The first is the Blue Cliff Records (Chin., Pi-yen lu Jap., Hekigan-roku), first compiled by Hsüeh-tou Ch'ung-hsien (980–1052) and later expanded by Yüan-wu K'o-ch'in (1063–1135). However, two anthologies of kōans stand out in the Ch'an tradition. Subsequently, many Sung-period masters of the Lin-chi school excelled in the use of kōans and in the contrivance of situations later enshrined in kōans. These appear in the middle volume of the Record of Fen-yang (Chin, Fen-yang lu). 930).įen-yang Shan-chao (942–1024) of the Lin-chi school was the first to compile an anthology of kōans, many of which he composed himself. The formal use of such stories as a teaching device for students is first mentioned in connection with Nan-yüan Hui-yung (d. In reading the story of a master whose teaching methods had led a student to enlightenment (bodhi), they could ask themselves: what was the master's mind at that moment? What did the student experience? In other cases not involving the recounting of an enlightenment experience but simply giving an instance of a master's teaching or even a casual dialogue, the student could try to break through the obstructions in their own mind that kept them from directly experiencing their own nature and seeing their own inherent enlightenment. As students reflected upon these stories, they found that they could use them as helpful devices in their own meditation. Examples included the Record of Lin-chi (Chin., Lin-chi lu) and the Patriarchs' Hall Anthology (Chin, Tsu t'ang chi). Later, during the mid- to late Sung period, stories of master–student encounters that had succeeded, or simple tales of a master's strange behaviour, circulated within Ch'an circles in the form of ‘sayings of the master’ or ‘transmission of the lamp’ (Chin., ch'uan teng lu) literature. These ‘shock Ch'an’ or ‘crazy Ch'an’ techniques included beating, shouting directly into the student's ear, or giving paradoxical or nonsensical responses to their questions. During the late T'ang and early Sung dynasties in China.the Ch'an community experimented with many new teaching methods that would allow masters to directly elicit an experience of awakening (Satori) on the part of their students. Paragraph form with links to related content that the reader might be interested giving them contextĪnd related information here and tk copy link to article here and here tk copy here and here.Sometimes referred to as ‘zen riddles’, kōans are brief stories or dialogues from the Ch'an/zen tradition upon which Zen students focus during their meditation in order to penetrate their meaning. Tk copy here about related articles cpy here and here in This surprising answer has catalyzed practitioners’ meditation, self-questioning, and development of insight for all these centuries, and the koan is still given to students today. You may have heard some of the more celebrated koans, such as “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” or “Show me your face before your parents were born.” One famous example of a single-word koan derives from a 10th-century Chinese story in which a student asks the renowned master Chao-chou (pinyin, Zhauzhou Japanese, Joshu) whether a dog has buddhanature (the potential for awakening) and the master replies “Wu!” (“ emptiness“). In some schools, a student may work on a koan for years, or may need to work through a traditional list of koans. When habitual thinking or reasoning leads nowhere, they will begin to “sit with” the koan and ultimately bring the teacher a direct or spontaneous “answer” that reflects their Zen training. The tradition of koan study may vary in some ways in different schools of Zen, but in the form most familiar to us in the West, students are given a koan (which may be more or less well known) and are asked to demonstrate to the teacher their comprehension of its meaning. The word koan is a spelling of Chinese gong’an, meaning “public record” or “legal precedent,” and also means “story.” Most of the koans used today come from several collections of gong’an dating back to 12th- and 13th-century China the best-known collections have been translated many times and are found in English under titles like “The Gateless Gate” and “The Blue Cliff Record.” In these anthologies, each story-usually an exchange between two Buddhist masters or between master and student-is paired with elucidating commentary, a brief encapsulation of the point, lines of verse, and sometimes commentary on the verse. Contemplating these words is part of the training given by a teacher to help a Buddhist student to awaken. A koan is a surprising or paradoxical word or phrase, taken from an anecdote, that is used as an object of meditation in traditions descended from Chinese Chan Buddhism, like Japanese Zen.
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