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Koan
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A koan (??; , , ) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chán (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be accessible to intuition. A famous koan is: "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?" (oral tradition attributed to Hakuin Ekaku, 1686-1769, considered a reviver of the koan tradition in Japan).
s originate in the sayings and doings of sages and legendary figures, usually those authorized to teach in a lineage that regards Bodhidharma (c.
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A koan (??; , , ) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chán (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be accessible to intuition. A famous koan is: "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?" (oral tradition attributed to Hakuin Ekaku, 1686-1769, considered a reviver of the koan tradition in Japan).
In Summary
Koans originate in the sayings and doings of sages and legendary figures, usually those authorized to teach in a lineage that regards Bodhidharma (c. 5th-6th century) as its ancestor. Koans are said to reflect the enlightened or awakened state of such persons, and sometimes said to confound the habit of discursive thought or shock the mind into awareness. Zen teachers often recite and comment on koans, and some Zen practitioners concentrate on koans during meditation. Teachers may probe such students about their koan practice using "checking questions" to validate an experience of insight (kensho) or awakening. Responses by students have included actions or gestures, "capping phrases" (jakugo), and verses inspired by the koan.
As used by teachers, monks, and students in training, koan can refer to a story selected from sutras and historical records, a perplexing element of the story, a concise but critical word or phrase (?? huà-tóu) extracted from the story, or to the story appended by poetry and commentary authored by later Zen teachers, sometimes layering commentary upon commentary.
English-speaking non-Zen practitioners sometimes use koan to refer to an unanswerable question or a meaningless statement. However, in Zen practice, a koan is not meaningless, and teachers often do expect students to present an appropriate response when asked about a koan. Even so, a koan is not a riddle or a puzzle. Appropriate responses to a koan may vary according to circumstances; different teachers may demand different responses to a given koan, and a fixed answer cannot be correct in every circumstance. One of the most common recorded comments by a teacher on a disciple's answer is: "Even though that is true, if you do not know it yourself it does you no good." The master is looking not for an answer in a specific form, but for evidence that the disciple has actually grasped the state of mind expressed by the koan itself.
Thus, though there may be so-called "traditional answers" (kenjo) to many koans, these are only preserved as exemplary answers given in the past by various masters during their own training. In reality, any answer could be correct, provided that it conveys proof of personal realization. Koan training can only be done with a qualified teacher who has the "eye" to see a disciple's depth of attainment. In the Rinzai Zen school, which uses koans extensively, the teacher certification process includes an appraisal of proficiency in using that school's extensive koan curriculum.
The word koan corresponds to the Chinese characters ?? which can be rendered in various ways: gong'àn (Chinese pinyin); kung-an (Chinese Wade-Giles); gong'an (Korean); công án (Vietnamese); koan (Japanese Hepburn); often transliterated koan). Of these, "koan" is the most common in English. Just as Japanese Zen, Chinese Ch'an, Korean Son, and Vietnamese Thien, and Western Zen all share many features in common, likewise koans play similar roles in each, although significant cultural differences exist.
Examples
- A student asked Master Yun-Men (949 C.E.) "Not even a thought has arisen; is there still a sin or not?" Master replied, "Mount Sumeru!"
- A monk asked Zhàozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?" Zhaozhou said, "Wú".
- ("Zhaozhou" is rendered as "Chao-chou" in Wade-Giles, and pronounced "Joshu" in Japanese. "Wu" appears as "mu" in archaic Japanese, meaning "no", "not", "nonbeing", or "without" in English. This is a fragment of Case #1 of the Wúménguan. However, note that a similar koan records that, on another occasion, Zhaozhou said "yes" in response: Case #18 of the Book of Serenity.) Wu is also the sound made by a dog, so the response may actually affirm that a dog does have a Buddha nature.
- Huìnéng asked Hui Ming, "Without thinking of good or evil, show me your original face before your mother and father were born".
- (This is a fragment of case #23 of the Wumenguan.)
- A monk asked Dongshan Shouchu, "What is Buddha?" Dongshan said, "Three pounds of flax".
- (This is a fragment of case #18 of the Wumenguan as well as case #12 of the Blue Cliff Record.)
- A monk asked Zhaozhou, "What is the meaning of the ancestral teacher's (i.e., Bodhidharma's) coming from the west?" Zhaozhou said, "The cypress tree in front of the hall".
