A kōan (; ; ; ) is a fundamental part of the history and lore of Zen Buddhism. It consists of a story, dialogue, question, or statement, the meaning of which cannot be understood by rational thinking but may be accessible through intuition. One widely known kōan is "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?" (oral tradition attributed to Hakuin Ekaku, 1686–1769, considered a reviver of the kōan tradition in Japan). The word koan, the name by which the practice is known to the West, comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters (公案).
As part of the training of teachers, monks, and students, kōan can refer to a story selected from sutras and historical records. They may consist of a perplexing element or a concise but critical word or phrase (話頭 huà-tóu) extracted from the story. It may also refer to poetry and commentary added to the story by later Zen teachers.
English-speaking non-Zen practitioners sometimes use kōan to refer to an unanswerable question or a meaningless statement. However, in Zen practice, a kōan is not meaningless, and teachers often do expect students to present an appropriate response when asked about a kōan. Even so, a kōan is not a riddle or a puzzle. Appropriate responses to a kōan vary, since different teachers may demand different responses to a given kōan, and the answers may vary by circumstance. One of the most common recorded comments by a teacher on a disciple's answer is: "Even though that is true, if you do not know it yourself, it does you no good." The master is not looking for a specific answer but for evidence that the disciple has grasped the state of mind expressed by the kōan itself.
Therefore, although there may be "traditional answers" (kenjō 見処 or kenge 見解) to many kōans, these are only preserved as exemplary answers given in the past by various masters during their own training. In practice, any answer could be correct, provided that it conveys proof of personal realization. Kōan training requires a qualified teacher who has the ability to judge a disciple's depth of attainment. In the Rinzai Zen school, which uses kōans extensively, the teacher certification process includes an appraisal of proficiency in using that school's extensive kōan curriculum. In Japanese Zen, Chinese Ch'an, Korean Son, Vietnamese Thien, and Western Zen, kōans play similar roles, although significant cultural differences exist.
Kōan literature typically derives from older texts and traditions, including texts that record the sayings and actions of sages; from Transmission of the Lamp records, which document the monastic tradition of certifying teachers; and from folklore and cultural reference points common among medieval Chinese. According to McGill professor Victor Hori, a native English speaker who has experienced extensive kōan training in Japanese monasteries, kōan literature was also influenced by the pre-Zen Chinese tradition of the "literary game" — a competition involving improvised poetry. Over the centuries, the collections continued to inspire commentary, and current kōan collections contain modern commentaries. New kōans are on occasion proposed and collected — sometimes seriously, sometimes in jest.
A kōan or part of a kōan may serve as a point of concentration during meditation and other activities, often called "kōan practice" (as distinct from "kōan study", the study of kōan literature). Generally, a qualified teacher provides instruction in kōan practice in private. In the Wumenguan (Mumonkan), public case #1 ("Zhaozhou's Dog"), Wumen (Mumon) wrote "...concentrate yourself into this 'Wú'... making your whole body one great inquiry. Day and night work intently at it. Do not attempt nihilistic or dualistic interpretations." Arousing this great inquiry or "Great Doubt" is an essential element of kōan practice. To illustrate the enormous concentration required in kōan meditation, Zen Master Wumen commented, "It is like swallowing a red-hot iron ball. You try to vomit it out, but you can't."
A kōan may be used as a test of a Zen student's ability. For monks in formal training, and for some laypersons, a teacher invokes a kōan and demands some definite response from a student during private interviews. Kōans are often presented with the teacher's unique commentary. A kōan may seem to be the subject of a talk or private interview with a student. The dialog, lecture, or sermon involving the kōan may resemble a performance, ritual duty, or poetry reading.
Subsequent interpreters have influenced the way the term kōan is used. Dōgen Zenji wrote of Genjokōan, which points out that everyday life experience is the fundamental kōan. Hakuin Ekaku recommended preparing for kōan practice by concentrating on qi breathing and its effect on the body's center of gravity, called the dantian or "hara" in Japanese — thereby associating kōan practice with pre-existing Taoist and Yogic chakra meditative practices.
The Soto sect has a strong historical connection with kōans, where many kōan collections were compiled by Soto priests. During the 13th century, Dōgen, founder of the Soto sect in Japan, compiled some 300 kōans in the volumes known as the Greater Shōbōgenzō. Other kōan collections compiled and annotated by Soto priests include The Iron Flute (Japanese: Tetteki Tosui, compiled by Genro in 1783) and Verses and Commentaries on One Hundred Old Cases of Tenchian (Japanese: Tenchian hyakusoku hyoju, compiled by Tetsumon in 1771.) However, according to Michael Mohr, "...kōan practice was largely expunged from the Soto school through the efforts of Gento Sokuchu (1729–1807), the eleventh abbot of Entsuji, who in 1795 was nominated abbot of Eiheiji".
Many members of Japan's Sanbo Kyodan sect, and of various schools derived from that sect in North America, Europe, and Australia, use kōans in their meditative practice. Sanbo Kyodan was established in the 20th century and has roots in both the Soto and Rinzai traditions.
Zen teachers and practitioners, for example, Seung Sahn, insist that the meaning of a kōan can only be demonstrated in a live experience. Texts, including kōan collections and encyclopedia articles, cannot convey that meaning. Yet the Zen tradition has produced a large amount of literature, including thousands of kōans and at least dozens of volumes of commentary. Nevertheless, teachers have long alerted students to the danger of confusing the interpretation of a kōan with the realization of a kōan. When teachers say "do not confuse the pointing finger with the moon", they indicate that awakening is the realization of one's true nature — not the ability to interpret a kōan with one's mind. Many traditions have students solve kōans in a series; as a kōan is resolved, another kōan is presented to the student.
Kōans emerge from a literary context, and understanding that context can often remove some — but presumably not all — of the mystery surrounding a kōan. For example, evidence suggests that when a monk asked Zhaozhou "does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?", the monk was asking a question that students had asked teachers for generations. The controversy over whether all beings have the potential for enlightenment is even older — and, in fact, vigorous controversy still surrounds the matter of Buddha nature. Teachers typically warn against over-intellectualizing kōans, but the mysteries of kōans compel some students to place them in their original context — for example, by clarifying metaphors that were well-known to monks at the time the kōans originally circulated.
Five kōans in the collection derive from the sayings and doings of Zhaozhou Congshen, (transliterated as Chao-chou in Wade-Giles and pronounced Jōshū in Japanese).
Thinking about Buddha is delusion, not awakening. One must destroy preconceptions of the Buddha. Zen master Shunryu Suzuki wrote in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind during an introduction to Zazen, "Kill the Buddha if the Buddha exists somewhere else. Kill the Buddha, because you should resume your own Buddha nature."
"...in the beginning a monk first thinks a kōan is an inert object upon which to focus attention; after a long period of consecutive repetition, one realizes that the kōan is also a dynamic activity, the very activity of seeking an answer to the kōan. The kōan is both the object being sought and the relentless seeking itself. In a kōan, the self sees the self not directly but under the guise of the kōan... When one realizes ("makes real") this identity, then two hands have become one. The practitioner becomes the kōan that he or she is trying to understand. That is the sound of one hand." — G. Victor Sogen Hori, Translating the Zen Phrase Book
Dates are as per Zen's Chinese Heritage, subtitled The masters and their teachings by Andy Ferguson, published in 2000 by Wisdom Publications.
Category:Zen terms Category:Metaphors Category:Riddles Category:Zen texts Category:Spiritual practice
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