What Is A Koan?

  If you try to study Buddhism it's not true Buddhism. In this same manner, koan practice is not a form of study.

Koan work is an intense form of practice, it is best to work with a teacher. It is helpful to have the assistance of one who has worked through the koans himself/herself. A good teacher continually tests a student, always putting the work back on him/her to resolve the great matter. Without a teacher it is very easy to become confused, go astray, or to work oneself into negative mind states or foot oneself that one has attained something. Although a teacher is important, the teacher cannot resolve the koan or do the work for the student.

There is a set or group of Koans known as Formal Koans, which have definite outcomes and must be answered during the Dokusan Interview after Experiencing the Experience. However, the entire universe of Koans is divided into two basic areas.

In the breakthrough koan practice, students must demonstrate the truth of the koan and can't merely present theories or ideas.

In subsequent koan practice there is a constant refining for there is always more to "not-do", yet not to leave undone.

If anything, the koan practice involves a losing of false notions rather than a gaining of experience. And, an alert mind can see through the koan and bring it to a wholesome conclusion

Koan practice is firmly grounded in zazen, for it is only through entering into the One Mind from which the koans arise from that one can truly fathom them. The koan cannot be understood by the intellect through study and speculation. This is why it is said, "The Buddha has no theories." One must directly experience the truth out of which these koans arise- not just dwell in theories and ideas.

 What is a koan? This question itself can be a koan. And, there are many that fervently adhere to this belief.

Now, again, what is a koan?

What does it mean to work on a koan?

 If a koan is a single word like "MU" then working on it means voicing it (audibly or inaudibly) on the exhalation, trying to get very absorbed in it. This absorption in it is to the exclusion of everything else, even to the point of self-forgetfulness. You are using this koan to shut out distracting and, or disturbing movements of the mind. And, straining hard not to let go of it day or night. Working in this way, the mind is clearly not in a state of open, choice less attention.

Then there are other koans that are brief, are statements, are descriptions of dialogues, which are incomprehensible and perplexing to our conditioned, fragmented way of thinking. The thinking mind cannot gain insight into them. Many koans are the very expression of a mind in which the deceptions of self-centered thinking are clearly revealed and dispelled. The beauty of a koan is the beauty of mind without the limitation of self. Thinking about it cannot touch it.

A koan can't be answered or understood by the intellect, which is how most Eurocentrics attempt to resolve them. People persist, however, to ask, "What is a koan?" Is it a direct expression of our true mind and therefore a means to awaken? Alternatively, is it, as some have said, a dualistic form of practice, or a Zen game?

The function of a koan is to spark a question, to give rise to that which in the Zen tradition has been called the Great Question.

When the mind "questions", it attempts to awaken and open. This moment of questioning, can be fleeting or it can be a lifetime quest to fill a bottomless void. It is a manifestation of the glimmerings of a unconditioned mind. During this quest, weather momentary or part of your continuous now, all filters of pre-conception and pre-judgment are have been utterly suppressed and only pure thought questioning remains.

This "questioning" is vastly different from "checking." A "checking," “counting,” and “tallying” mind is always resisting, trying to find an argument based on its preconceived ideas and opinions. These minds are the minds that need to be taught that logic is only logical within itself. The same as order is a randomly occurring event in chaos.

A koan is a question asked by or given to generate a "questioning" mind. On one side the questioner is stuck with a self proclaimed puzzle and on the other side it is a question that has been developed over the many eons of inquiry and enlightenment.

This mortal and earthly mind only asks, "What is this?" The mind that truly asks "What is this?" does so in response to something in the present moment, whether it be a concrete life situation, a feeling, an emotion, or an incomprehensible thought. In asking, "What is this?" the mind stops assuming, even if only for a fleeting second, stops operating on pre-conceptions and instead feels and looks attentively at the moment in hand.

A koan is literally a precedent setting public record." Generally speaking, koans are taken from live exchanges between Zen masters and advanced students, or between advanced 'practitioners, or from sutras or ancient sayings.

Most often koans are of a paradoxical nature and cannot be grasped by the intellect. Therefore a koan can only be understood through direct experience of the true mind out of which it originated.

A koan is a means to directly focus our natural, questioning mind to penetrate through the barriers of delusion and to awaken to our true nature.

The questions that a koan can raise can bring a deeper attentiveness to both sitting meditation and to daily activities. Just as a weight attached to a fishing line can help the hook to sink deeply into the ocean rather than bobbing on the water's surface, a koan can guide the mind to places of deeper insight, to places that are often difficult to enter without a persistent, steady direction. Using the mind's natural tendency to question gives it more focus and perception.