Koans

Recently I came across a few questions and while travelling too, few very strange looking questions arose in my mind and it reminded me of a Koan.

For those of you who don't know, A Koan is a tradition in Zen. It is basically kind of a question of a very strange kind that may seem weird or absolutely meaningless and is given to a disciple to think on it. It might even be a question that has no answer but the student has to think over it. It is also to confound the habit of discursive thought or shock the mind into awareness.

Thus, the Koan has a specific purpose. A student or disciple is given a Koan to ponder over, and he goes into his room and sits alone- only he and the question exist and that is the only thing he does. Till the time he finds a solution, he just stays with the question, and does nothing else. And there have been instances where they have done this for days, months and even many years! For years, day in and day out, they only think over the question. And many have become enlightened just by this. This is actually just a method, a device, the question itself is not important and nor is the answer. It is the effort, sincere effort put in by the disciple that does the trick. For these questions, you cannot use your normal ways of thinking and logic and anything else. You have to give yourself to this question and become the question itself.

The purpose of kōans is for a Zen practitioner to become aware of the difference between themselves, their mind, and their beliefs that influence how they see the world as an aspect of realizing their True nature. Paradoxes tend to arouse the mind for an extended duration as the mind goes around and around trying to resolve the paradox or kōan to an "answer". This is a lot like a dog chasing its tail and, while it's chasing, the mind makes itself more visible. Once a Zen practitioner becomes aware of their mind as an independent form, the kōan makes sense and the teaching point is realized.

And out of the hundreds of Koans that exist, perhaps none is as popular as this one- "What is the sound of the one-hand clapping?" You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together, so what is the sound of a one hand clap!

Below is what Osho has said about Koans-

Zen has a special method of meditation. They call it koan or 'ko-an'. A koan is a puzzle. But it is not like an ordinary puzzle. It is a puzzle that cannot be solved. Ordinary puzzles can be solved, they are meant to be solved. They may be difficult, but they are not impossible. A koan is an impossible puzzle. You cannot solve it; there is no way to solve it. For example, this is a Zen koan: what is the sound of one hand clapping? If you use two hands a sound is created, but if you use only one hand, what sound is created? This is a koan. Impossible to solve. Whatsoever you say will be wrong. Unless you remain totally silent, everything will be wrong. This koan is to create a total silence in you, where no answer is coming. If answers are coming they will go on being the wrong answers, because every answer is wrong – no sound can be created by one hand... --Osho

Theoretically it sounds simple, but no matter how silly, illogical, foolish or outrageous the question seems, the question has to be pondered over with utmost sincerity and it will almost drive you mad! But through this realization is possible. It is a tremendously powerful device. And though it is quite torturous for the student or disciple, if it can awaken him, then nothing better than it!

"...in the beginning a monk first thinks a kōan is an inert object upon which to focus attention; after a long period of consecutive repetition, one realizes that the kōan is also a dynamic activity, the very activity of seeking an answer to the kōan. The kōan is both the object being sought and the relentless seeking itself. In a kōan, the self sees the self not directly but under the guise of the kōan...When one realizes ("makes real") this identity, then two hands have become one. The practitioner becomes the kōan that he or she is trying to understand. That is the sound of one hand." — G. Victor Sogen Hori, Translating the Zen Phrase Book.

A few other Koans are:

- Does a dog have the Buddha nature?

-What is your original face before you were born?

A few other questions, which I don't think are Koans as such but seem to be quite similar- of the same category. A couple of questions that I recently came across and read on the Internet-

1) If you lock a table in a dark room, with concrete walls and no windows. Bolt shut the door and have no way of looking in, does the table still exist?

2) If a tree falls in the woods, but no one is there to hear it, does it still make a sound?

For this second question above, I put it in Google and found a Wiki Answers page. Check it out to see how the mind can think over it and how many points of view there can be. Here is the link: LINK

There are also many Zen stories that seem really impossible, silly and outrageous (I am again using this word!), and even funny. I will just mention a few of them- :

FEW FUNNY, AMUSING ZEN STORIES

1) Noticing that his father was growing old, the son of a burglar asked his father to teach him the trade so that he could carry on the family business after his father had retired. The father agreed, and that night they broke into a house together.Opening a large chest the father told his son to go in and pick out the clothing. As soon as the boy was inside, the father locked the chest and then made a lot of noise so that the whole house was aroused. Then he slipped quietly away. Locked inside the chest the boy was angry, terrified, and puzzled as to how he was going to get out. Then an idea flashed to him- he made a noise like a cat. The family told a maid to take a candle and examine the chest. When the lid was unlocked the boy jumped out, blew the candle, pushed his way past the astonished maid, and ran out. The people ran after him. Noticing a well by the side of the road the boy threw in a large stone, then hid in the darkness. The pursuers gathered around the well trying to see the burglar drowning himself. When the boy got home he was very angry at his father and he tried to tell him the story; but the father said: 'Don't bother to tell me the details, you are here- you have learned the art.'

