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March 8, 2014 |
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A koan is a story, dialog, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rationality|rational understanding, yet that may be accessible to intuition|Intuition. One 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). Koans are said to reflect the Bodhi|enlightened or awakened state of historical sages and legendary figures who uttered them, and sometimes said to confound the habit of discursive thought or shock the mind into awareness or an experience of metanoia or radical change of consciousness and perspective, from the point of view of which the koan 'question' is resolved, and the practitioner's religious faith is enhanced. Koans typically include the words of, or dialog with, an awakened or enlightened person, generally one authorized to teach in a lineage that regards Bodhidharma (c. 5th century|5th-6th century) as its ancestor. Informally, the term koan sometimes refers to any experience that accompanies awakening, spiritual insight, or kensho. As used by teachers, monks, and students in training, koan can refer to a story selected from traditional sayings and doings of such sages, a perplexing element of the story, a concise but critical word or phrase (話頭 hua-tou) 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 and timely response when asked about a koan. Even so, a koan is not a riddle or a puzzle<sup>#references|1</sup>. Appropriate responses to a koan vary according to circumstances; there is no fixed answer that is correct in every circumstance. The word koan corresponds to the Chinese characters 公案 which can be rendered in various ways: gongan (Chinese language|Chinese pinyin); kung-an (Chinese Wade-Giles); gong'an (Korean language|Korean); cong-an (Vietnamese language|Vietnamese); kōan (Japanese_language|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. <!-- Note to editors: the list in this section should not attempt to interpret the meanings -- that's for the "Interpretation of Koans" section. -->
<i>Koan</i> is a Japanese rendering of the Chinese term (公案), often transliterated as "kung-an" or ""gong-an"" in pinyin. Chung Feng Ming Pen (中峰明本 1263-1323) wrote that kung-an is an abbreviation for kung-fu an-tu (公府之案牘 pronounced in Japanese as ko-fu no an-toku), which referred to a "public record" or the "case records of a public law court"<sup>#references|4</sup> in Tang Dynasty|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..."<sup>#references|4</sup>. Apparently, <i>kung-an</i> was itself originally a metaphor—an article of furniture that came to denote legal precedents. 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 (雪竇重顯 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<sup>#references|4</sup>) in Case #64. Yuanwu (圜悟克勤 1063-1135), compiler of the Blue Cliff Record (碧巌録) in its present form, "gained some insight" by contemplating (kan) koans<sup>#references|5</sup>. Yuanwu may have been instructed to contemplate phrases by his teachers Chen-ju Mu-che (dates unknown) and Wu-tzu Fa-yen (五祖法演 ?-1104). Thus, by the Song Dynasty|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 relates everyday life experiences to koans. Hakuin Ekaku recommended preparing for koan practice by concentrating on ki|qi breathing and its effect on the body's center of gravity, called the tanden or hara in Japanese—thereby associating koan practice with pre-existing Taoism|Taoist and Yoga|Yogic meditative practices. Koan practice—concentrating on koans during meditation and other activities—is particularly important among Japanese practictioners 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 practictioners 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."<sup>#references|6</sup>, p245. 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. Zen teachers and practitioners insist that the meaning of a koan can only be demonstrated in a live experience. 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 standard — not ability to interpret. 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<sup>#references|7</sup> 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 all beings have the potential for enlightment is even older<sup>#references|8</sup> — and in fact, vigorous controversy<sup>#references|9</sup> 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 reduce (but not necessarily eliminate) the uncertainties — for example, by clarifying metaphors that were likely well-known to monks at the time the koans originally circulated. In that spirit, we present some interpretations that are certainly not the last word. The sound of one hand
The Gateless Gate The Gateless Gate or Mumonkan is a collection of 48 koans and commentaries compiled in the early 13th century by Chinese monk Wumen. Several of these involve Zen master Zhaozhou, otherwise known as Chao-chou or, in Japanese, Jōshū. Case 1: Zhaozhou's Dog
In another koan, Zhaozhou answers differently:
Case 6: Buddha Holds out a Flower
Case 7: Zhaozhou Washes the Bowl
Case 8: Keichu's Wheel
Case 29: Huineng's Flag
