![]() ![]() “Zen kōans: unsolvable enigmas designed to break your brain.” Ted-Ed. “10 Buddhist koans, and why understanding them is pointless.” Big Think. “These Zen Buddhist Koans Will Open Your Mind.” Huffington Post. Explore the Zen Collection to learn how to sit in the Zen style, discover the teachings of the Buddha, and find practical ways to apply these practices to your everyday life. Inside the Muse app, our Zen teachers offer different perspectives and practices for living with more calm, happiness, and presence. If you’ve ever been in a “flow” state, you may have felt something close to this.Īnd though “flow” is not the same thing, there’s a similar feeling of selflessness and presence.Įnhance your Zen journey with the Muse 2 Headband or the Muse S Headband. Zen Buddhists believe that in this state, one can perceive the sense of self as merely an idea (5). Koans are one tool to help you get to a place of emptiness. There is an idea in Zen that from emptiness, there is clarity. One says, “The flag is moving.” The other, “The wind is moving.” A third walks by and says, “Not the wind, not the flag the mind is moving (3).” Out of nowhere, the mind comes forth (2).When both hands are clapped a sound is produced listen to the sound of one hand clapping (1).There are a few popular kōans that can help you get your feet wet: With 1700 kōans available, it would take a lifetime to consider them all and even longer to decide where to begin. Learn more about the Most Prolific Zen Masters > It is achieved by going down into one’s own inner, secret place, and asking there for a direct encounter with the world, independent of convention (3).” He wrote that the kōans are not about asking impressive questions, but rather about guiding the student toward self-discovery: “.not by looking out of the corner of your eye to see if everybody else is getting the same results as you or by trying to find out what others have already discovered. The British-American philosopher Alan Watts helped bring these brain enigmas to a wider audience through his Zen-haiku-kōan infused beat poetry. “The role of the kōan is not to lead us to satori (enlightenment), but, on the contrary, to make us lose our way and drive us to despair (3).” Alan Watts Meditating on a kōan could keep a student sitting for hours, weeks, or months in contemplation. Zen Master Philip Kapleau shares that the period of despair is usually not short. It can be helpful to turn to Zen masters, authors, and contemporaries who’ve sat with kōans to hear their perspectives on what the puzzles are intended to do and the effects they’ve had on those trying to solve them.Īuthor Don Dianda of See for Yourself: Zen Mindfulness for the Next Generation, offers his perspective: “The kōan serves as a surgical tool used to cut into and then break through the mind of the practitioner… Kōans aren’t just puzzles that your mind figures out suddenly and proclaims, “Aha! the answer is three!” They wait for you to open enough to allow the space necessary for them to enter into your depths-the inner regions beyond knowing (2).” Kōans themselves are meant to break the thinking mind and explanations of them can sound equally mind-boggling. It’s in the practice of simply sitting and contemplating, that Zen monks believe they will learn bigger truths about themselves and the world (2). Instead of focusing on right and wrong or black and white, kōans helped monks avoid clinging to answers or outcomes-because they lack them. They also serve to help achieve a central tenet of Buddhism: letting go of binary thinking. ![]() In this way, kōans serve to help monks live with ambiguity and paradox. Monks essentially engage in extended periods of contemplation, sitting and pondering these unsolvable puzzles. They posit that there’s value in questions themselves without any answers, which runs counter to our logical way of thinking. Used primarily in the Soto tradition of Zen Buddhism, they’re seen as a meditative technique to be used during zazen, Zen’s seated practice (3).įor our thinking minds designed to solve, kōans can be tough to wrap our heads around. ![]() Short statements (or questions) that are often a paradox, Zen kōans came about for the purpose of fostering contemplation. This question gave rise to the birth of Zen kōans. They essentially asked: What if we didn’t need an explanation for everything? A group of Chinese priests back in the 13th century decided to take this question a step further. How do we explain the unexplainable? Throughout the ages, this question has persisted, inspiring legends, myths, and religious traditions across the world. Zen Kōans: Learning to Live with Ambiguity and Paradox ![]()
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