How to solve Zen koans (cartoon)

CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Gia Yesu, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly, with instructor Betsy Enduring Vow (ZCLA) and Grayson and Roshi Jeff Albrizze (PasaDharma.org)

IF koans (Zen Buddhist "riddles" from the Japanese word for "public case") are not for intellectually "solving" or "deciphering," what are they for?

ZCLA is an oasis of diversity (Obon)

We went down to the Zen Center of Los Angeles today with Roshi Albrizze (PasaDharma.org) to see Roshi Tenshin Fletcher (zmc.org) and took ZP-1 (Zen Practice, Module 1, ZCLA's intro class). 

Noah Levine (breitenbush)

Author and Theravada insight meditation (vipassana) practitioner Noah Levine, co-founder of Dharma Punx/Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, was on hand with us for basic training. We learned to sit up straight, bend down to bow fully, hold our hands with opposing thumb-tips on our laps, walk as slowly as humanly possible, and were given some insight into "working with koans." Fortunately, Noah pressed and pressed to get at the point of koan practice. The example Betsy gave was:

 

Yes I do, Joshu! We all do.

A monk asked Zen master Joshu, "Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?" The Zen master replied, "Moo!" (Japanese mu, negation, "not," "nonbeing").* Betsy went on to explain that this would be like the Archbishop of Los Angeles asking the Italian pope, "Is there a God?" and the pontiff answering, "Hell no!" A paradox, because surely a figurehead like the leader of the Catholic Church believes in his deity, so why would he negate the archbishop's question? Thinking will not arrive at an answer, but there is a way to find out. How does one solve it and, moreover, what would be the point of solving it?

 

*This famous question comes from a fragment of a koan (Case 1, The Gateless Gate). Paradoxically, another koan (Case 18, The Book of Serenity) presents a longer version, in which Joshu answers "yes" in response to the exact same question asked by a different monk.

Noah, did it blow your mind? It did ours, like a rake in a rock garden! (buddhistmedia)

Homer goes to hell for a day (Avici), and Flanders is the devil.

 

How to solve koans

Pick a finger (Gutei)

There is no thinking, grappling, ruminating, or pondering involved. That is surely a dead end. An answer/solution arrived at in this way, if it is good and particularly pithy, will "stink of Zen." The bell will ring, and the interviewer (for dokusan or face-to-face meeting) will yell, "Next!" 

 

Of course, "Next!" is what s/he'll yell even if the Zen practitioner gets it "right." But s/he won't do it with a twinkle in his or her eye acknowledging that you were onto something this time, and it is now appropriate to move on to the next public case.

Instead of "thinking," a koan is successfully resolved by grokking, that is, by a semi-subconscious remembrance of the case without straining to get anywhere in an effort to solve it. Rock/grok it gently like a baby at heart level. In this way, illumination dawns, an epiphany (satori) occurs, and a deep certainty arises that one has understood what the conscious mind could never have hammered out by mere reasoning.

Roshi Jeff Albrizze (PT)

So when Bart Simpson was asked, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" the answer was not to slap his digits against his palms producing a muted clap. It was, instead, a way of opening the boy up to a world of conscious possibility, an awareness or knowing beyond thought and wit and reason. 

 

"Intuition" is a name for it, but it is very misleading due to the connotations we've layered on. "A knowing that surpasseth all understanding" is a Christian translation for the phenomenon that seems to approximate the wordless experience. "Direct knowledge" unmediated and unencumbered by the thought process might be a New Age way of stating it.

Budai: Fat, Happy Homer "Buddha" Simpson statue (Kidrobot)

 

"Japanese Yosemite" (Kamikōchi), Nagano Prefecture, altitude 4,900 ft. (1,500 m). The kami or kanji 神垣内 of Kami-ko-uchi are the shapeshifting mountain monsters of Japan. This water soaked site resembles the flooding Yokoji ZMC near Idylwild, California, experienced after a wildfire annihilated the earth-retaining forest all around the center.

  

Dharma talk: Zen Mountain Center to rebuild?

