MY ZEN MASTER
My Zen master, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam
Question 5
Dear Sifu, I always wondered whom did you learn Zen from? May you share with us please?
Santiago
Answer
I learned Zen from my sifu, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam. The public knew my master as a great Taoist master who gave spiritual guidance to people who sought his advice, but not many people, not even some of his students, realized that he was a great Zen master.
Then, how did I know my sifu was a great Zen master. He himself told me. My sifu did not say he was a great Zen master. But he told me that towards the later part of his life, he practiced Zen rather than Tao, and judging from his Zen attainment I regarded him as a great Zen master, even greater than his being a great Taoist master which was publicly acknowledged.
My siheng, Ah Heng, who learned Taoist cultivation from my sifu, explained why my sifu focused on Zen more than on Tao towards his later life. The attainment in Tao was phenomenal, whereas the attainment in Zen was transcendental. Being an immortal is still in the phenomenal realm, but attaining Zen is merging with the Cosmos.
Besides teaching me to practice meditation in a lotus position, my sifu manifested Zen teaching in his daily life. For example, if I asked my sifu how I could counter a certain attack, instead of giving me a lengthy explanation, he would ask me to attack and he would counter accordingly.
If I asked my sifu a question, like “Sifu, what martial art do you consider the best?”, he would just answer, “Shaolin Kungfu.” He would not beat around the bush like saying when he started practicing martial arts, and how many different martial arts he had learned.
An old photo showing my sifu, seated, myself (on left) and my sihengs
The above is reproduced from the thread Zen Intensive in Hawaii Q&A in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum
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