My thoughts about Zen Koans ....
I will attempt in this note to demystify a little the concept of the Zen Koans, and it's purpose in spiritual studies, as I understand it.
I have been reading people's comments and notes and noticed that some may have heard different or contradicting concepts and stories about Koans.
A zen Koan, is a non sensical question which really has NO ANSWER.
During the course of the student studies, he/ she will be presented with a series of nonsensical or paradoxical questions, and will be encouraged to seek the answers to them.
The student will be encouraged to THINK that the Koan Does have and answer and encouraged to think about the question while working in the garden, or in the kitchen, while walking, while dreaming, even while meditating and sleeping,
The student is encouraged to find the 'right' answer.
Every time they present their answer to the Zen master, they are told that it is the WRONG answer, but....... That there IS a RIGHT answer, and all they need to do is just keep on searching....
But there really IS NO 'RIGHT' ANSWER! Or ANY answers to ANY of these questions.
The reason for this, is that the whole concept of Zen basic teaching, is set upon the premise of attaining enlightenment by de-emphasizing ALL THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE held in the mind, in favor of direct realization through meditation and dharma practice
Zen emphasizes illuminating the person, through LETTING GO of the mind's constant search for knowledge and craving for language, structure, for reasons and for all kinds of polarities like right and wrong, good or bad...... and to attain Enlightenment through EXPERIENTIAL WISDOM and liberating FEELINGS.
To sum this I will illustrate an example.
Imagine this:
The eager student is sitting crossed legged in meditation, in a Zen Monastery in the mountains of Japan.
She is staying in this monastery to try and get some answers to a craving that she feels inside for knowledge... For a higher meaning...... And a constant nagging that she has inside of her, that there MUST be more to life than what meets the eyes....
She and her husband had slept in this old and beautiful monastery, filled with monks with bright and intelligent eyes.
The room they've got was bare, without any furnishing but with wonderful paintings of tigers on the walls.... Across from their room, there is an amazing Zen garden, groomed to perfection....
After a simple, yet most delicious vegetarian dinner, eaten sitting on cushions on the floor, a bed was arranged for them on the bamboo floor.
They've slept a calm and most peaceful sleep.
The next day they sit in meditation and later, they are presented with a wonderful lecture.
The woman sits quietly in meditation, and think about the Zen Koan that was presented to her: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
The Zen master presented her with the most commonly known Koan, because he is respectful of foreigners and their 'foreign minds,' and he does not want to burden them or make their stay in his monastery, unpleasant.
In this monastery, nobody gets beaten with a stick to soften their ego...
Some Japanese people, are so sweet and kind to tourists..... Sometime they can be TOO kind.
Her husband gets a little annoyed while they are traveling in Japan.
Especially when they send an attendant to escort them into the hot springs, and then another attendant to escort them back to their room, and later another attendant to take them to the dinner hall.....and another to escort them to their room.....as if they were little children who cannot find their way around the resort, and might get lost and dispirited, wandering around the resort looking for things....
She laughs at the extra attention and is delighted in their kindness and care.... She tries to explain their good intentions to her husband, but he does not really 'get it'.
Back at the monastery, the Zen master speaks English with a funny and sweet accent.... Funnier even than her own.
He told her to meditate on this Koan.
She is an experienced meditator.....
She has been meditating for years, and not just for twenty minutes, but for many hours at the time.
She slides beyond the surface chatter of her mind...
The little details of the hard cushion she is sitting on......,
The cold floor,.....
The cool mooring breeze, coming through the open Shoji doors....
The soft sound of barefooted monks preparing the vegetarian breakfast....
The gurgle of hunger in her stomach....
The mystical dreams she had last night.....
And she slides into the quiet.
She brings up the question to her mind.... "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
She finds herself thinking in circles for a long time: "if an object does not meet another object in some form of impact....., does it make ANY sound at all?
Is it possible that it makes just a tiny sound that only a butterfly can hear?