2) Trading Dialogue for Lodging Provided he makes and wins an argument about Buddhism with those who live there, any wondering monk can remain in a Zen temple. If he is defeated, he has to move on. In a temple in the northern part of Japan two brother monks were dwelling together. The elder one was learned, but the younger one was stupid and had but one eye. A wandering monk came and asked for lodging, properly challenging them to a debate about the sublime teachings. The elder brother, tired that day from much studying, told the younger one to take his place. "Go and request the dialogue in silence," he cautioned. So the young monk and the stranger went to the shrine and sat down. Shortly afterwards the traveler rose and went in to the elder brother and said: "Your young brother is a wonderful fellow. He defeated me." "Relate the dialogue to me," said the elder one. "Well," explained the traveler, "first I held up one finger, representing Buddha, the enlightened one. So he held up two fingers, signifying Buddha and his teaching. I held up three fingers, representing Buddha, his teaching, and his followers, living the harmonious life. Then he shook his clenched fist in my face, indicating that all three come from one realization. Thus he won and so I have no right to remain here." With this, the traveler left. "Where is that fellow?" asked the younger one, running in to his elder brother. "I understand you won the debate." "Won nothing. I'm going to beat him up." "Tell me the subject of the debate," asked the elder one. "Why, the minute he saw me he held up one finger, insulting me by insinuating that I have only one eye. Since he was a stranger I thought I would be polite to him, so I held up two fingers, congratulating him that he has two eyes. Then the impolite wretch held up three fingers, suggesting that between us we only have three eyes. So I got mad and started to punch him, but he ran out and that ended it!"

3) The Zen Master Hakuin was honored by his neighbours as on who led a pure life. One day it was discoverd that a beautiful girl who lived near hakuin was pregnant. The parents were very angry. At first the girl would not say who the father was, but after much harassment she named Hakuin. In great anger the parents went to Hakuin, but all he would say was, "Is that so?" After the child was born it was taken to Hakuin - who had lost his reputation by this time, although he didn't seem much disturbed by the fact. Hakuin took great care of the child. He obtained milk, food, and everything else the child needed from his neighbours. A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer, so she told her parents the truth - the real father was a young man who worked in the fish market. The mother and father of the girl went round at once to Hakuin to tell him the story, apologize at great length, ask his forgiveness and get the child back. As the master willingly yielded the child he said, "Is that so?"

Finally before leaving, a question for you to ponder over. If you had not come across and read my post, would this post still have been there? :)

Gautam Siddhartha- The Buddha

Religion and Spirituality is a topic I absolutely love and can read on and on about it and write too. In fact I even had suggestions or requests to write more on this topic but so far I have only had two posts on it.

Yesterday was Buddha Purnima or Buddha's birthday and called by various other names in various places. It actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment Nirvana, and passing (Parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha which is always on the full moon day. And I felt that the best way to celebrate or observe this day was obviously to go into meditation and also I read and saw videos related to Gautam Buddha on YouTube and specially one of BBC video of around 50 minutes was really good!

Observe that I am using the phrase 'going into meditation' instead of 'doing meditation' because it is not an act, it is just the way you are- the state of being as it can be said. And the reason I don't write much on this topic of Spirituality or Religion is because I don't feel it proper to write here quoting others or writing what others have said but it would be better if I wrote from my own experience and since I am not enlightened or whatever meditative experiences I have had, that is quite a personal thing not correct to share on something like a blog.

The story of Gautam Buddha is something everyone must have come across and read or heard. To me, it is the greatest story in the history of mankind and so significant too. It is almost timeless. More than 2500 years have passed but anyone who comes across it, cannot help but be influenced by it and start thinking this way for his own life. As a child I read his story a man- a prince born to a King, who had all the luxuries in life and everything that anyone can ever want, a whole world of beauty and joy was created around him because of the prediction by the Astrologers or soothsayers upon observing the 32 signs of a great man on his body that he will go on to become a ruler of the world or a great ascetic or spiritual leader. And since his father wanted him to take his place and continue their kingdom, he devised this artificial world. But when the young Siddharth came across the realities of life, he was shocked. This really is one of the most important points of this story because it signifies that we really have a very short time with us. Since we have become accustomed to these facts of old age, disease and death from our childhood, we don't consider them much. For us, it is always the other who dies. We may have attended many funerals and everytime it is the 'other' who died so somewhere there is a feeling that it won't happen to us just as it is the case with all things in life. Anything negative, maybe an accident or something else, we never feel that it will happen to us. But when it does, it hurts so much.

Whether we really recognize the fact or not, the truth is this that we are going to die and infact are dying every moment, although only very slowly. From the moment of birth, it is only in one direction that we are headed and that is death. We all know it in the mind but it is an absolutely different thing to actually know and realize it. In fact there is even a method to meditate on death meaning once in a while lie down and just feel your body as it will in death. Re-enact your own death as realistically as possible. Just feel your body completely loose and relaxed as if you have no control over your body- that you are not able to move anything in your body. Be in that position and just feel it. It will help you to break a few attachments with the body.

