The Japanese term kōan is the Sino-Japanese reading of the Chinese word gong'an (Chinese: 公案; pinyin: gōng'àn; Wade–Giles: kung-an; lit. 'public case').

Dec 31, 2018 · Though koan training varies dependent upon school, the basic gist is similar: it’s a mediation technique that touches the root of contemplative practice. Below are ten koans, beginning with...

The meaning of KOAN is a paradox to be meditated upon that is used to train Zen Buddhist monks to abandon ultimate dependence on reason and to force them into gaining sudden intuitive enlightenment.

We feature a list of koans, from many sources, in our KALPA Library, many of which are linked to archived dharma talks. As a PZI member, you have unlimited access to everything we post in the Library: transcripts, articles, audio, and video files.

Koan, in Zen Buddhism of Japan, a succinct paradoxical statement or question used as a meditation discipline for novices, particularly in the Rinzai sect. The effort to “solve” a koan is intended to exhaust the analytic intellect and the egoistic will, readying the …

A koan (pronounced /ko.an/ Japanese 公案) is a story, dialog, question, or statement from the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet that may be accessible to intuition.

Chinese and Japanese Master changed these stories into Koans, mysterious teachings of Buddhism, normal people can't understand. In 18th century Japan Koans were seen as riddles whose answers were the everyday events, the Koans originally were derived from. Eight Koan examples. All Koans are presented in the same way.

Feb 11, 2019 · Koans (pronounced KO-ahns) are cryptic and paradoxical questions asked by Zen teachers that defy rational answers. Teachers often present koans in formal talks, or students may be challenged to "resolve" them in their meditation …

In Zen Buddhism, a koan is a surprising and often perplexing phrase that's used as a meditation tool. A well-known koan is "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" It's common in Zen Buddhist training for a teacher to present a koan to a student, often in the form of a question.

Each koan is a wild, nuanced and a brilliant tool to teach or understand dharma. After one point, though, one begins to see redundancy in koans because there are over 3000 koans. Mumonkan, Blue Cliff Record and Book of Serenity are common …