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Zen Koans
The Zen koan is, essentially, a problem that can not be solved by the intellect alone. In trying to understand the koan, the student learns the limitations of thought, and frequently experiences "satori", a direct, non-verbal awareness of reality. This unique collection contains over 200 classical and modern koans. The Venerable Kubose, an American-born Buddhist priest, has provided original commentary for each. 5.5x8.5", xiii+274 pp.
274 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 5, 2015
can not re read these enough. life lessons through great storytelling.... short and sweet.
May 31, 2017
Read at the same time as the Three Pillars of Zen. and shortly after the Teachings of Zen. Like the Al Kafi was to islam to some extent a review of this book is going to be a review of Zen more generally, since it seems to faithfully capture the spirit of Zen going right back to Buddha. A spirit that will unquestionably add to the common faith of mankind.
Some of these koans are timeless. Others might be able to use a slight update
in translation. Zen Koans are a teaching tradition. Part of being a teacher is being where your students are. If you have any hope of clueing them into being enlightened, they have to understand the basic concepts. That is part of what this book does.
Zen Koans came up quite a few times over the years.
1) GEB
2) Theodore Brameld's Patterns Of Educational Philosophy
3) The Hacker Dictionary
4) The books in the kung fu master's library
* Thomas Cleary - Teachings of Zen,
* Tri Thong Dang, beyond the known
* Roshi Philip Kapleau, Awakening to ZEN, 1997
* Thich Nhat Hanh - Zen Keys, a guide ot zen practice
etc
This is the book that Godel Escher Bach cited as being a pretty good source
of them. I concur.
To some extent, koans show how stepping outside of the box we can see further
than keeping our head down in most kinds of written material. They show how with a little help a large number of situations can become clear. Of course, while keeping in mind that you can go too far in this, like anything else
This is ripe material to go through in your 10% time, and can be viewed as something to do in an idle moment or between meditation. But the Zen of Kubose is life and death - a most important thing, worth cultivating and replicating. And it's something worth remembering when entropy finally comes for you, if you can snatch your brain and keep it.
Since I'm reading it alongside The Better Angels of Our Nature it was interesting to see when violence cropped up, and the Zen stance on violence. Like islam, Zen has a stance on violence that is grossly disproportionate to its actual effect, though being extremely pacifistic in nature most of the time. But they are ready to sacrifice life when it's necessary. Really, if your theory of ethics *doesn't* make these kinds of hard decisions, what good is it?
The idea of makyo is also a fruitful one that I generalized while reading this book and the other one with it.
I don't think this book is fake zen. I've been told about how zen is practiced in places like burma and thailand and how different it is to the one that the scriptures actually say to practice. If there's one thing this book makes clear is that there's probably just as much as a distance between the ideal of zen as preached by those who have kept the institutions alive and zen as actually practiced as there is between the rights as preached by thomas paine, james maddison, thomas jefferson et al and the current actually practiced american empire. Both show a shining beacon of hope for humanity and those who attempt to live up to it wind up looking like weirdos.
Lastly, though there's only *so much* insight for a short book, it points us in the direction we might want to pursue going down further. It's not pretentious enough to think that you don't occasionally need a silk wrapped book of koans to help you. It takes for granted that if you can count on this technology, you should use it (though not cling to it).
I've come to realize that a lot of the reason why high school english classes push essays as the main means of harbouring and developing complex thought is that you're expected to graduate highschool in a world filled with static books who's content does not change with time, and though the world is filled with books, there's still generally firm boundaries between subjects, between author's interests, and so on. It was useful to be able to cite a few hundred things but it's becoming increasingly clear as more of the species becomes literate that the way that the western world approaches writing is running up against limits. Instagram, Emoji and memes are challenging the assumptions of what writing and language means and can mean with technology to assist our understanding. Zen Koans offer a kind of stereo vision on this problem, and allow us to perhaps detect that there may be another way of writing that is more conducive to integrating the complex thought of 7-10 billion people together in a better way.
Some of these koans are timeless. Others might be able to use a slight update
in translation. Zen Koans are a teaching tradition. Part of being a teacher is being where your students are. If you have any hope of clueing them into being enlightened, they have to understand the basic concepts. That is part of what this book does.
Zen Koans came up quite a few times over the years.
