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Your favorite koan and why
Pretty self explanatory. What is your favorite koan and why?
I like 'Non Attatchment' by Muju (Japanese zen teacher) http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/98non-attachment.html
because it shows that you shouldn't stop doing something great for fear of attatchment. Just live your life.
I like 'Non Attatchment' by Muju (Japanese zen teacher) http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/98non-attachment.html
because it shows that you shouldn't stop doing something great for fear of attatchment. Just live your life.
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The story of banzo the swordsmen. He let go of strivings to succeed and just faced every challenge in the moment.
http://www.ibiblio.org/zen/gateless-gate/29.html
It seems easy on the surface but understanding it is just out of my grasp...
I've heard answers like snapping fingers, fingers clapping against a palm, no sound, and the sound of wind moving (i.e. the hand pushing the wind).
None of those are an acceptable answer of course.
Joshu said, “The oak tree in the courtyard.”
It's simple, common, requires no spiritual training and, upon examination, will fry your circuits.
:banghead:
Dandelion
That's the point of koans. You have to figure it out yourself.
(Also it might help to know the question is "the sound of one hand", not "the sound of one hand clapping".)
Koans rewire your brain.
''A girl is crossing the road. Is she the younger or the older sister?..''
After reading this Life and Zen finally made sense.
Well, my answer to the sound of one hand clapping (and the sound of one hand) is that there is no answer but it's fine to ask the question 'what is the sound of one hand clapping?'....
(I think I understand now, thankyou
@Talisman what does the 'sound of one hand clapping' mean to you?
Koans are a fun and interesting way to train the mind. But not an easy path.
:clap: too bad this little guy does not make the clapping sound.
I like this one
http://www.buddhism.org/board/read.cgi?board=KwanumZen&y_number=329
The deeper I get into answering it and correcting my answer, the more expansive my understanding becomes of just how detached I have been from my true self.
During the civil wars in feudal Japan, an invading army would quickly sweep into a town and take control. In one particular village, everyone fled just before the army arrived - everyone except the Zen master.
Curious about this old fellow, the general went to the temple to see for himself what kind of man this master was. When he wasn't treated with the deference and submissiveness to which he was accustomed, the general burst into anger.
"You fool," he shouted as he reached for his sword, "don't you realize you are standing before a man who could run you through without blinking an eye!"
But despite the threat, the master seemed unmoved.
"And do you realize," the master replied calmly, "that you are standing before a man who can be run through without blinking an eye?"
So what is the sound of one hand?
It's very amazing that it takes the beginning student so long to answer this koan. Our minds go in circles, and we slap the floor and shout and treat the simple question like it's some sort of mystical doorway to an alternate reality.
There's only reality. It's not even a secret. You don't even have to guess. You have a hand! You have ears! Look at your hand. Listen to it. What sound is it making? It's that easy to answer. THAT is the secret to Zen. The only secret. Zen has nothing special to teach you but to look at the world with a clear mind.
So what is the sound of one hand? Hold out your hand. You have just made the sound of one hand. That is the answer to the koan. Do you understand? No? Then sit down and meditate some more on the sound of one hand.
Hakuin initiated koan study with a new student with a koan he created -- "what is the sound [or voice] of one hand?" Often incorrectly translated as "the sound of one hand clapping," Hakuin's "one hand," or sekishu, is probably the most famous Zen koan, the one people have heard of even if they have no idea what "Zen" or "koans" are.
And people in the West have also been fed misinformation about Koans being nonsense questions like the example you list, about rabbit horns. According to the conventional wisdom, koans don't have an answer or actually everyone gets to come up with their own answer. If your answer to "sound of one hand" is to cluck like a chicken, and if your clucking is from your deep understanding, then that's the right answer. If that were true, any nonsense string of words would be a koan, and that's just not true. "How far is down?" "Why is the moon made of green cheese?"
The problem is that when Japanese Zen was first introduced, the idea was somehow propagated that Enlightenment meant throwing away rational thought and conventional logic and suddenly "Wow, everything is One and words mean nothing, Man! I am the walrus!"
Koans actually have meaning and individual koans are designed to teach specific lessons. The trouble with saying everyone gets to find their own answer is, there is actually only one correct understanding. How you express it, is up to you. But the expression has to illustrate the same correct understanding.
What is the sound of one hand? The koan teaches a specific lesson to the student. It's a basic truth of Zen that helps the student. Cutting through all that expectation of finding some alternate reality is an important first step. Zen is seeing the situation with a clear mind. You have a hand. You have ears. What is the sound of one hand? Don't tell me. Show me. Why does your mind insist on making it any harder than it is?
