Zen Koans
- Koans aren’t riddles to be solved. They’re pointers on the path (noting that path is goal is path).
- Sit with the question. Let the “answer” come forth and reveal itself.
- Part of the practice is to accept their unanswerability.
On Koans
Koans are a good way to cool the assertiveness, to undermine and dismantle the whole intellectual matrix, while harnessing the energy of inquisitiveness and activating intuition.
and
Koans remain dark to the mind but radiant to the heart.
You do not just use your intellect in order to work on a koan. A koan should be buried deep in the soil of your mind.
From Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet
Recollection of koans facilitates the ongoing practice of Buddhist meditations in the midst of ordinary wordly activities, once a popular Zen technique.
From Kensho: Heart of Zen.
On Questions
Love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.
From Deep Hope
The answering is in the questioning.
From Rational Zen
Revisiting “The Koan Way” on Waking Up
One Bright Pearl
Gensha: The whole universe is one bright pearl.
Ordinary Mind is The Way
Joshu: “What is The Way?”
Nansen: “Ordinary Mind is The Way.”
Joshu: “Should I turn towards it?”
Nansen: “If you turn towards it, you go against it.”
Joshu: “If I can’t look for it, how can I ever find it?”
Nansen: “The Way isn’t about knowing or not knowing.”
This moment as it is, ordinary experience, is The Way. Seen from a different vantage point.
Not knowing is most intimate
Dizang asked Fayan, “Where are you going?”
Fayan said, “Around on pilgrimage.”
Dizang said, “What is the purpose of pilgrimage?”
Fayan said, “I don’t know.”
Dizang said, “Not knowing is most intimate.”
Original Face
What is your Original Face? The face you had before even your parents were born.
Revisiting “The Gateless Gate” in “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones”
Joshu’s Dog
Monk: “Does a dog have Buddha-nature?”
Joshu: “Mu” (“No thing” or “Nay”)
Part of Mumon’s comment: Let your previous lesser knowledge disappear. As a fruit ripening in season, your subjectivity and objectivity become one.
Gutei’s Finger ☝️
Gutei: “I attained my one-finger-Zen from my teacher Tenryu, and in my whole life I could not exhaust it.”
Part of Mumon’s comment: “Enlightenment, which Gutei obtained, has nothing to do with a finger.”
A Beardless Foreigner
Wakuan: “Why does Bodhidharma have no beard?”
Joshu washes the bowl
Monk: “I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.”
Joshu: “Have you eaten your rice porridge?”
Monk: “I have.”
Joshu: “Then wash your bowl.”
Not the Wind, Not the Flag
Two monks were arguing about a flag. One said: “the flag is moving.” The other said: “The wind is moving.”
The sixth patriarch said: “Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving”
Proceed from the Top of the Pole
Sekiso asked: “How can you proceed on from the top of a hundred-foot pole?”
Added 2024-04-25, last updated 2024-08-14.