About Koans
A Koan is a story that heals.
Koans are an ancient tradition of stories, phrases, poems of statements that were identified, though the years, for their transformational ability. Sometimes the koan is a recounting of the circumstances that lead to the awakening of a particular student. Sometimes they shock. Sometimes they confuse, but always the koan interacts with something deeper than the mind. In fact, how the mind encounters a koan is no more important than how your knee or stomach encounters the koan.
A koan may appear non-nonsensical, but a koan is not a riddle or a puzzle. It cannot be solved by understanding it. Only when it opens you up to something new about your true nature, when something in you shifts in response, will you resolve the koan through realizing the koan.
A koan is about you. You have everything you need to realize the koan. And everything you are doing is working with the koan. By being with the koan, you let the koan transform your mind. You will never be the same.
"Koans are not intended to prescribe a particular kind of happiness or right way to live. they don't teach you to assemble or make something that didn't exist before. Many psychological and spiritual approaches rely on an engineering metaphor and hope to make your mind more predictable and controllable. Koans go the other way. They encourage you to make an ally of the unpredictability of the mind and to approach your life more as a work of art. The surprise they offer is the one that art offers: inside unpredictability you will find not chaos, but beauty. Koans light up a life that may have been dormant in you; they hold out the possibility of transformation even if you are trying to address unclear or apparently insoluble problems" John Tarrant, Bring Me The Rhinoceros.
Koans show you that you can depend on creative moves,
Koans encourage doubt and curiosity,
Koans rely on uncertainty as a path to happiness,
Koans will undermine you reasons and your explanations,
Koans will change your idea of who you are and this will require courage,
Koans unconver a hidden kindness in life.
Koans are an ancient tradition of stories, phrases, poems of statements that were identified, though the years, for their transformational ability. Sometimes the koan is a recounting of the circumstances that lead to the awakening of a particular student. Sometimes they shock. Sometimes they confuse, but always the koan interacts with something deeper than the mind. In fact, how the mind encounters a koan is no more important than how your knee or stomach encounters the koan.
A koan may appear non-nonsensical, but a koan is not a riddle or a puzzle. It cannot be solved by understanding it. Only when it opens you up to something new about your true nature, when something in you shifts in response, will you resolve the koan through realizing the koan.
A koan is about you. You have everything you need to realize the koan. And everything you are doing is working with the koan. By being with the koan, you let the koan transform your mind. You will never be the same.
"Koans are not intended to prescribe a particular kind of happiness or right way to live. they don't teach you to assemble or make something that didn't exist before. Many psychological and spiritual approaches rely on an engineering metaphor and hope to make your mind more predictable and controllable. Koans go the other way. They encourage you to make an ally of the unpredictability of the mind and to approach your life more as a work of art. The surprise they offer is the one that art offers: inside unpredictability you will find not chaos, but beauty. Koans light up a life that may have been dormant in you; they hold out the possibility of transformation even if you are trying to address unclear or apparently insoluble problems" John Tarrant, Bring Me The Rhinoceros.
Koans show you that you can depend on creative moves,
Koans encourage doubt and curiosity,
Koans rely on uncertainty as a path to happiness,
Koans will undermine you reasons and your explanations,
Koans will change your idea of who you are and this will require courage,
Koans unconver a hidden kindness in life.
About Koan practice at Pacific Zen Institute and Wind-in-Grass
John Tarrant, head teacher at the Pacific Zen Institute, is perhaps the most innovative and groundbreaking teacher of koans for the stimulation of awakening in America today. Pacific Zen Institute, therefore, and all its affiliates, concentrate on the use of koans for their practice.
While koans are often private affairs between a teacher and his/her student broken open in interviews, at PZI we also practice koans in the traditional Chinese fashion, that is, as the word koan is literally translated, as a "public case". We hold koan discussions, small groups, and seminars that allow the koan to be shared by the room and to work with a koan in a group.
We also notice how koans spring up like wildflowers and how a simple phrase of work might become for us, a koan.
While koans are often private affairs between a teacher and his/her student broken open in interviews, at PZI we also practice koans in the traditional Chinese fashion, that is, as the word koan is literally translated, as a "public case". We hold koan discussions, small groups, and seminars that allow the koan to be shared by the room and to work with a koan in a group.
We also notice how koans spring up like wildflowers and how a simple phrase of work might become for us, a koan.
How to Work with a Koan
You will work with koans the way you work with life. For some that means that you will seek out the koan. Others will let the koan come to them. If you are a thinker, you are going to start off by thinking about the koan. If you are in tune with your emotions, you will react to the koan. You might see things. You might notice that the koan lies dormant for days or months. The koan might visit your dreams. You might see the koan in a glass of water. You may be bored, irritated. You might find the koan is a companion that carries you. Most likely, the koan will be all of these things and yet you will find yourself saying "this can't be it, can it?" It can. It is.
Example Koans
Stop the sound of that distant temple bell.
Santoka’s stone:
Put out that fire across the river.
Extinguish that star.
Hush the baby.
Stop that jet.
Taking the form of Guanyin, find shelter for the homeless person.
Hide in a pillar.
Make the mountains dance.
Yu the donut maker
The lost coin
16 Bodhisattvas take a bath
Everyday is a good day
Falling Flowers Koan
Santoka’s stone:
Put out that fire across the river.
Extinguish that star.
Hush the baby.
Stop that jet.
Taking the form of Guanyin, find shelter for the homeless person.
Hide in a pillar.
Make the mountains dance.
Yu the donut maker
The lost coin
16 Bodhisattvas take a bath
Everyday is a good day
Falling Flowers Koan
More about Koans
Do you want to know more about koans, or dip your toes in the water? We recommend you start by reading John Tarrant's book, Bring me the Rhinoceros, listening to our recorded dharma talks, and/or by coming to sit with us.