Case 37: Zhaozhou's Cypress
Other Traditional Koans What is the Buddha? Zen masters asked this question have given various answers. Here are some of them:
Kill the Buddha
The Abbot's Gift
Contemporary Koans Anecdotes of recent zen teachers have started to make their way into zen lore as koans, for example:
1 See Futh Fuller Sasaki's introduction on page xi of <i>The Zen Koan</i>, Isshu Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Harvest/HBJ, 1965; see also Steve Hagen's introduction on page vii of the 2000 edition of <i>The Iron Flute</i> (subtitle) <i>100 Zen Koans</i>, translated into English by Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Stout McCandless, originally <i>Tetteki Tosui</i>, Genro, 1783; see also pp xiii, 26, and 212 of <i>The Gateless Barrier</i> (subtitle) <i>The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan)</i>, Robert Aitken, North Point Press/Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York, 1991, incorporates Wu-Men Kuan (J. Mumonkan), Wu-Men, 1228); see also p64 of <i>Two Arrows Meeting in Mid Air</i> (subtitle) <i>The Zen Koan</i>, John Daido Loori, Charles E. Tuttle, Vermont/Tokyo, 1994. 2 See chapter 4 of <i>Zen Sand</i> (subtitle) <i>The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice</i>, Victor Sogen Hori, 2003, University of Hawai'i Press 3 <i>The Gateless Barrier</i> (subtitle) <i>Zen comments on the Mumonkan</i>, Zenkei Shibayama (1894-1974), Translated from Chinese and Japanese into English by Sumiko Kudo, Shambhala Publications, 1974; incorporates Wu-Men Kuan (J. Mumonkan), Wu-Men, 1228) 4 See <i>The Zen Koan</i> (see note 1) p4-6, and also "The form and function of koan literature" (subtitle) "A historical overview", T. Griffith Foulk, in <i>The Koan</i> (subtitle) <i>Texts and contexts in Zen Buddhism</i>, Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, eds., 2000, Oxford University Press, p21-22. Assertions that the literal meaning of kung-an is the table, desk, or bench of a magistrate appear on page 18 of the article by Foulk, and also in <i>Seeing Through Zen</i>, (subtitle) <i>Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism</i>, John R. MacRae, 2003, University of California Press, p172-173 note 16. 5 See <i>Zen Letters</i> (subtitle) <i>Teachings of Yuanwu</i>, Yuanwu Kequin (1063-1135), translated into English by J. C. Cleary and Thomas Cleary, 1994, Shambhala Publications, p16, and "Before the empty eon versus A dog has no Buddha-nature" (subtitle) "Kung-an use in the Ts'ao-tung tradition and Ta-hui's Kung-an introspction Ch'an", Morten Schlutter, in <i>The Koan</i> (subtitle) <i>Texts and contexts in Zen Buddhism</i>, Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, eds., 2000, Oxford University Press, p185-186 6 "Emerging from Nonduality" (subtitle) "Koan Practice in the Rinzai tradition since Hakuin", Michael Mohr, in <i>The Koan</i> (subtitle) <i>Texts and contexts in Zen Buddhism</i>, Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, eds., 2000, Oxford University Press, p245 7 See the commentary on case #1 in <i>The Gateless Barrier</i> (subtitle) <i>Zen Comments on the Mumonkan</i>, Zenkei Shibayama, translated in English by Sumiko Kudo, 1974, Shambhala Publications 8 See "Tao-sheng's Theory of Sudden Enlightenment", Whalen Lai, in <i>Sudden and Gradual</i> (subtitle) <i>Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought</i>, p173 and 191. The latter page documents how in 429 or thereabouts (more than 400 years before Zhaozhou), Tao-sheng was expelled from the Buddhist monastic community for defending the idea that incorrigible persons (<i>icchantika</i>) do indeed have Buddha-nature (<i>fo-hsing</i>). 9 <i>Pruning the Bodhi Tree</i> (subtitle) <i>The Storm over Critical Buddhism</i> Jamie Hubbard and Paul L. Swanson, eds, 1997, University of Hawaii Press; for example see Chapter 1, "Why They Say Zen Is Not Buddhism" (subtitle) "Recent Japanese Critiques of Buddha-Nature", Paul L. Swanson 10 <i>The Gateless Barrier</i> (subtitle) <i>The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan)</i>, Robert Aitken, North Point Press/Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York, 1991, incorporates Wu-Men Kuan (J. Mumonkan), Wu-Men, 1228); see p306, footnote 1 for Case #37 11 <i>Translating the Zen Phrase Book</i>, G. Victor Sogen Hori, Nanzan Bulletin 23, 1999, p44-58. http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/Bulletin_and_Shoho/pdf/23-Hori.pdf Dates are as per Zen's Chinese Heritage, subtitled The masters and their teachings by Andy Ferguson, published in 2000 by Wisdom Publications. Koan (公安) is a common shorthand for the Japanese National Public Safety Commission. ---- Koan, Emperor of Japan|Koan is also a name for an Emperor of Japan. ---- Koan is also the name of an algorithmic music software package. ---- Hacker culture has invented a number of humorous koans which do not fit the normal definition of koan. See hacker koan. Category:Zen Category:Metaphors de:Koan (Zen) fr:koan ja:公案 pl:Koan This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Koan".
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