![]() Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. 3.) A ParableĪ man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. Sometimes morality is just as muddy as the road Tanzan and Ekido were traveling down. Sometimes the right thing to do is to do the wrong thing according to convention. Some of which are in balance with greater cosmic law and some of which are not. The human condition is never cut and dry. Ekido is so caught up in the rightness and wrongness of Tanzans actions that he becomes a victim to the static past at the expense of the dynamic present. This koan reminds me of the following quote by Rumi, Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. We monks dont go near females, he told Tanzan, especially not young and lovely ones. Then he no longer could restrain himself. ![]() Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.Įkido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. A heavy rain was still falling.Ĭoming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.Ĭome on, girl said Tanzan at once. Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. Similar to the Zen proverb, Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. Indeed, a mind-dump a day keeps the brainwash away. What were pouring out of the cup of our minds is the egos attachment to learning and memory and a releasing of fixed opinions and rigid expectations. The paradox is that we can never truly let go of what weve learned. The imagery of the cup overflowing is a powerful symbol reminding us to let things go so that we can pour more experience into our lives. This is a classic Zen koan about the importance of learning, unlearning, and relearning so as to remain sharp and free from fixed thinking. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup? Like this cup, Nan-in said, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. He poured his visitors cup full, and then kept on pouring. Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. This article, covers the following topics : Here are 5 Zen Koans that have the potential to open your mind. They are ambiguous and paradoxical, waiting for our minds to open up enough to allow the space for deep intuition to emerge -beyond knowing and into no-minding, through the use of imaginative mindfulness. Koans are not merely black and white riddles that our minds figure out suddenly and proclaim, Aha! Ive got the answer! Its a hammer used to shatter fixed thinking, a Rubiks Cube of words for the mind to unravel. The Zen koan serves as a scalpel used to cut into the mind of the meditator. Question: What is Buddha? Answer: Three pounds of flax. When both hands are clapped a sound is produced listen to the sound of one hand clapping. For example, perhaps the two most well-known koans are as follows, simple and succinct, short and elegant… They simply point out that reality itself cannot be caught. But they are neither anti-intellectual nor intellectual. They are not about arriving at an answer, but to see for ourselves that our intellections can never provide us with a completely satisfying answer. Some might even claim that koans are anti-intellectual. The point of the koan is to exhaust the analytic and egoic mind in order to reveal the more intuitive no-mind. Koans are self-paradoxical riddles used as a meditation discipline in Zen Buddhism.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |