Posting Soon
Notes and Thoughts
Koans are genial tools. I call Koans "the absurd-managed". Can, however, a person be "zenly" impacted by koans when one knows in advance what they're supposed to be? to discover a Koan in your own personal life can be either frightening or liberating. Surprise is an element of how the Koan reveals a truth. The content of that truth can be learned elsewhere, but the true existential meaning of the Koan can only be learned through that flash moment of surprise, that eureka instant. Koans are forms of dialogue and in that sense we appreciate their Buberian content. However, the sense of instrumentality imbued in a Koan renders it not quite the full Buberian I-Thou relationship. The spontaneous non-expectation I-Thou works well in a Koan when the student is "hit" by it, sort of speak, and not when the student purposefully seeks the Koan out from his teacher.
It all depends on what's the purpose of your readings of the text. If we read a text as part of an academic or theological exercise, then it is important to determine with as much clarity as possible the extents and demarcations of a given content. However, if you read the text as a guide for practice, it is perfectly legitimate to find refuge and inspiration in a single seemingly disconnected thought or even in a small sign such as a Buddha sitting in front of a crowd and holding a flower in his hands, or the student who craved watching his Tzadik tie his shoe lasses. It is OK for you to see that small gesture, understand, smile and embark on a whole new or bolder path. I think that one of the teachings is for the followers to do that which the Buddha did, more so than that which the the Buddha said. Conversely, whatever the Buddha did not say much about, does not follow we should not do much about. Friendship is the whole entire spiritual path, and so are many other different paths.
Poem: turn away
Affiliations various
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