Questions to Master Deshimaru

Question

Where did Bodhidharma go when he died?

Answer

He's not here and it doesn't matter. Do not think about where you will go after your death. Think only about here and now. When you die you will go into a coffin, unless you die at sea; they don't use coffins there. Mere-now is important. If you concentrate on each point here and now, the points will become a line and unconsciously, naturally, automatically, you will go to your coffin and sleep in the ground. It's like zazen. Now I must die and I concentrate on zazen. The relationship is the same as between firewood and ash. The wood does not know, cannot look at its ashes. The wood can look at the ashes of another log but not at its own. Your eyes cannot see your own eyes, except in a mirror. It's the same thing as between life and death, the burned wood that becomes ash. Ash cannot think that before it was wood, and vice versa. You cannot look at your death. It is a very difficult, subjective problem. I can look at your death but you can't. Once you are dead, your death cannot look at your life. It is a subjective problem which you are thinking about now as though it were an objective problem. The object is not important, only the subject. It's also a problem of time. "Here and now" includes eternity. Don't make categories. The question is more difficult than some factual issue that can be solved by science and about which everybody can agree. The subjective aspect is more profound. It is yourself that you are studying. Nobody understands except you. In regard to deep problems everybody has a different opinion. So it is difficult to help you. The subjective problem of each person is different and science cannot solve it. If I want to help you I must become you!