- (This is a fragment of case #37 of the Wumenguan as well as case #47 of the Book of Serenity.)
Roles of the koan in Zen practice
Koans collectively form a substantial body of literature studied by Zen practitioners and scholars worldwide. Koan collections commonly referenced in English include the Blue Cliff Record (Chinese: Bìyán Lù; Japanese: Hekiganroku), the Book of Equanimity (also known as the Book of Serenity; Chinese: Congróng Lù; Japanese: Shoyoroku), both collected in their present forms during the 12th century); and The Gateless Gate (also known as The Gateless Barrier; Chinese: Wúménguan; Japanese: Mumonkan) collected during the 13th century). In these and subsequent collections, a terse "main case" of a koan often accompanies prefatory remarks, commentary, poems, proverbs and other phrases, and further commentary, etc. about prior emendations. Koan literature typically derives from older texts and traditions, including texts that record the sayings and doings of sages; from Transmission of the Lamp records, which document the monastic tradition of certifying teachers; and from folklore and cultural reference points common among medieval Chinese. According to McGill professor Victor Hori, a native English speaker who has experienced extensive koan training in Japanese monasteries, koan literature was also influenced by the pre-Zen Chinese tradition of the "literary game" — a competition involving improvised poetry. Over centuries, contemporary collections continued to inspire commentary, and current koan collections contain modern commentaries. New koans on occasion are proposed and collected — sometimes seriously, sometimes in jest.
A koan or part of a koan may serve as a point of concentration during meditation and other activities, often called "koan practice" (as distinct from "koan study", the study of koan literature). Generally, a qualified teacher provides instruction in koan practice to qualified students in private. In the Wumenguan (Mumonkan), public case #1 ("Zhaozhou's Dog"), Wumen (Mumon) wrote "...concentrate yourself into this 'Wu'...making your whole body one great inquiry. Day and night work intently at it. Do not attempt nihilistic or dualistic interpretations." Arousing this great inquiry, or "Great Doubt" is an essential element of koan practice. In an attempt to illustrate the enormous concentration required in koan meditation, Zen Master Wumen further commented: "It is like swallowing a red-hot iron ball. You try to vomit it out, but you can't."
A koan may be used as a test of a Zen student's ability. For monks in formal training, and for some laypersons, a teacher invokes a koan and demands some definite response from a student during private interviews.
Koans are presented by teachers to students and other members of the community, often including the teacher's unique commentary. A koan may seem to be the subject of a talk or private interview with a student. However, a koan is said to supersede subject-object duality and thus cannot necessarily be said to be the "subject" of such encounters. The dialog, lecture, or sermon may more resemble performance, ritual duty, or poetry reading.
Etymology and the evolving meaning of koan
Koan is a Japanese rendering of the Chinese term, transliterated kung-an (Wade-Giles) or gong'àn (Pinyin). Chung Feng Ming Pen (???? 1263-1323) wrote that kung-an is an abbreviation for kung-fu an-tu (?????, Pinyin gongfu zhi àndú, pronounced in Japanese as ko-fu no an-toku), which referred to a "public record" or the "case records of a public law court" in Tang-dynasty China. Koan/kung-an thus serves as a metaphor for principles of reality that go beyond the private opinion of one person. A teacher's test also resembles the judgement of a student's ability to recognize and actualize that principle. Moreover, commentaries in koan collections bear some similarity to judicial decisions that cite and sometimes modify precedents. An article by T. Griffith Foulk claims "...Its literal meaning is the 'table' or 'bench' an of a 'magistrate' or 'judge' kung..." Apparently, kung-an was itself originally a metaphor — an article of furniture that came to denote legal precedents.
A well-known example of this legal usage is The Cases of Judge Dee (??? Di Gongan in Chinese) a Ming dynasty novel based on a real Tang dynasty judge. In the same way, Zen koan collections are public records of the notable sayings and actions of Zen disciples and masters attempting to pass on the teaching, whether successfully or not.
Before the tradition of meditating on koans was recorded, Huangbo Xiyun (720-814) and Yun Men (864-949) are both recorded to have uttered the line "Yours is a clear-cut case (chien-cheng kung-an) but I spare you thirty blows", seeming to pass judgement over students' feeble expressions of enlightenment. Xuedou Zhongxian (???? 980-1052) — the original compiler of the 100 cases that later served as the basis for the Blue Cliff Record — used the term kung-an just once in that collection (according to Foulk) in Case #64.