No!
It is not possible....
But the master did not ask DOES it make a sound?
He asked WHAT IS the sound of one hand clapping....
What could it be?
This is very annoying....
I usually LOVE riddles...
But is this a riddle?
Or a mind blowing nonsense?
My father always presented me with riddles....
I used to LOVE his riddles...
They were so much fun....
They were so smart and they forced me to think.....
My mother always thought that he was a bad dad, because he did not engage much with us...
But he was a GREAT father in my eyes to me.....
He made me think....
And challenged me to become a thinker.....
I miss my dad...
Wait!...
Go back to the QUESTION...
You know... The Koan?....
What if a one hand clapping, makes as much noise as your mind makes, now.... Chatting along aimlessly...while you are sitting in total silence....
Got something here?....Naaaa...."
And so she goes, thinking and contradicting, drifting and circling around the Koan aimlessly.
After an hour of useless thinking, her mind finally gives up....
It is just too tired and exhausted....
It feels like it has been running around the same tree in circles for ever.......WTF.... It says...
Who cares?... Why get so hooked up on words?.... On a needless attempt to solve everything?...
What is so wrong about just being?...
Being here and LOVING it?
Why must I figure everything out?...
The mind who does that, can become a PRISON of reasoning and aimless pursuits....."
As she finds herself giving up... She FEELS a surge of JOY emerge from within her being....
Suddenly, it REALLY does NOT MATTER what her mind thinks...
She just wants to stay with this joy she feels forever....it feels like she is HOME....
She finds herself slip into a deeper silence...
Silence FEELS so sweet....
It is like being in a totally dark room with no sensory stimulants...
Some hate total darkness or find it very fearful....
She loves it beyond words....
It is the silence space, just before her field of vision opens up and is flooded with light....
Where she feels one with everything and everyone..... and she KNOWS that there is nothing to fear and that all is well and perfect.
She sits in this silence with Joy in her heart.... for a long time...
She has lost all sense of time..... Was she sitting for an hour? Maybe two? Three?.......Until finally the Gong rings for breakfast.
Everybody runs to breakfast... They have been meditating since 4am and they are STARVING....
After a yummy breakfast, and a lovely lecture, each of them gets to spend ten minutes alone with the master (her husband passes on his chance, and instead, goes to prepare their packages and bicycles, with Willard and Mason).
She sits crossed legged in front of the master... His eyes are closed....
He meditates....
She closes her eyes also....
She sits in front of him with a quiet mind....
She slips back into the sweet silence she remembers now, on a cellular level....
She imagine that both their mind's merge.... In silence and harmony.....
She noticed that her facial muscles became calmer, her jaw relaxed and her forehead calm...her breathing is deeper and slower...
The teacher opens his eyes, a few moments before their time is up.
His smile is contagious...
He nods his head with approval....
He smiles at her...and asked for her answer....
She contemplate HOW to describe to him what she felt... How to put it into words...
She says: "The meaning of the word KOAN, in Nihongono (in Japanese) is
"Shaseki- Shu", or translated it means: "A collection of Stones and Sand"
You did not give me a question, but a bag filled with stones and sand.... I carried it around.... Until it became too heavy.... a burden....
When I dropped it and finally let the burden go.... I understood the meaning of freedom from the burden of questioning everything... I felt happy and light"
The master looks at this "Gaijin" (foreigner)... And a female to boot... And his smile turns into a joyous chuckle....
He raises his thumb up.... And says: " Hi, (yes) So Des! (so it is)
A Koan IS "Shaseki- Shu".......nothing but a bag filled with Stones and Sand....
I Happy you carry NO MORE...
Subarshi Des! (excellent)....
Hard to carry on Jitensha.... (On a bicycle, since he knows that we are traveling on bicycles)
His smile is wide, as he stands on the footsteps at the front of the monastery, and waves us goodbye a dozen times, until we are no longer in view...... Another wonderful Japanese custom...