Fire dragon of flames (privet.ru)

Abbot Tenshin, Yokoji Zen Mountain Center (ZMC): Tenshin's "Dharma" talk was brief and to the point: There was a fire, but a fire crew made up of convicts/volunteer firefighters, who had learned to meditate at Yokoji, refused to give up when ordered to abandon ZMC by the fire department.

 

Their heroic efforts saved the Yokoji. Proving there's no such thing as karma, or that there is such a thing as karma, but that it rarely -- as happened here -- turns around to benefit one so clearly and tangibly.

 

However, karma works in mysterious ways: What fire could not do, Nature obliged the rains to take care of: Five days of California monsoon weather (due, we think, to climate chaos and our deteriorating environment) washed down tons of muddy debris on ZMC, covering most of the site under three feet of silt and ashes. Maybe it will be dug out, maybe it won't. Trees' lives hang in the balance.

Tenshin Fletcher (zmc.org)

Although the trees are all hearty redwoods, they cannot bear to have their trunks sunk underground. Donations of time, effort, and funds would help, but Tenshin is reluctant to say so. For the one thing he has learned through all of these ordeals is that he and his family will survive. Life may be full of ups and downs, but we can remain relatively steady in the ebb and flow, wave and trough, high and low. Abbot Tenshin Fletcher -- who received helpful advice from Tassajara in Big Sur (San Francisco Zen Center), which famously survived a California forest fire -- previously lived and worked at ZCLA years ago and has remained a vibrant Dharma friend of the current ZCLA Abbess Wendy Nakao and many of the center's older and disproportionately Jewish-Buddhist (JuBu) residents.

Halloween: Is there a "devil' or a "God"?

Dhr. Seven, Maya, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson Wisdom Quarterly HALLOWEEN SERIES

Is the Devil "Death" (Mara) personified? (Patrick Woodroffe/skeptically.org)

Why do we carve pumpkin jack o' lanterns for Halloween? (merinews.com)

  

Does Wisdom Quarterly believe in the Christian "devil"? 

Sakka (St. Michael) conquers the titan Vepacitti

No, not as such. Just as we do not believe in a "God" as Christians say. But there is something, and we think that would surprise most readers.

 

There is little reason to believe in an "all evil" entity motivating unwholesome karma. This would take away the agency of individuals, of ordinary beings to engage in unskillful conduct on their own. By ourselves is "good" and "evil" done or left undone. We often cite the quote, "No one saves us but ourselves; no one can and no one may; we ourselves must walk the path; buddhas only point the way." 

 

The devil "made" me do it

"Simpsons Bloody Simpsons" with evil Moe Sizlak, Homer, and famous bar patron

 

There are supernatural agencies. There is the famous case of Maha Moggallana recounting a discussion with Mara Namuci ("the Evil One," the onerous tempter figure who tried to dissuade Siddhartha from liberation during his time under the Bodhi tree and constantly harassed him to stop teaching).

In that sutra (MN 50), a previous mara, Mara Dusi (or Mara "the Corrupter"), incites Brahmins to unduly rebuke enlightened Buddhist monastics then later incites other Brahmins to unduly praise them, each time in the hopes of revealing a defilement Mara Dusi might exploit, each time unsuccessful, but each time leading to heavy karmic results for the Brahmins involved: The first are mostly reborn in miserable destinations, the second are mostly reborn in desirable destinations. How could this be if it were Mara Dusi's karma, not the Brahmin's intentional deeds?
 

Happy what? - Grumpy Cat (Huffington Post)

 The Commentary goes to great lengths to explain how; it was, in fact, both Mara Dusi's and the Brahmin's doings: Mara Dusi did not "make" them do what they did. He merely filled their heads with blameworthy or praiseworthy visions of the monastics through his supernatural power to influence their minds.
 
They reacted in a predictable manner as he hoped they would. Seeing visions of hypocrisy, for example, they reviled and cursed the arhat monastics. Mara Dusi met with his karmic results, a dreadful rebirth in Avici, the "waveless" or "unrelenting" infernal waste, a hell of the most horrific torments. The Brahmins went on to meet with their just deserts, which may not sound "fair" to us, but that is mainly because we do not normally realize that the magnitude of our karma does not merely depend on the doer and intention; it also has a great deal to do with the virtue of the recipient. What we do toward enlightened beings -- whether they be stream enterers, once returners, non-returners, arhats -- bears the greatest results.
 