1) GEB
2) Theodore Brameld's Patterns Of Educational Philosophy
3) The Hacker Dictionary
4) The books in the kung fu master's library
* Thomas Cleary - Teachings of Zen,
* Tri Thong Dang, beyond the known
* Roshi Philip Kapleau, Awakening to ZEN, 1997
* Thich Nhat Hanh - Zen Keys, a guide ot zen practice
etc
This is the book that Godel Escher Bach cited as being a pretty good source
of them. I concur.
To some extent, koans show how stepping outside of the box we can see further
than keeping our head down in most kinds of written material. They show how with a little help a large number of situations can become clear. Of course, while keeping in mind that you can go too far in this, like anything else
This is ripe material to go through in your 10% time, and can be viewed as something to do in an idle moment or between meditation. But the Zen of Kubose is life and death - a most important thing, worth cultivating and replicating. And it's something worth remembering when entropy finally comes for you, if you can snatch your brain and keep it.
Since I'm reading it alongside The Better Angels of Our Nature it was interesting to see when violence cropped up, and the Zen stance on violence. Like islam, Zen has a stance on violence that is grossly disproportionate to its actual effect, though being extremely pacifistic in nature most of the time. But they are ready to sacrifice life when it's necessary. Really, if your theory of ethics *doesn't* make these kinds of hard decisions, what good is it?
The idea of makyo is also a fruitful one that I generalized while reading this book and the other one with it.
I don't think this book is fake zen. I've been told about how zen is practiced in places like burma and thailand and how different it is to the one that the scriptures actually say to practice. If there's one thing this book makes clear is that there's probably just as much as a distance between the ideal of zen as preached by those who have kept the institutions alive and zen as actually practiced as there is between the rights as preached by thomas paine, james maddison, thomas jefferson et al and the current actually practiced american empire. Both show a shining beacon of hope for humanity and those who attempt to live up to it wind up looking like weirdos.
Lastly, though there's only *so much* insight for a short book, it points us in the direction we might want to pursue going down further. It's not pretentious enough to think that you don't occasionally need a silk wrapped book of koans to help you. It takes for granted that if you can count on this technology, you should use it (though not cling to it).
I've come to realize that a lot of the reason why high school english classes push essays as the main means of harbouring and developing complex thought is that you're expected to graduate highschool in a world filled with static books who's content does not change with time, and though the world is filled with books, there's still generally firm boundaries between subjects, between author's interests, and so on. It was useful to be able to cite a few hundred things but it's becoming increasingly clear as more of the species becomes literate that the way that the western world approaches writing is running up against limits. Instagram, Emoji and memes are challenging the assumptions of what writing and language means and can mean with technology to assist our understanding. Zen Koans offer a kind of stereo vision on this problem, and allow us to perhaps detect that there may be another way of writing that is more conducive to integrating the complex thought of 7-10 billion people together in a better way.
April 30, 2008
Sometimes I experience little bursts where I seem to grasp what Zen is about, more often I bounce off of it fairly hard. This seems an excellent collection of koans, though, and the commentary is great when giving historical and cultural context to the koans. However, when the commentary tries to fully 'explain' and 'solve' individual koans, it often seems to fall into triteness (...but by making this judgment I have fallen into dualistic thinking and receive a corrective *whack* on the head from a passing monk!).
May 27, 2022
This is a great collection of Koans. Like the other book of Koans I read, the author says some stuff after each koan. But instead of trying to "solve" it or explain it, he just gives background information on the people or the concepts mentioned in the Koan. It focuses more intellectually unsolvable nature of the koan.
It's also got a bunch of sumi, Japanese brush paintings. The style really enhances the koans.
Most excellent read!
It's also got a bunch of sumi, Japanese brush paintings. The style really enhances the koans.
Most excellent read!
November 22, 2020
Some koans give you a feeling of sudden revelation while others just bounce off. Some seem to contradict what you understood from former koans while some seem to complement and complete the rest. Some koans appear to have lost their essence in translation or may be I am unable to contemplate them. Overall a good thought provoking and humbling read.
October 15, 2024
I was somewhat reluctant to start this one, since my limited experience with koans made them seem obtuse and over my head, but I really loved this book! Rev. Kubose uses each koan as a reference and jumpoff point to explain Buddhist insights in a powerfully succinct format. I know I'm going to be coming back to this book often as a reference!
July 27, 2019
8/10
April 21, 2025
Koans as brief skillful interactions with various phenomena, I suggest keeping this around for furtherance along the way.
April 28, 2017
Spoilers
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews