What Is A Zen Koan?
A koan is a short story or dialogue used in Zen practice. They were traditionally used by Zen teachers to test the ‘insight’ of a student. In modern Zen, koans are often used in conjunction with meditation practice and formal daisan (teacher interviews). They are meant to focus the mind on the central questions of Zen by creating ‘great doubt’.
- https://beingzen.com/zen-koans/
Why Study Koans?
While we are on the meditative path to Awakening, koan practice with a teacher can act as a corrective to our understanding. There are undoubtedly people who have been sitting blissed out for years, not exploring their conditioning, bypassing difficult issues, and thinking, “I’ve got this!” “I am fully awake!” Without a periodic check on their understanding, how would they know differently?
The unexplored conditioning (thoughts, feelings, beliefs, traumas) that remain due to bypassing can prevent realization. Since we’re not conscious of them, we can’t let go of them. When we practice koans in such a way as to notice how they manifest in our lives, they can bring some of that unexplored material to the surface.
Koans help us feel and release emotions we’d rather not experience such as anxiety, inadequacy, shame, grief, anger. Koans give us a way to experience these in emotional and relational safety.
Koan study allows us to view and work with our present moment life issues from a perspective informed by our true nature rather than from a merely reactionary place.
Koans provide a way for non-monastics to keep our practice with us all day long
Koans give us a language to understand and communicate our experience in a helpful way. It’s often difficult to talk about some Zen experiences in a way that makes sense and is useful to ourselves and others. Koans help us do that.
How Do I Study Koans?
Ask one of our teachers for more information.