Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We all have learned to protect our name, our reputation and our honor fiercely, ready to stand up and fight to defend them when they are under attacked.

Name, reputation and honor are probably the same thing in Vietnamese. Name is danh; reputation is danh tiếng (voice/sound of name); honor is danh dự (praised name, meaning reputation too).

So, these threes are actually the same thing: our name (or our good name, if you will).

What does that mean?

It means every time we fight bloodily to protect our name, we are fighting for our self.

And do you know what our self means? It means me, I, the me, tôi, cái tôi.

If you focus on your self, it means you are grasping onto the self (chấp ngã), blind, seeing nothing, understanding nothing, and completely ignorant – you are in the hell of your own making.

This is similar to what prophet Isaiah had prophesied and Jesus repeated:

You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused. (Matthew 13:14-15).

Understanding is a matter of the heart. A self-grasping heart is callous, blind and ignorant.

You need to let go of your self, be non-self, to be awakening, enlightened.

Non-self means non-grasping onto the self. Non-self doesn’t mean you deny the existence of the self – as long as you are living, your self is there in you. But you don’t grasp onto the self, don’t become attached to the self, don’t be glued to the self – that is called non-self (vô ngã), the threshold of Enlightenment.

The easiest way to practice non-self is to focus on serving others. If your heart and mind focus on serving others, you probably will not be attached to you own self.

Whatever you do, whatever your job or your career is, if you do your job with the clear understanding and commitment that you are doing your job to serve other people, to serve you country, or to serve your world, then you have a great chance to be non-self (vô ngã).

To be exact, philosophically non-self is much more complicated than doing charity and serving others. But as a matter of practice, focusing the mind on serving others is a first step toward living with your self but not grasping on to your self – the threshold of Enlightenment.

Read this Zen story in 101 Zen Stories.

Stingy in Teaching

A young physician in Tokyo named Kusuda met a college friend who had been studying Zen. The young doctor asked him what Zen was.

“I cannot tell you what it is,” the friend replied, “but one thing is certain. If you understand Zen, you will not be afraid to die.”

“That’s fine,” said Kusuda. “I will try it. Where can I find a teacher?”

“Go to the master Nan-in,” the friend told him.

So Kusuda went to call on Nan-in. He carried a dagger nine and a half inches long to determine whether or not the teacher was afraid to die.

When Nan-in saw Kusuda he exclaimed: “Hello, friend. How are you? We haven’t seen each other for a long time!”

This perplexed Kusuda, who replied: “We have never met before.”

“That’s right,” answered Nan-in. “I mistook you for another physician who is receiving instruction here.”

With such a beginning, Kusuda lost his chance to test the master, so reluctantly he asked if he might receive Zen instruction.

Nan-in said: “Zen is not a difficult task. If you are a physician, treat you patients with kindness. That is Zen.”

Kusuda visited Nan-in three times. Each time Nan-in told him the same thing. “A physician should not waste time around here. Go home and take care of you patients.”

It was not yet clear to Kusuda how such teaching could remove the fear of death. So on his fourth visit he complained: “My friend told me when one learns Zen one loses the fear of death. Each time I come here all you tell me is to take care of my patients. I know that much. If that is your so-called Zen, I am not going to visit you any more.”

Nan-in smiled and patted the doctor. “I have been too strict with you. Let me give you a koan.” He presented Kusuda with Joshu’s Mu (công án Không của thiền sư Triệu Châu) to work over, which is the first mind enlightening problem in the book called The Gateless Gate (Vô Môn Quan).

Kusuda pondered this problem of Mu (No-Thing) for two years. At length he thought he had reached certainty of mind. But his teacher commented: “You are not in yet.”

Kusuda continued in concentration for another year and a half. His mind became placid. Problems dissolved. No-Thing became the truth. He served his patients well and, without even knowing it, he was free from concern over life and death.

Then when he visited Nan-in, his old teacher just smiled.

Wish you all be non-self.

With compassion,

Hoành

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