I am reading a book "Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" also popular by the abbreviation GEB written by Douglas R. Hofstadter. It is described by author as "A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll." Its hard to explain what this book is about in few words. You can always check wikipedia for that.
One of the topics in GEB is about Zen Buddhism. I didn't have any idea about this form of Buddhism but when i read about it in this book, it fascinated me. Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism founded by Bodhidharma. Zen emphasizes experimental wisdom, as realized in the form of meditation (zazen) and in that light, de-emphasizes both theoretical knowledge and study of religious texts. The goal of Zen practices is to train the mind to transcend duality and attain a state of enlightenment.
Zen Buddhists may practice something known as kōan inquiry during their meditation. A kōan is a story, dialogue question, or statement in the history and lore of Zen Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be accessible to intuition. kōans are supposed to be "triggers" which do not contain enough information in themselves to impart enlightenment but possibly be sufficient to unlock the mechanisms inside one's mind that lead to enlightenment. The Zen attitude is that words and truth are incompatible, or at least that no words can capture the truth.
Most kōans do not make any sense to the rational, logical mind. Take this for example:
Hogen of Seiryo monastery was about to lecture before dinner when he noticed that the bamboo screen, lowered for meditation, had not been rolled up. He pointed to it. Two monks arose wordlessly from the audience and rolled it up. Hogen, observing the physical moment, said, "The state of the first monk is good, not that of the second."
A Zen master Mumon comments on the above kōan in his 13th century work called Mumonkan ("No-gate barrier"). Here is his commentary:
I want to ask you: which of those two monks gained and which lost? If any of you has one eye, he will see the failure on the teacher's part. However, I am not discussing gain and loss.
Mumon follows it with a poem:
When the screen is rolled up the great sky opens,
Yet the sky is not attuned to Zen.
It is best to forget the great sky
And to retire from every wind.
It may come as a rude shock for a person who wants to have an "understanding" of the kōan as the commentary and poem are equally opaque and irrational.
Here is another kōan:
A monk asked Nansen: "Is there a teaching no master ever taught before?"
Nansen said: "Yes, there is."
"What is it?" asked the monk.
Nansen replied: "It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things."
Mumon's commentary:
Old Nansen gave away his treasure-words. He must have been greatly upset.
Mumon's poem:
Nansen was too kind and lost his treasure.
Truly, the words have no power,
Even though the mountain becomes the sea,
Words cannot open another's mind.
The poem makes a little more sense and seems to de-emphasize the power of words (and thereby it is a paradox as it talks about its own ineffectiveness). Paradox is quite characteristic of Zen. The essence of a kōan seems to be to break the mind of logic in pursuit of enlightenment. But we can never be sure as one of the basic tenets of Zen Buddhism is that there is no way to characterize what Zen is!
Here is another kōan and this is my favorite:
The student Doko came to a Zen master, and said: "I am seeking the truth. In what state of mind should I train myself, so as to find it?"
Said the master, "There is no mind, so you cannot put it in any state. There is no truth, so you cannot train yourself for it."
"If there is no mind to train, and no truth to find, why do you have these monks gather before you every day to study Zen and train themselves for this study?"
"But I haven't an inch of room here," said the master, "so how could the monks gather? I have no tongue, so how could I call them together or teach them?"
"Oh, how can you lie like this?" asked Doko.
"But if I have no tongue to talk to others, how can I lie to you?" asked the master.
Then Doko said sadly, "I cannot follow you. I cannot understand you."
"I cannot understand myself," said the master.
Only by stepping outside of logic, so the theory goes, can one make the leap to enlightenment!
After GEB introduced me to the fascinating world of Zen Buddhism and kōan practice, I did a bit of search on the web and dug up some funny kōans (to a rational, logical mind they are funny but the Zen Buddhists take them seriously perhaps):
kōan:
Student asks master: "Why did Bodhidharma come from India to China?". Master says: "The oak tree in the garden."
kōan: Joshu's Mu
Joshu (A.D. 778-897) was a famous Chinese Zen Master who lived in Joshu, the province from which he took his name. One day a troubled monk approached him, intending to ask the Master for guidance. A dog walked by. The monk asked Joshu, "Has that dog a Buddha-nature or not?" The monk had barely completed his question when Joshu shouted: "MU!"
kōan: No Beard
Wakuan complained when he saw a picture of bearded Bodhidharma, "Why hasn't that fellow a beard?"
kōan: Everything is Best
One day Banzan was walking through a market. He overheard a customer say to the butcher, "Give me the best piece of meat you have." "Everything in my shop is the best," replied the butcher. "You can not find any piece of meat that is not the best." At these words, Banzan was enlightened.
kōan: Manjusri Enters the Gate
One day as Manjusri stood outside the gate, the Buddha called to him, "Manjusri, Manjusri, why do you not enter?" Manjusri replied, "I do not see myself as outside. Why enter?"
kōan: Joshu washes the bowl
A monk told Joshu: `I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.'
Joshu asked: `Have you eaten your rice porridge?'
The monk replied: `I have eaten.'
Joshu said: `Then you had better wash your bowl.'
At that moment the monk was enlightened.
kōan:
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
kōan:
One day Chao-chou fell down in the snow, and called out, "Help me up! Help me up!" A monk came and lay down beside him. Chao-chou got up and went away.
kōan:
A monk asked Tozan when he was weighing some flax, "What is Buddha?"
Tozan said: "This flax weighs three pounds."
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