We got power!

Wonder Women and Super Men

We can be affected by others, both seen and unseen beings. The "devil" can sort of make one do something, sort of. Even we have that power: we can discourage or encourage, lead or mislead, help or ruin others. How difficult is it? But to say that we "make" anyone do anything is not quite correct. We inspire or incite. We can do it for good or ill. 
 

God, the judge of all deeds? Or is it karma?

That is not to say that these monolithic polar opposite figures, the devil and God, can take all the credit. We are involved. We are co-creators. We are "GOD" (Brahman, the ALL, not to be confused with a personal Brahma), just as Jesus (both the mythical Christ and the historical Jewish radical from Nazareth who bears the mantle of so many Church legends and popular misconceptions) is reputed to have said. We have the potential for "divinity" -- to be reborn as devas ("shining ones," light beings, celestial citizens in superior albeit impermanent space worlds, and even in rarefied immaterial planes of existence, all of which are referred to as "heavens" (sagga). 

  

"Teacher of gods and humans," the Buddha, Himalayas (Michael Foley/blog.dwbuk.org)

 

Buddhist jack o lantern (Tracy Lee/flickr)

As humans we can even reach much higher than that -- to the end of all rebirth and suffering. This goes beyond Maha Brahma, other brahmas, as well as sensual-sphere devas, rupa-devas (fine-material-sphere light beings), and arupa-devas (immaterial-sphere beings). We are capable of enlightenment, be it final knowledge in this very life, or stream entry, which ensures that we are reborn here or elsewhere no more than a maximum of seven times. We would never again be susceptible to falling into births in worlds of deprivation lower than the human plane. One might live for millions of years, even for aeons, in superior worlds before final knowledge and complete liberation. That is more than any ordinary deva or brahma, any angel or god, can claim. It is a "change of lineage" (gotrabhu) from mundane to noble.
 

The devil in me

What motivates unskillful behavior? Asavas

We are often agents of good, but WE are the Ahriman, the antithesis, members of "Mara's Army" (subject to asavas or "defilements" of the heart/mind, the taints, the fetters), who could be called the Devil. There are demons, asuras (titans), yakkhas (ogres), narakas (denizens of hell), nagas (reptilians), pretas (spirits, ghosts, general shapeshifting troublemakers).
 

God: angry, sexist, and racist

God (Maha Brahma, YHWH, Allah, the Alpha and the Omega) is not really the "God" adherents think -- an all-good, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent  creator or uncaused first cause of everything in the universe. Those beings (yes, there are many gods of all kinds) may claim or believe themselves to be all that, but they are not. It is hyperbole and overestimation, a deceptive and deluded reputation. They can be so grand and glorious that it seems like they are -- dazzling, long lived, judgmental, humble, vengeful, exalted, arrogant, angry, loving, compassionate, beneficent, equanimous...

• Buddhism and the God-idea
• Halloween: the Happiest Time of Year!
• PHOTOS: inspired pumpkin carvings

Sexism, racism, slavery, war, genocide by and for God? (See the Bible's Book of Judges for murder, mayhem, and human suffering ordered by the angry jealous tribal Jewish God. Who follows a character like this? The world much prefers the peaceful son and the Marys.)

 

The many visitors from space who manipulated human DNA to make these physical forms as they are did not thereby create the "being" (gandhabba, atman) reborn in this form on this planet. Various theologies attribute this kind of "creation" to the God of their conception of reality. It is as if something (an eternal soul) came out of nothing (dust and breath, materiality and prana). But "we" have gone on and on -- as have all living beings -- in this cycling samsara (the "continued wandering on") or Wheel of Rebirth and Death.
 

Devils are real

There are "devils," inimical spirits, of all kinds as in China (Greal-Wall-Hikers/flickr)

 

If, then, there is no devil as Christians say, Is there a being like him? Yes, we think so. This belief of ours comes from a shaman mentioned in the anthropological research of Michael J. Harner (The Sound of Rushing Water, 1968):
 

"Many times the Christian missionary had told [the shaman medicine man] Mashu of the devil feared by white men. But since he had never seen the spirit, Mashu remained skeptical. Some time later, after drinking natema [the local variety of ayahuasca], Mashu was confronted by this figure of the "white man's devil." Since that time, Mashu has remained convinced of this spirit's reality."
 

