Mother of the Unconventional William Meyers 2011 a nonsensical or paradoxical question to a student for which an answer is demanded, the stress of meditation on the question often being illuminating. John Farr: Getting Religion: The Ten Best Films on Faith John Farr 2011Ī koan is a Zen riddle, the answer to which-if, in fact, there is an answer-is largely immaterial.
They were traditionally used by Zen teachers to test the progress of a student. Whether you think of it as a Buddhist riddle termed a " koan", a mystical allegory, or an inner-world travelogue if you're in the right frame of mind, you will surely be fascinated by Bae's highly intelligent, visually arresting film. A Koan is a short story or dialogue used in Zen practice. This is a companion volume to The Koan and The Zen Canon, by the same editors. Koans (pronounced KO-ahns) are cryptic and paradoxical questions asked by Zen teachers that defy rational answers. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Notes on 'Kafka and the Coincidence of Opposites' 2007 Zen Classics: Formative Texts in the History of Zen Buddhism, edited by Steven Heine & Dale S. This insight into ones own nature is not an. It is not necessary to pass through as many koans possible.The Zen scholar and teacher, Daisetz Suzuki (1870 - 1966), once explained that the origin of the term koan was a kind of certifying document that, in ancient times, was used to test one's understanding of Zen.Ĥ The koan is the principal form of meditation practiced by the Rinzai sect. Americas pre-eminent Zen teachers, this book is a rich resource for wisdom seekers and scholars alike. What is the basic aim of Zen The essence and final aim of Zen is the experience of enlightenment or Satori. The most important thing about koans is their use as a tool to discover one’s own true mind. Neither way of working with a koan is better than the other. The term mainly refers to the usually enigmatic, frequently startling, and sometimes shocking stories about legendary Chan masters encounters with disciples. Some other students may require only a few seconds to ‘understand’ the same koan. While in the process of answering a koan, one comes to experience the koan as the mind itself, transcending dualistic thinking.Ī student might work with one koan for several months or even years, returning to their teacher many times to comment on their koan.
Teachers may probe students about their practice by using koan “checking questions” to further validate their experiences of awakening.ĭesigned to force and shock the mind into awareness, the koans are used to test the student’s ability. Zen teachers often recite and comment on koans, and some Zen practitioners concentrate on koans during Zazen meditation. To produce the sudden insight called satori, many Zen Buddhists in Japan contemplate a mind-murdering form of riddle called the koan. In the Buddhist community, Rinzai-Shu is considered further from the Buddha’s teachings than Soto-Shu. These koans, or parables, were translated into English from a book called the Shaseki-shu (Collection of Stone and Sand), written late in the thirteenth. While the heart of the Soto school is based on the practice of Zazen, the heart of the Rinzai school (臨済宗) focusses on the use of koan, a kind of absurd phrase or statement which is given by a teacher to a disciple to trigger Enlightenment. Contemplating these words is part of the training given by a teacher to help a Buddhist student to awaken. koan (plural koans) (Zen Buddhism) A story about a Zen master and his student, sometimes like a riddle, other times like a fable, which has become an object of Zen study, and which, when meditated upon, may unlock mechanisms in the Zen student’s mind leading to satori. He initially studied at the Tendai headquarters on Mount Hiei to the north of Kyoto, but in 1168 he embarked on a journey to China, which culminated in him bringing Rinzai Zen Buddhism to Japan. A koan is a surpris ing or paradoxical word or phrase, taken from an anecdote, that is used as an object of meditation in traditions descended from Chinese Chan Buddhism, like Japanese Zen. The Linji lineage was first transmitted to Japan by Myosan Eisai.
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