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I was going to ask in another thread what is the use of just reading and discussing a koan?…Thank you Taigu for telling us that it's not going to be just a discussion. I heard that sometimes it takes years for a student to crack a koan. Got my book in the mail today. This one has 100 of them
If one thinks a reading is just words, and a discussion is just chewing the fat ... then one misses the sharp point that cuts through delusion. Neither a matter of words or silence ... but the Silence that Sings through the Heart of Life.
Nor is it a puzzle to crack, or weird gestures in the air, mysterious words and actions or MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOing like an old cow (though one certainly can MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO if one's heart needs to) ...
People that are familiar with my one to one teaching know that I don't act like a rinzai roshi, shout or do mysterious things. On top of that, I am not qualified to guide anybody in koan study, having no experience of doing it myself. So...What's the heck?!!!
We are not going to mimick or copy the Rinzai way. We are going to see how clearly the case is living in our life, how dark or bright it is. How do we manifest our understanding in a dynamic way bypassing the intellectual way to cuts one into two. So it is not going to be about philosophy, theory, esoteric teachings...
Because the answer is overwhelmingly enthusiastic and my time is extremely limited, I am going to have to sort things out, do a lot of planning and give priority to my closest students. One thing for sure, I won t put up anymore with people telling me they will make it and finding myself on the other side of the globe wasting the freetime I have with a ghost. I might have to start the process in three months time when loosing a big chunck of my workload, I shall have more time.
I was going to ask in another thread what is the use of just reading and discussing a koan?…Thank you Taigu for telling us that it's not going to be just a discussion. I heard that sometimes it takes years for a student to crack a koan. Got my book in the mail today. This one has 100 of them
If one thinks a reading is just words, and a discussion is just chewing the fat ... then one misses the sharp point that cuts through delusion. Neither a matter of words or silence ... but the Silence that Sings through the Heart of Life.
Nor is it a puzzle to crack, or weird gestures in the air, mysterious words and actions or MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOing like an old cow (though one certainly can MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO if one's heart needs to) ...
Let's see how it goes, don't jump to assumptions and conclusions about how it is supposed to be or the ways a Koan should be handled.
Koans are "cracked" in 1000 instants, practiced for life.
Gassho, J
Yes, Jundo, you’re absolutely right. From all the reading that I’ve done on koans I definitely did form an idea of what the koan study “supposed” to be like. I know that Dogen used koans in his teaching but it was probably different from rinzai approach of sitting and living with a koan. It would be interesting to learn more about it. As you mentioned many times there’re many ways up that mountain.
Why do we need to study any koan? we have the big, tremendous genjokoan of daily life, isn't that what Dogen said... :mrgreen: OK OK I'm out... :roll:
Yes, Dogen spoke of this very life manifesting in 10,000 ways as the Genjo Koan ... the Fundamental Point Actualizing, Reality Realized, the Matter at Hand.
But Dogen's Shobogenzo and other writings and talks are wall-to-wall chock full of the "classic Koans", passages from Sutras and the like page after page ... though Dogen would play each like a Jazz musician bends and spins a "standard tune", bringing new life and new meanings to the old songs.
Dogen was a big fan of both the Book of Equanimity and the Blue Cliff Record, and had his own notebook of Koans he collected himself called the "Shinji Shobogenzo" with many of the same Koans as those collections.
But, yes, it seems that he employed the Koans to teach and express his music, the "sound" of Buddhism he heard with his eyes. He did not use them in the Rinzai way as an object of focus or inspection during seated Zazen.
Yup, ordered the book! (And Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf, poems by Ryokan! Couldn't resist it!)
/Pontus
In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day
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