There are many divine goddesses or devis

So we think something exists, some quite scary beings -- devils (maras), serpents/dragons/seamonsters (nagas), demons (yakkhas, asuras), shapeshifters (petas, politicians), avians (garudas), and so on. But one all-inclusive "devil" who is the epitome of evil, the source of everything bad, the defiler of all humankind, who ruined the first Adam and the first Eve? No, these are all oversimplifications based on things that may have actually happened. Early genetic synthetic experiments, a kind of "creationism," led to the Adama, a race of humans, "modern humans" millions of years ago. (See Michael Cremo for the real age of Homo sapien sapiens, modern humans, who are in fact very ancient). This did not happen once, but happens again and again, for samsara is cyclical in staggering stretches of time (kalpas) too big to conceive of. The truth is much stranger than myth and fiction.

"When the dust has settled, and you're born again, maybe as a [Martian], maybe then you'll see that your reality was squashed into banality, was squashed into banality!" - Nick Blinko

"The God-idea"
Ven. Nyanaponika (BPS, BuddhaNet.net, ATI)

Buddhism has sometimes been called an atheistic teaching, either in an approving sense by freethinkers and rationalists or in a derogatory sense by people of theistic persuasion. Only in one way can Buddhism be described as atheistic, namely, in so far as it denies the existence of an eternal, omnipotent God or godhead who is the creator and ordainer of the world.
 
The word "atheism" -- however, like the word "godless" -- frequently carries a number of disparaging overtones or implications, which in no way apply to the Buddha's teaching. Those who use the word "atheism" often associate it with a materialistic doctrine that knows nothing higher than this world of the senses and the slight happiness it can bestow. Buddhism is nothing of that sort. In this respect it agrees with the teachings of other religions... More

The Trumpet (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly based on Ven. Thanissaro translation Sankha Sutta (SN 42.8)

The Buddha reflected in Thailand (nojustnut/flickr.com)

 

Although Jainism, like Buddhism, teaches a doctrine or dharma concerning the moral consequences of actions (karma), the teachings of the two traditions differ in many ways. This sutra points out two major differences -- the complexity of the karmic process and the application of its proper understanding to the psychology of teaching. A simplistic or fatalistic view is inconsistent and leads to unfortunate results for any person who believes in it, that is, who compounds past bad karma with current wrong view. 

The actual complexity of karma allows for past unwholesome deeds to be overcome by refraining from harmful action now and in the future and developing boundlessly expansive states of friendliness, compassion, appreciation, and equanimity. In such states, the unavoidable consequences of past harmful actions count for almost nothing. The Buddha also shows how his method of teaching is more useful than that of Mahavira (Nigantha Nattaputta) the Jains in that it actually helps free the mind/heart from debilitating feelings of guilt and remorse and leads to the overcoming of past karma.
 

The Trumpet Sutra

The Buddha takes questions and answers in surprising ways (templenews.org)

 
Thus have I heard. Once when the Blessed One was staying near Nalanda in the Pavarika Mango Grove, Asibandhakaputta the village chieftain, a disciple of the Niganthas [Jains], went to the Blessed One, bowed, and sat respectfully to one side. The Blessed One said:
 
"Chieftain, how does Nigantha Nataputta [the founder of Jainism] teach the dharma to his disciples?"
 
"Nigantha Nataputta teaches the dharma to his disciples in this way, venerable sir:

• 'All who take life...
• 'All who steal...
• 'All who indulge in sexual misconduct...
• 'All who speak falsely are destined for a state of deprivation, destined for hell. 

"'Whatever one keeps doing, by that is one led [to a course of rebirth].' That is how Nigantha Nataputta teaches the dharma to his disciples."

Buddha reflection (Anekphoto/flickr.com)

The Buddha responded: "If it is true that, 'Whatever one keeps doing, by that one is led [to a state of rebirth],' then no one is destined for a state of deprivation or destined for hell in line with Nigantha Nataputta's words.

