In Soto Zen tradition we have many koans (most of which are the same ones found in Rinzai), but we do not engage them in the formal, systematic way used in Rinzai. Only then does the student pass, and then get assigned a new koan. In the Rinzai system, the student must demonstrate his understanding in a way that communicates to the teacher that the koan has been absorbed and resolved in a real and personal way. What is her answer to the question? How would she respond if Nansen drew a circle on the road? The answer isn’t one that can simply be stated verbally instead, it has to be lived. Even when the question or teaching in the koan is identified, the student must wrestle with it for herself. It’s all part of the process to wrestle with the language and open one’s mind to what might be going on. The student has to explore the koan in a personal, non-intellectual way in order to reach the essence of the question or teaching it contains. It takes a while to get used to their imagery and language, and even then, the meaning may not be obvious. Kiso said, “What’s going on in your mind?” Īs you can see, traditional koans tend to be pretty inscrutable at first. Halfway there, Nansen drew a circle on the road and said, “If you can speak, we’ll go on.” “Nansen, Kiso, and Mayoku went together to pay respects to National Teacher Chu. Here’s an example of a classic koan from the Blue Cliff Record, just to give you a sense of them:
There are many commentaries on the traditional koans, but that doesn’t usually help the student much. However, I think it’s fair to say that the typical Rinzai method is for a teacher to assign a student a koan. It’s difficult to describe exactly what that “intensive contemplation” entails, and as a Soto – not a Rinzai – practitioner, I’m not the best one to try. In most Linji (Japanese: Rinzai) lineages of Zen, koan stories were and are arranged into a curriculum and used as subjects of intensive contemplation by students. Koan stories were developed and collected starting in the Tang dynasty (618–907) in China, and there are many classic koans along with collections of hundreds of such stories in volumes such as the Blue Cliff Record. A koan story may be a statement by a Chan master, an exchange between teachers, or the interaction between a teacher and student. Literally “ koan” means “public case.” If a story made it into the koan literature, it was because it seen as presenting something of enduring Dharmic significance, relevant to any practitioner. In a classic, historical sense, koans are short, written accounts of statements by Chan teachers or exchanges between teachers and students in Chan Buddhism (originally, in China later Zen in Japan, and known by other names in other places the lineage spread from China). Mindfulness on and off the Meditation Seat Natural Koans: The Soto Zen “Koan Arises in Everyday Life”
#SOTO ZEN QUOTES ON MIND HOW TO#
In this episode, I discuss “natural koans,” or Dharma gates that arise in our everyday lives, and how to work with them. On the other side of that gate is greater freedom, wisdom, and compassion.
Each koan contains a Dharma teaching, and until you personally experience and digest that teaching, the koan remains a closed gate you need to pass through. 183 - Koans Naturales: Utilizando Nuestras Limitaciones Como Puertas del Dharmaįormal Zen koans are short stories or statements by past Chan/Zen masters which have been passed down through the generations for study and contemplation by Zen students.
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