For some, however, these questions and the deep
need to know keep coming back. For these persons there is no escape and
no rest. The great matter must be resolved. This urgency and questioning
is often triggered by a personal life crisis. Sometimes this leads one
to a "natural koan" such as "who am I?", or
"what is the meaning of existence?" For the Zen practitioner,
it may lead to adoption of one of the, formal koans.
Regardless of how one comes to a koan, once arrived
at, it becomes an effective way to focus natural questioning on a
spiritual level. All of one's deep questioning and longing for
liberation is focused in the koan.
In Zen training the koan can become a means to
focus one's questioning. Without the focus of the koan one can often
feel torn, scattered, and alone.
The sayings and exchanges that became koans were
compiled into various texts such as the Mumonkan and the Blue Cliff
Record. These were, and still are, used as manuals for Zen training.
Koans can be divided into two categories: the primary, or,
'breakthrough" koan, and the "subsequent" koans.
