Buddhist people all over the world study and practice hard. Some of them form discussion groups who get together and review the Koans and the meanings of the sutras. Even in these Buddhist groups everyone has their own opinion about the meaning of the sutra because everyone has already formed an established concept. In other words, the way we view things and the answers we derive are entirely based on our concepts and opinions. However, concepts are just like dust clouding our mind, it distorts the truth. This is a problem because the truth is the truth. It is not necessary to define truth. For example, a Buddha statue is Buddha statue. That is truth regardless of any other definition you assign to it. The definition is nothing more than a concept and definition created by your mind. It is a manifestation of the concept and a definition you made about the Buddha statue. This is why we call a distorted definition is not truth because no matter what kind of terms you use to define the truth, the truth will never become the definition you assign to it.

Everyone in this world has their own viewpoint. Even groups of people who gather to discuss the sutra, each participant has their own individual set of interpretations and definitions. A good analogy is that everyone has eyes and their eyes can see the truth according to their individual perspective. Definitions and concepts however, are like colored glasses, which skew the perspective. This can also be compared to blind people, who try to decipher and figure out what the real face of truth is. If you cannot see it then how can you understand it? People must learn to break their attachments and illusions. This is what we call practice. So, illusion and attachment are already established by our own mind. In order to correct this problem we need to break the ego, break the attachment, so we can find our true nature. That is the proper way to practice.

In Qin Dynasty, maybe three or four hundred years ago, there was a patriarch, and his name was “Red Mountain”. One day, he gave a speech to a group of ordained people. He quoted from the Lotus Sutra, “It is said, all Buddhas appear in the world for only one reason. They appear to open, show, aware, and enter. They appear only for the Big Causality and showing in this world.” Red Mountain then asked the group, “What does open, show, aware and entering things mean?” No one could answer his question. So, Red Mountain called upon a Monk sitting in front of him and asked him if he could answer the question. The monk could not, he just sat there looking dumb. Then, Red Mountain said, “Now, you are near Tao. Today, all of you must know what is open, what is show, what is aware, what is enter. Otherwise, this meeting will never dismiss.” Then, Red Mountain punished the monk who could not answer. He yelled out, “You and everyone else must kneel down until someone can tell me the answer!” So, the monks come together and knelt down. After forty minutes, everyone was still kneeling but still, nobody knew the answer. As a result, Red Mountain got angry and said, “Keep practicing!” So, everyone kept silent and continued to kneel down. They were so long that the monks started shaking and grimacing, it was very hard practice. Another forty minutes passed, and Red Mountain rang the bell. At that moment, the monk exclaimed, “I already opened it because in Buddhism, "open" means, to open the Buddha's understanding. "Show" means to show the Buddha's understanding. "Aware" means to be aware of the Buddha's understanding and "Enter" means to enter the Buddha's understanding.” When the monk said, “I open my own first, and I showed nothing there, I am enlightened, there is nothing. I entered, and there is no one who can enter.” From him saying this it was clear that he really reached enlightenment. As a result, Red Mountain answered, “Yes!”

In ancient times, when practitioners studied, they practiced in Zen Hall. Sometimes, the master would walk behind practitioners during walking meditation and use the awakening stick to hit a practitioner. Following the sound of the wood, everyone would stand perfectly still in place. Then, the Zen Master would start to teach the Dharma. Occasionally, after the Dharma lecture, the Master would talk about how to engage the “Huatou” and how to concentrate to make your mind calm and reach enlightenment. That is all. Sometimes, after the Dharma talk, the master would hit someone's back and ask them, “Do you know? Or, “Why are you standing?” If they could not answer the question, he would make everyone do walking meditation again. Also, tone the Master would use when asking was not so gentle.

In Zen Buddhism, we start by losing our self-attachment and next, we break our Dharma attachment. Here we are specifically referring to the old root and old concept. Understand that we are not breaking the root coming from your own habit because that old habit is still there. Rather, it is based on the purified mind. The correct way to start is by generating the right thought, the clear thought and egoless thought; establish a new path and new way. This is what we call "breaking the dharma attachment". After you break your self-attachment, you must face different people and different things while keeping your mind still on emptiness and awareness all the time.

There is an interesting story about a man who is about to go on a long journey, our mind is already being polluted for a long time. The master, represents our real mind or Pure Mind, it is our real master and left on a long journey. When the Master will come back, we do nt know. A man is about to go away on a long journey, because he is unable to find his home, like we cannot find our own home, or who we really are. Even though we possess the Buddha Nature, knowing that does not make it real. The false self is not the real one. Only after we find our mind, have we found our true master. Then the master has returned home. The man going on a long journey represents traveling from our past life to this life and the next life. Yes, you have a master but you do not know where to find the master. He has gone on a trip and told his servant.

Previously, I mentioned that our feeling, thoughts and emotions are all our tools. The tools we use to deal with outside people, things and phenomenon. The tools are the servants. The thought is the servant. That means you recognize that the servant becomes the master. Who is the person generated the feeling? It is your self. Who is the person who generated the angry thought? It is you. You generate all of your thoughts, feelings, and concepts. They are all generated by your mind. Your mind is really the master. The tools are only servants. We use the tools to deal with people and everything around us. That is what we call "servant".

So, a man was about to go away on a long journey. He talked to his servant and told him to keep an eye on the gate and look after the donkey. Do you know what is donkey? The Donkey is a reference for our stubborn and stupid illusions and attachments. Like a donkey, sometimes if you want to lead the donkey to the east. It does not want to go in that direction and he will never follow your directions. This is just like your attachments and illusions; they do not follow your free will and always distort the truth. In our life, we know that many things we do are bad for us but we like them so we continue to do those bad things.

While the Master is gone that means you are lacking of awareness and your mind is not clean. Instead, it is covered by dust, concepts, illusions and attachments. The servant heard someone playing music in the neighborhood so he generated a thought. We generate thoughts because our mind is lured away by something or someone. This can only happen because the master of your mind already left and put the servant in charge of your home, meaning your feelings, emotions, thoughts. Your mind is led by the thoughts and emotions. In our life, not only the music but also our nose can smell something good, our ears listen to the music, our eyes look at everyone, and everything and we feel wonderful or beautiful or ugly. Unable to restrain ourselves, like when we do sitting meditation our mind is still wandering. The thought is pushed by some power behind the habit. Habit becomes your second nature. Automatically, the habit come outs. You wanted to go there and listen. That is what most of the people do.