Koans are inventions of Zen masters to help you get out of the trap of your own mind. They cannot be studied, they have to be lived ...
Koans are inventions of Zen masters to help you get out of your own mind´s trap because only thinking logically is not enough for you to move on, at most, what we can do is meandering but, in a second, nonsense and irrationality can uncover a different scenario in your reality
Koans are unsolvable puzzles that aim to tire your mind to the point of overcoming it
They have no answer because if they had, the mind would find it
No matter how clever you are because no category can find answers
A koan is not a coherent riddle, in fact, it is not a riddle at all because it cannot be solved
It is unsolvable
You can't really solve it, only thing you can do is to dissolve it
To dissolve it means to change the plane of your being, in order to do this you have to wake up
But the master will be urging you to put more and more energy into solving them So that you reach a point where you have ran out of energy, fall exhausted and understand
At that moment you will laugh and you will understand that everything was nonsense at that moment, If it arrives, you will understand
Like Zen itself, Koans cannot be studied, they have to be lived, understood, it is a transmission that goes beyond words
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Subtitles:
How to practice Zen
Zen history
The Tea ceremony - Chado -
Cultural approach to Zen
Calligraphy - Shodo -
Zen and its influence on the art of Japan
The Haiku
Martial arts
Zen anecdotes