Supposing These Questions Were Asked

By Ch'eng Hsi (Cheng yen) of Hopei, China

Translated by Bhiksu Heng Kiwi

Edited by Upasaka Using Tsun Lee

Question:
In Tu Fu's poem is the line

Over the peak of Jade Mounds

The floating clouds shift themselves

To assume different shapes every minute through all eternity.

An expression or a vision of the Way or not?

Answer:
Old Tu was a sentimentalist. Why not let them change shapes spontaneously? He couldn't let them be.

Question:
Chuang-tze dreamed he was a butterfly, but when he awoke, he was Chuang-tze. Which was real, and which was an Illusion?

Answer: Drop the two words 'real' and 'illusory' and see what he could still be dreaming of.

Question:
When a person is in a moving boat, looking at the water, is it the water, which moves, or the boat, which moves?

Answer:
You shouldn't be concerned with so much trivia. Ask yourself, have you ever stopped moving for more than a moment?

Question:
Can people who are busy practice Ch'an?

Answer:
It you drink water in the winter, it quenches your thirst; if you drink water in the summer, it also quenches your thirst.