![]() Stories were passed down among generations and used to test a student’s understanding of principles. The term kōan is the Japanese translation of the Chinese word “ gong’an”, which means, literally, “public case.” Early Kōans can be compared to case law and judicial precedent. ![]() But when you feel the Koan in your being, you are coming closer to the moment before thinking. You can analyze as much as you want, but you’re never going to “solve” the puzzle. So Koan study can be a part of that moment before thinking. ![]() “The moment before thinking, when we are all one.” “When I slapped my leg and we both heard that sound, neither one of us was thinking,” the teacher explained. The teacher will then “asses” the student’s progress.ĭuring my first formal interview, I was discussing a simple Koan with the teacher, when all of a sudden he slapped his leg, making a loud, startling sound. During a formal Koan interview, the teacher will present the student with a passage to contemplate. If you ever get the chance to attend a Zen meditation retreat, you might have the opportunity to sit for a Koan interview. We try to feel the absence of an answer.īut there’s something to it. So rather than trying to solve the Koan, we try to understand that there is no answer. Koan practice can also bring us closer to don’t know mind. Meditating brings us closer to “don’t know mind”. “Don’t know mind” or “great doubt” is what some schools of Zen call the absence of thinking. A dog barks, and thus does not have the nature of the Buddha.īut rather than thinking and trying to solve the riddle, Koan study aims to make the student comfortable with not-knowing. Some say the main takeaway of Mu is that silence is the nature of the Buddha. Zen teachers often say that the point of a Koan is to feel the meaning in the essence of your being, rather than in your mind. Does a dog have Buddha nature? Yes and no are both correct and incorrect. Little flower–but if I c~~ld understand what you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.There is really no right answer. But, for the moment I’m simply presenting them as the occur in the anthology, separated out from the Chinese and Japanese cases.ġ. Upon a first read there appear to be some errors in biblical attributions. ![]() He presented a bunch of these in a row, then began to intersperse them with more traditional koans. What follows are eighteen cases from Western sources Shimano dropped into that Miscellaneous collection part of his proposed curriculum. Or, as I suggested in my study of koans, the grammar, or language of dragons. They’re usually short and give us the sense of how to engage koans, the language of koans if you will. In his draft document Eido Roshi mixed these in with what in many traditions are called “Miscellaneous Koans.” These are in-house collections used in specific lineages and follow the breakthrough koan, in our Japanese derived traditions flowing from the great Eighteenth century Hakuin Ekaku, that breakthrough koan is almost always Mu. And it included a number of koans derived from the Western traditions. Truthfully, I can testify to this out of my own life, as well.Īll that said, there’s this wonderful collection in draft form. But, a complete spiritual life requires other things, as well. I can testify to this out of my own life. The dynamic mystery constantly unfolding. Or, perhaps more correctly everything as that openness. It genuinely helps us to see into the fundamental matter of our wild openness as well as the preciousness of everything thing as it arises and falls within that openness. There’s that, as well.įor me a very important lesson in this is that koan introspection is not everything. I know and deeply respect several of his dharma successors. The upshot was that Shimano was removed from leadership in the sangha he led and only a few years later he died disgraced.Īnd, he was a creative and successful guide along the koan way. There are other words that perhaps are more appropriate. ![]() Seduce feels the mildest of possible terms for his misconduct. He was charged with targeting vulnerable women and taking advantage of his position as a prominent spiritual leader to seduce them. In the final years before his death this erupted into the public sphere. And throughout his teaching career there were rumors of sexual misconduct. He was a very important figure in the establishment of Zen in the West. Shimano Roshi is at the very least a controversial figure. So, I was pleased when a friend pointed me to a draft copy of a koan curriculum for Western students compiled in 1990 by the late Eido Tai Shimano. ![]()
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