That's Zen, and what koans do. They cut through your expectations and force you to simply be. Show me your hand. What sound is it making? That is the sound of one hand. It really is that simple. But even when you are told, your mind insists on ignoring the reality in favor of some idea of something else out there.
What is your source for this info? There have been many proper lineage western teachers who utilize the word clapping in the koan, so forgive me if I take your explanation with a grain of salt.
"In clapping both hands a sound is heard: what is the sound of the one hand?"
By taking your explanation as is, it sounds like you are simply saying the koan is a semantic trick, a mere riddle. When framed in the above sense, "what is the sound of the one hand?" is still in the context of clapping. By oversimplifying the 'answer' to this question, you miss it's power. Sorry, but I have to disagree with your approach here.
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"
Reminds me that I need to keep an open heart and an open mind, without prejudice or judgement, and that there are true teachings in all things that are presented.
Add the clapping if you'd like, and the answer remains the same. The power of the koan's words is in the clear pointing to reality.
The problem with talking about koans is that the answer has to be shown, not told. Your mind, clap or not, insists on treating the question on the level of abstract words. You have to show the Master the sound of one hand, or one hand clapping, not tell him. So what do you show him? Your mind keeps running in circles, trying to find some hidden meaning to the koan. It's the same with life. Look at the sky, only blue. Stick your hand in the water, only wet. Now look at your hand. What sound does it make? Where does the sound exist?
No, not semantics. Clear mind and clear situation.
Zen Master Bon Haeng also told me a story once about how Seung Sahn dealt with people who just answer a question without addressing the specific issue presented in the koan. The "clucking chicken" example you gave. He said answers like that "are like taking a shit without wiping your ass" Therefore, not correct "you must wipe your ass!"
What do you call sound? Aren't silence or sound just names? Isn't silence is defined only by word sound, and silence doesn't exists without a sound, where do you draw a line?
----
When you stop drawing lines, it's easier to go to the movies.
Like for instance the koan of “the sound of one hand “.
I can lift my hand if that’s the question.
A teacher shouldn’t play stupid games with students.
My take at koans is that they’re like empty sheets of paper.
We can make drawings on them or fold them into a little airplane or leave them as they are.
Just sitting (shikantaza) or counting the breath may seem like not very challenging practices; so students can be given something to “achieve”. They can “work” with a koan; which is really just like playing with an empty sheet of paper.
For those not in-the-know, koans are anything but ineffective or "playing games". They're not non-sensical paradoxes or gibberish like some people think, but are actually a means to make the mind break through its routine and see a specific truth of reality. That is, if koan practice is understood correctly and the koans are administered and tested by a Zen master (likely Rinzai, as Soto Zen doesn't use koans).
Some koans have the same meaning and lead the mind to the same place, but there are a variety of different types of koans to bring the mind to realizations about emptiness, selflessness and other aspects of reality directly. The koan is not just the question, but the very search for the answer, which forces the mind to change in a very unconventional way. That is the beauty of koan practice.
There can be multiple answers to a single koan, but it's the understanding and state of mind that the master looks for. If someone says "a frog in a pond" as an answer to a koan, but hasn't themselves penetrated the koan, the master can easily tell with further questioning and will dismiss the student until they do penetrate the koan. Too many look up answers to koans that are published on the 'net and take them to actually be the answer to the koan.
It is easy for people to get confused about koan practice. The remedy is to become a student under a recognized Zen master (and be wary especially in the West where the teachers can be anything but masters).
I’m glad you had a good laugh.
I was serious though.
Get over the “frog in the pond”.
The disciple asks, essentially, what the difference is between an apparently nonsensical system of questions and answers that has the purpose of helping one to develop wisdom, and a load of old b****cks. And the master answers, "A fish!"
It still makes me giggle years after first reading it. And yet, on some level, it does actually make sense.
Skikantaza is plenty challenging. I've heard the analogy that meditation is like putting a snake in a pole. You put your body into a pose while sitting in silence and just watch your snake of a mind attempt to writhe about. It's a claustrophobic experience, not giving your mind a thing to do, lol. But what comes out of the practice is a knowledge of the mind and an ability to relax in an attentive state. As the surface levels calm, you get to see the deeper, more profound movements of mind and eventually a glimpse of something even 'deeper'. So yeah, shikantaza may be simple in form, but it is plenty challenging.
In regard to koans, you give the mind a problem and let it throw everything it has at it. Problem is that the normal bag of tricks don't work. At some point, if you remain attentive enough, the mind will see that the nature of the whole question itself and be done with it. From there, the answers arrive.