SELF-MASTERY
The Power of a Koan
The secret weapon of Zen Buddhism in helping people reach enlightenment.
The Zen Koan (or Chan gong-an in Chinese) is a much-misunderstood component of the Zen branch of Buddhism. Firstly, it is important to know that one of the characteristics of Zen Buddhism as opposed the other forms of Buddhism is the belief that enlightenment can be achieved in this lifetime (not at the point of death). This is why the koan exists, it is one of many tools that the enlightened teacher can use to help a student reach enlightenment or test that he is already there.
In the West, ‘spiritual’ gurus are often represented as answering questions with contradictions and making very little sense. Assuming this is an accurate description of someone’s encounter with a spiritual teacher, it’s possibly for a number of reasons:
1) They are baffling the student with science because they don’t really know anything and as long as the student remains baffled the teacher remains hidden.
2) They are giving the best answer they possibly can but by correctly expressing a distinct subtlety they are losing the student or observer
3) They are posing a contradiction to promote unconventional problem solving
4) They are sharing insight from such a fundamentally different philosophical perspective that without the requisite schema it appears to be illogical or nonsense
5) They are presenting a koan
So hopefully that list should also express what a Zen koan is not. A koan is typically a short story or phrase for contemplation, with very specific wording or sequence of events. The story form typically featuring a Zen master aiding the enlightenment of another that has elements of meaning that can only be penetrated by an enlightened or near-to-be-enlightened mind. It’s “to connect every concept to our actual experience". The idea being that enlightenment must be a combination of objectively understood concepts but rooted in your ‘soul’. The West in particular, but human nature in general, carries the arrogance that knowing something is enough. In fact, being something is far more important. Koans are designed to help stitch this all together.
