![]() Why do most Westerners imagine that Zen koans have no answers? Well, the answers are naturally kept somewhat secretive. What's not to like?Īs far as enlightenment, apparently that's something you just don't ask a Zen monk if he's got and that he doesn't brag about if he has got anyway. Plenty of room for political "just pass him" manuevering too. But if you can manage "one hand" or "mu!" that oughta qualify you for a post as a village priest, which probably isn't that bad a job and most students will be happy to stop there. To do that, of course, they'd need to take the degree of Zen Master, which involves lots and lots of fairly advanced koans. As such, they keep good notes of their koan answers, and if someday they leave for a teaching post they run their notes by their master to make sure they're all there and in line with the tradition. And of course some small number of the students, as in any field, will become teachers themselves. As a sometime teacher myself, I totally sympathize. These answers indicate mastery of the Zen philosophy - and the master will ideally guide the novice to them, without directly giving the answers. It turns out that Zen masters don't accept some random evidence of enlightment from a novice, but rather expect certain answers. I know that many people distrust fundamentalist religious types, but here is a good example of one who works to open knowledge rather than suppress it, and we owe the pseudonymous Ha Ho U-O a debt here. The copies were of a 1911 work, "a critique of modern-day pseudo-zen" by a renegade monk who had grown frustrated with the direction of Zen particularly as practiced by the main Rinzai sect of the time, with the instruction consisting of rote learning and no real enlightenment - to be short, a fundamentalist monk. The bookshop sold Xeroxes of a set of Zen koans - with answers! - naturally Mr. Hoffman was in Japan, learning about Zen, when he came across a bookshop that a bunch of Zen novices were visiting. He has some friends who help him out, including an actual Zen master who writes the introduction to the book and justifies the publication. The book claims, as I stated in the intro, to be a commented translation. Is this whole book a joke? Since when do Zen koans have answers? Isn't the whole point of Zen koans that they have no answer, but the mere pondering of them can induce enlightenment? Isn't this book a hoax, and a silly one at that? And what about if a tree falls in the woods, but there is nobody to hear it, does it make a sound? And Bodhiharma came from India to China because that's what he did.īut now it's time to backtrack. Why is Zen there in Japan? It also means "what is the meaning of life?" And the answer - the answer cannot be expressed. It means - why does Zen exist? A Buddhist discipline travelled from India to China and founded Zen, which was then eventually transferred to Japan (in some sort of political way similar to how the Kuomintang ended up in Taiwan). "Why did Bodhiharma come from India to China?" This phrase is common in the book and means many things. ![]() And student advances further within the discipline of Zen. Question, answer, question, answer, request for a quoted poem, student quotes a poem at the end. And you get the rough idea - a koan isn't so much one riddle as it is an illustrative anecdote or point to ponder, followed by a sequence. Which I swear I will do as soon as I remember to. Well, unless you happen to attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in which case you'll have to wait for me to return the library's only copy. There's a whole book full of lots more, just waiting for you to read it. Student: "On the plain there is not the slightest breeze that stirs the smallest grain of sand.Īll communication with places north of the Master: The source of the one hand, what is it? Student: Without a word, the pupil thrusts one hand forward. Master: If you've heard the sound of the one hand, prove it. Student: The pupil faces his master, takes a correct posture, and without a word, thrusts one hand forward. Master: In clapping both hands a sound is heard: what is the sound of the one hand?
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