Yuanwu (???? 1063-1135), compiler of the Blue Cliff Record in its present form, "gained some insight" by contemplating (kan) koans. Yuanwu may have been instructed to contemplate phrases by his teachers Chen-ju Mu-che (dates unknown) and Wu-tzu Fa-yen (???? ?-1104). Thus, by the Sung Dynasty, the term kung-an had apparently taken on roughly its present meaning from the legal jargon.
Subsequent interpreters have influenced the way the term koan is used. Dogen Zenji wrote of Genjokoan, which points out that everyday life experiences is the fundamental koan. Hakuin Ekaku recommended preparing for koan practice by concentrating on qi breathing and its effect on the body's center of gravity, called the dantian or "hara" in Japanese — thereby associating koan practice with pre-existing Taoist and Yogic chakra meditative practices.
The role of koans in the Soto, Rinzai, and other sects
Koan practice — concentrating on koans during meditation and other activities — is particularly important among Japanese practitioners of the Rinzai sect of Zen. However, study of koan literature is common to both Soto and Rinzai Zen. There is a common misconception that Soto and related schools do not use koans at all, but while few Soto practitioners concentrate on koans while meditating, many Soto practitioners are indeed highly familiar with koans.
In fact, the Soto sect has a strong historical connection with koans. Many koan collections were compiled by Soto priests. During the 13th century, Dogen, founder of the Soto sect in Japan, compiled some 300 koans in the volumes known as the Greater Shobogenzo. Other koans collections compiled and annotated by Soto priests include The Iron Flute (Japanese: Tetteki Tosui, compiled by Genro in 1783) and Verses and Commentaries on One Hundred Old Cases of Tenchian (Japanese: Tenchian hyakusoku hyoju, compiled by Tetsumon in 1771.) However, according to Michael Mohr, "...koan practice was largely expunged from the Soto school through the efforts of Gento Sokuchu (1729-1807), the eleventh abbot of Entsuji, who in 1795 was nominated abbot of Eiheiji".
A significant number of people who meditate with koans are affiliated with Japan's Sanbo Kyodan sect, and with various schools derived from that sect in North America, Europe, and Australia. Sanbo Kyodan was established in the 20th century, and has roots in both the Soto and Rinzai traditions.
Interpretation of koans
The purpose of koans is for a Zen practitioner to become aware of the difference between themselves, their mind, and their beliefs that influence how they see the world as an aspect of realizing their True nature. Paradoxes tend to arouse the mind for an extended duration as the mind goes around and around trying to resolve the paradox or koan to an "answer". This is a lot like a dog chasing its tail and, while it's chasing, the mind makes itself more visible. Once a Zen practitioner becomes aware of their mind as an independent form, the koan makes sense and the teaching point is realized.
Zen teachers and practitioners insist that the meaning of a koan can only be demonstrated in a live experience (after all, only you can witness your own mind and realize its nature). Texts (including koan collections and encyclopedia articles) cannot convey that meaning. Yet the Zen tradition has produced a great deal of literature, including thousands of koans and at least dozens of volumes of commentary. Nevertheless, teachers have long alerted students to the danger of confusing the interpretation of a koan with the realization of a koan. When teachers say "do not confuse the pointing finger with the moon", they indicate that awakening is the realization of your True nature — not ability to interpret a koan with the mind.
Even so, koans emerge from a literary context, and understanding that context can often remove some — but presumably not all — of the mystery surrounding a koan. For example, evidence suggests that when a monk asked Zhaozhou "does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?", the monk was asking a question that students had asked teachers for generations. The controversy over whether or not all beings have the potential for enlightenment is even older — and, in fact, vigorous controversy still surrounds the matter of Buddha nature.
No amount of interpretation seems to be able to exhaust a koan, so it's unlikely that there can be a "definitive" interpretation. Teachers typically warn against over-intellectualizing koans, but the mysteries of koans compel some students to place them in their original context — for example, by clarifying metaphors that were likely well-known to monks at the time the koans originally circulated.
Classical Koan collections
The Blue Cliff Record
The Blue Cliff Record (; ) is a collection of 100 koans compiled in 1125 by Yuanwu Keqin (???? 1063 – 1135).
The Book of Equanimity
The Book of Equanimity or Book of Serenity (Chinese: ???; Japanese: ??? Shoyoroku) is a collection of 100 Koans compiled in the 12th century by Hongzhi Zhengjue (Chinese: ????; Japanese: Wanshi Zenji) (1091 – 1157).
