asked. One day one of his disciples said to Buddha, “I am very sorry and angry these days because a person never sees me without calling me names for no reason. What shall I do?” Buddha asked, “Whom does the gift belong to if you don’t accept it when someone gives it to you?” The disciple answered, “Of course, it belongs to the giver.” Then Buddha said, “Then, who do the names he calls you belong to if you don’t accept them?” The disciple was very happy to understand what Buddha said. Likewise, whatever others may say about you, their words can have no influence on you unless you accept them. After all it is not others but your discriminating mind that makes your angry. So the purpose of Zen practice is also said to remove our discriminating mind because seeing things as they are means seeing things without a discriminating mind.
When angry, never try to hold back or push down your anger. Admit that the main cause of your anger is within and not without, and trace your anger back to its root, or ask yourself what you are when your body is not you. Your body can’t be angry for itself. Ask yourself what makes your body angry and your anger will quieten down by itself. Killing two birds with one stone: practising Zen and removing anger.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. Let me ask you a question. How can you wash your car? What is most important in washing your car? This question may sound ridiculous but shows how foolish we are. In order to wash your car, you should know where your car is parked above all. How could you wash your car if you didn’t know where it is, however good your car shampoo and a tool for washing it is? Likewise, to calm down your mind, you should know what your mind is first of all. How could you calm down your mind when you don’t know what it is? To calm down their mind seems difficult to most people because they strive to calm down their mind without knowing what it is.
To conclude, try to realise what your mind is so as to calm down your mind. When feeling angry, sad or frustrated, trace back to the root where all such emotions come from. The root is your mind. In the process of tracing back to the root, you will become calm before you know it. If you happen to reach your mind, you will get eternal happiness. That is called ‘enlightenment’.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
A. When thoughts come into your head, trace back to the root from which the thoughts come. When you repeat the question in your mind, do doubt what listens to the question. That is a very good practice as well. If you keep practising as directed, you will become one with the question and need not repeat it any more.
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway.
Zen Fools 