And when I read this story that this man- prince decided that he will try and find the solution to all these life's problems, he gave up everything, tortured himself in innumerable ways of fasting and others not really knowing what to do, with no proper guidance, only with his intuitive feel and his own intelligence finally found life's answers and became 'enlightened'. Which at that time I understood that he was filled with wisdom and light and became free from the cycle of birth and death and was full of bliss. Now anyone who reads this, if he is intelligent enough, how can he not want this. I have questioned many people about this Buddha's story and his enlightenment that don't you want to be enlightened too and be full of bliss, then why you too don't follow this path and meditate and from the responses I got, I gather that people feel that:

1) He was an 'avatar' of God so he did it and it is not for ordinary people

2) He did so much of penances and fasting and what not for a long time of 6 years so it is really difficult to achieve and in today's times it is not possible- that one has to leave one's family and work and everything and live alone in a forest or mountain etc

These I feel are misconceptions and although I am not an authority on this as I have already said I am not enlightened but from the enlightened masters, I can gather that as Buddha himself has said that "Be a light unto yourself". Every single human being has the potential to be a Buddha and here 'Buddha' just means the awakened one not necessarily Gautam Siddharth Buddha. This is also one point where people get confused about the term Buddha. It is a term given to any enlightened or awakened one and Gautam was only one such.

And also the fact that Buddhahood is actually our nature. We cannot be any other way. We just have to wake up to realize it. We are facing outward. All we need is to turn in to see and realize that we are indeed Buddhas and have always been . We only forgot!

Buddha is one person whom I admire tremendously almost at the top of all mankind that ever existed. To me he was the greatest person that ever existed. And by birth I am a Hindu and although some people consider Buddhism to be a part of Hinduism itself but it is all irrelevant. I love Buddha and always wanted a statue of Buddha with me so that whenever I looked at it, it would remind me to be wakeful and aware- mindful. Not in the normal sense but in a meditative sense and it was my sister who gifted me one small beautiful statue which I really like. And one of my roommate on seeing it once thought that I am a Buddhist and his follower and as is the case thought my family is too. Actually I think he did not have much idea about it so he was confused between Buddha and Mahavir who were contemporaries. So he thought my family worships him or something like that and I said to him- "Not my family, only me. It is a personal thing for me." He was definitely surprised, I can tell you that; because normally whatever family one is born into, he follows the same religion or at the most gets converted into other for some reason. If you ask me, I would want to remove collective religion. It should only be individual and there is no need for other people to know which religion you have. Even one's own family members need not necessarily know about it and as and when one develops a liking towards someone else say a Christ or Krishna from Mohammed or Buddha or whatever, he can be into that.

What more do I write about Buddha? Actually you should just go through any of the story of Buddha. Perhaps a few good ones are- "The Light of Asia" by Edwin Arnold or "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse. But for me the best is always one by Osho. And there is one book where he has spoken on Buddha. It is special because of one Buddha talking about other and it involves two of the people I love the most! One example I can give is that all stories say that Gautam on the day of fullmoon decided that he will sit under the Bodhi tree and not get up till he found the solutions and became enlightened. No one else says this but Osho goes further and says that finally as the sun was about to rise and he had tried everything he could, made every effort and at that time he dropped all effort. In fact effort dropped by itself because it had reached its peak. he had tried everything that any person can do. It simply dropped and that was the moment. He also goes on to say that enlightenment always happens in such a state of non-doing but even to reach this state of non-doing, initially effort has to be there and that too all out effort. Only then when it reaches its height, it drops off by itself.

Finally to come to the point of why I like Buddha and his story so much is because of such single minded devotion, brushing aside all kinds of blocks and temptations and what not. To overcome one's mind is truely the greatest victory there can be. He must have fought and struggled with himself and his mind who must have played games with him, tried to make his task that much harder, tempting him and all its games. In his story, it is depicted or symbolised as the demon Mara and what is important is that 'Mara' is actually the demon within and you cannot win by fighting it that is what makes it tough. If you could fight and kill him, many would have been enlightened already. We always swing from one to the other but to be exactly in the center, neither like nor dislike, neither love nor hate, neither attraction nor repulsion. To be in that point is the most difficult and that is what he achieved by himself and that is what makes him the greatest plus the fact that he decided to stay on and teach others to help others when he could have just dissolved and disappeared into bliss. That is one thing if you are wondering why all the Spiritual greats have generally died at such a young age because it becomes difficult to continue living in the body after that as life starts losing contact with the body and the body itself becomes weak and susceptible and also since there is no point hanging around more as everything that life had to offer is experienced!

Finally I end this with the line: Buddham Sharanam Gachami, Dhammam Sharanam Gachami, Sangham Sharanam Gachami