There once was a student who was having a great
deal of conflict with her university professor. This professor was
considered an authority on Chinese culture. However, the student had
grown up in Taiwan and knew a great deal about the Chinese people. On
the other hand, the professor, the so- called authority, had never been
to China.
No matter how many books one reads, if you've never
been to a place you can't really know it.
It's only by being there that one gets a real
understanding through all the sights, sounds, smells, and senses.
However, if one only visits for a short time the experience tends to be
colored by comparisons with one's own native land and culture. It is
only after a person has lived in a place for some years that one begins
to know it.
It is the same with koan practice. It cannot be
understood conceptually because it's whole function is to take you
beyond the conceptual mind. Likewise, if it's only practiced a short
time or in a superficial manner then one will have all sorts of
comparisons and criticisms. Nevertheless, when one really enters into
the koans for years of training then it is obviously a different matter.
Zen is considered a very direct and practical way.
Because something works, it is used. This is why so many have taken up
koan practice over the years. Ever since Joshu first uttered "Mu",
this and similar koans have brought countless people in various times
and cultures to awakening.
What is essential to realize is that it is not only
the practice per se that is important but also how it is entered into.
That is, the person makes the practice.
It, like life, all depends on the student's
aspiration, and to some extent the teacher's pointing. The koan must be
brought alive- it must be allowed to come to life, to be the focus' for
one's own natural questioning.
What is a koan?
Only you can answer this for yourself.