The Gateless Gate
The Gateless Gate (Chinese: ??? Wumenguan; Japanese: Mumonkan) is a collection of 48 koans and commentaries published in 1228 by Chinese monk Wumen (1183-1260). The title may be more accurately rendered as Gateless Barrier or Gateless Checkpoint).
Five koans in the collection derive from the sayings and doings of Zhaozhou Congshen, (transliterated as Chao-chou in Wade-Giles and pronounced Joshu in Japanese).
The True Dharma Eye
The True Dharma Eye 300 (Shobogenzo Sanbyakusoku) is a collection of 300 koan-s compiled by Eihei Dogen.
Other traditional koans
Killing the Buddha
- If you meet the Buddha, kill him.
- — Linji
If you are thinking about Buddha, this is thinking and delusion, not awakening. One must destroy preconceptions of the Buddha. Zen master Shunryu Suzuki wrote in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind during an introduction to Zazen, "Kill the Buddha if the Buddha exists somewhere else. Kill the Buddha, because you should resume your own Buddha nature."
The sound of one hand
- Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?
- — Hakuin Ekaku
- "...in the beginning a monk first thinks a koan is an inert object upon which to focus attention; after a long period of consecutive repetition, one realizes that the koan is also a dynamic activity, the very activity of seeking an answer to the koan. The koan is both the object being sought and the relentless seeking itself. In a koan, the self sees the self not directly but under the guise of the koan...When one realizes ("makes real") this identity, then two hands have become one. The practitioner becomes the koan that he or she is trying to understand. That is the sound of one hand." — G. Victor Sogen Hori, Translating the Zen Phrase Book
What is the Buddha?
Zen teachers asked this question have given various answers. Here are some of them:
- "Three pounds of flax." — Attributed to Dòngshan Shouchu in case 18 of The Gateless Gate
- "Dried dung." — Attributed to Yúnmén Wényan in case 21 of The Gateless Gate
Contemporary koans
- Anecdotes of recent Zen teachers have started to make their way into Zen lore as koans, for example:
- One day, a student of Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi confronted him at Sokoji, in his office, and said, “if you believe in freedom why do you keep your bird locked up in a cage?” Suzuki Roshi went over and opened the door of the cage and the bird flew out of the cage and out of the window. It is said that then Shunryu Suzuki turned to the student and said “That bird is free – you owe me a bird.”
- The caterpillar said, "One side will make you grow bigger and the other side will make you grow smaller"
- "One side of what? The other side of what?" thought Alice to herself.
- "Of the mushroom," said the caterpillar.
- Alice looked at the mushroom, trying to make out which were the two sides of it, as it was perfectly round.
- Loori, John Daido (1994) Two Arrows Meeting in Mid-Air: the Zen Koan, p. 174, Charles E Tuttle Co.Inc., Rutland ISBN 0-8048-3012-6
- “‘Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?’ ‘Woof’”.
- “If you have ice cream I will give you some.
- If you have no ice cream I will take it away from you.”
- Hacker culture has recorded a number of humorous anecdotes that use the literary form of Chinese and Japanese koans, but which describe non-religious breakthrough understanding or the merely inexplicable. See Hacker koan.
See also
Further reading
- Loori, John Daido. Sitting with Koans: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Koan Study. Wisdom Publications, 2005. ISBN 978-0861713691
- Hoffmann, Yoel.tr. The Sound of the One Hand. Basic Books, 1975. ISBN 9780465080793 This book contains examples of how some Zen practitioners answer the koans "correctly". Originally published in Japan almost a century ago as a critique of fossilization of Zen, that is formalization of koan practice.
- Kirchner, Thomas Yuho, and Ueda Shizuteru ????. Entangling Vines : Zen Koans of the Shumon Kattoshu ?????. Saga Tenryuji (Japan): Tenryu-ji Institute for Philosophy and Religion, 2004.
External links
- 48 Zen koans compiled in the early 13th century
- A collection of 100 koans, originally compiled in the 12th century
- Links and information about Koans
- - a humorous look at koans
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- - a list of koans
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- - a talk given by Geoffrey Shugen Arnold regarding Zhaozhou's Cypress
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- Chung-ying Cheng discusses how to "make good sense of Zen language and its puzzles and paradoxes" such as found in koans.
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