What is a Zen koan?
3/31/04
Koans (pronounced 'co-aan') come from Zen Buddhism. A koan is a riddle or question, often nonsensical or paradoxical, asked of the student by a Zen master. It is a challenge and they often have a lot of shock value. The intent is to use these forceful, shocking, and often ridiculous questions that make no sense, to stress and push the student to the point of having an enlightenment, or a "eureka" breakthrough realization.
Probably the most widely known koan is the question "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" One hand clapping makes no sound. Ridiculous question. The answer may be that the sound is the sound of Emptiness (Emptiness in the Buddhist sense). The "hum" of the universe, if you will. The sound that is not made by any two things striking together. (All sounds are made by the impact of two things. Even your voice is made by the molecules of your breath striking your vocal cords.)
Here is another that illustrates the shock value. The master asked the student what the Buddha is. Very big, open ended question. After the student struggled with it and probably came up with many valid answers, the master gave the answer he expected: "A dried up shit stick." Literally what they wiped their asses with. I think the lesson is that all things have Buddha nature.
Another example, the master points out a row of three trees and asks the student what the middle tree means. Many people will struggle with this a lot trying to find the meaning of the middle tree, and can come up with any number of things it may mean, using all kinds of symbolism. The intent is for the student to struggle with this question, never coming up with a satisfactory answer, until they finally get fed up and realize that the middle tree doesn't mean a damn thing! It means nothing. The tree has no meaning, and the fact that it's between two other trees doesn't mean anything either. One lesson is to not see meanings where there are none, but another is to realize that ultimately nothing has any meaning... (Emptiness again).
So are koans just torturous word games? Word games yes, but torture is not the intent. They are used to get the student to have insights and realizations that they otherwise never would, unchallenged by daily life. Quite literally they are used to get the student to think outside the box. Really to break them out of that mental box permanently.
