1. What is the sound of one hand? How do you react to this question ? With frustration ? anger? Why ?

2. Nirvana To understand what enlightenment is like & why it can’t be described

3. What is it like to be enlightened ? To be free of greed, hatred and ignorance? What do these pictures suggest about what it feels like when a person glimpses enlightenment ? 1. Explain what enlightenment might feel like. 2. According to Buddhism, explain what mental weights prevent your own calm enjoyment of life? **What mental “weights” do you carry ? What would it feel like if you dropped them ? Draw yourself letting go of one.

4. What is the sound of one hand? It is the emotion of loneliness It depends on what the hand is clapping against. Ying and Yang. One thing against another. It is silence. The silence is the nothingness of existence. No self. There is no answer. So who are you when you are unable to think? it is a conversation with someone that never connects Some Buddhist teachers like to give their students puzzles like this that have no real answer. This makes no sense – which is exactly the point. It shows that Nirvana isn’t can’t be got hold of by mental understanding. Enlightenment can only be experienced: when you are NOT concerned about your self (ie when you have become a no- self). Read through these possible answers. Which one would you opt for as closest to your own? Explain why is the problem of “one hand clapping” a good way to show people what Nirvana and enlightenment is like?

5. In this story, the pupil obtained enlightenment: he became a no-self and realised the freedom that this brings. A Pupil and the Zen Master Suiwo was a good teacher. During one summer, a pupil came to him from Japan. Suiwo gave him the problem: "Hear the sound of one hand." The pupil remained three years but could not pass this test. One night he came in tears to Suiwo. "I must return south in shame and embarrassment," he said, "for I cannot solve my problem." "Wait one week more and meditate constantly," advised Suiwo. Still no enlightenment came to the pupil. "Try for another week," said Suiwo. The pupil obeyed, but in vain. "Still another week." Yet this was of no avail. In despair the student begged to be released, but Suiwo requested that he meditate for anther five days. They were without result. Then he said: "Meditate for three days longer, then if you fail to attain enlightenment, you had better kill yourself." On the second day the pupil was enlightened. 1.Why did the master push the pupil to keep on trying? What was he testing ? 2.The master’s telling the pupil that he should “kill himself” was a way of teaching the pupil to give up on his “self”. At the moment of giving up, the pupil became enlightened. Why? **Have you ever persevered at something difficult, and found at the end that it suddently just came to you? Did it feel like you had crossed a limit in some way?

6. Nirvana is the highest state of enlightenment. The mind is completely pure, free from all cravings, desires, mental chatter, disturbances of any kind. 1. What is the difference between enlightenment and nirvana ? 2. Copy out the cartoon. Explain what it is saying.

7. More Zen What is your original face before you were born ? The Master said: “If you have a walking stick, I will give you one; and if you do not have a walking stick, I will take it away from you.” Q: If I have nothing, what should I do? A: Throw it away. A girl is crossing the street. Is she the younger or the older sister? A temple banner flew in the wind. Two monks were arguing about it. Said the one: “The banner moves”. Said the other: “The wind moves”. They could not agree. The master said: “It is not the wind moving, and it is not the banner moving. It is your minds moving”. Stop the sound of that bell in the distance. Remember: These make no sense – because they are not meant to. They take you away from the world of logical sense to the world of…??? Enlightenment comes when you have exhausted your whole being in trying to understand what cannot be understood. When enlightenment comes, it is a new birth; a new viewpoint.