"What do you think, chieftain: If a person is one who takes life... is one who takes what is not given... is one who indulges in sexual misconduct... is one who speaks falsely, then taking into consideration the time spent doing and not doing, whether by day or night, which time is more: the time one spends taking life, taking what is not given, taking sexual liberties, taking the truth in vain, or the time one spends not [doing such things]?"
 
"If a person is one who takes life... who takes what is not given... who takes sexual liberties... who takes the truth in vain, venerable sir, then taking into consideration time spent doing and not doing, whether by day or night, then the time one spends [doing such things] is less; the time one spends not [doing such things] is certainly more. Therefore, if it is true that, 'Whatever one keeps doing, by that is one led [to a state of rebirth],' then no one is destined for a state of deprivation or destined for hell in line with Nigantha Nataputta's words."

"There is the case, chieftain, where a certain teacher holds this doctrine, holds this view: 'All who take life... All who take what is not given... All who indulge in sexual misconduct... All who speak falsely are destined for a state of deprivation, destined for hell.' A disciple has confidence (faith, conviction, trust) in that teacher, and the thought occurs: 'Our teacher holds this doctrine, holds this view: "All who take life are destined for a state of deprivation, destined for hell." There are living beings whom I have killed. I, too, am destined for a state of deprivation, destined for hell!'
 

Hell, naraka, one of the woeful destinations, Japanese depiction (what-buddha-said.net)

 
"One clings to that view. If one does not abandon that doctrine, does not abandon that state of mind, does not relinquish that [wrong] view, then -- just as if one were to be carried off by wardens and put there -- one would fall into hell just as if one had been placed there.
 
"[The thought occurs,] 'Our teacher holds this doctrine, holds this view: 'All who take what is not given... All who indulge in sexual misconduct... All who speak falsely are destined for a state of deprivation, destined for hell.' There are lies... that I have told. I, too, am destined for a state of deprivation, destined for hell.' One fastens onto that view. If one does not abandon that doctrine, does not abandon that state of mind, does not relinquish that [wrong] view, then as if one were to be carried off by wardens, one would fall into hell just as if one had been placed there.
 
"There is the case, chieftain, where a Tathagata [a samma-sam-buddha, a Wayfarer, a Welcome One, a Well-gone One] appears in the world, worthy [of gifts and hospitality] and rightly self-awakened, consummate in clear knowledge and conduct, well-gone, a knower of the worlds, unexcelled trainer of those to be tamed, teacher of humans and devas, enlightened, blessed. In various ways he rebukes and criticizes the taking of life and admonishes: 'Abstain from taking life.'

"He rebukes and criticizes taking what is not given and admonishes: 'Abstain from taking what is not given.' He rebukes and criticizes indulging in sexual misconduct and admonishes: 'Abstain from indulging in sexual misconduct.' He rebukes and criticizes speaking falsely and admonishes: 'Abstain from false speech.'
 
"A disciple has confidence in that teacher and reflects: 'The Blessed One in a variety of ways rebukes and criticizes the taking of life and admonishes: "Abstain from taking life." There are living beings I have killed, to a greater or lesser extent. That was not right. That was not good. But if I become remorseful for that reason, that harmful deed of mine will not be undone.' So, reflecting in this way, one abandons right then and there the taking of life and, from then on, refrains from taking life. This is how there comes to be the abandoning of that harmful action (karma). This is how there comes to be the transcending of that harmful action.

"[One reflects:] 'The Blessed One in a variety of ways rebukes and criticizes taking what is not given... indulging in sexual misconduct... speaking falsely and admonishes: "Abstain from [such things]." There are lies I have told, to a greater or lesser extent. That was not right. That was not good. But if I become remorseful for that reason, that harmful karma of mine will not be undone.' So, reflecting in this way, one abandons right then and there speaking falsely and, from then on, refrains from speaking falsely. This is how there comes to be the abandoning of that harmful action. This is how there comes to be the transcending of that harmful action.
 

1. Having abandoned the taking of life, one refrains from it.
2. Having abandoned taking what is not given, one refrains from it.
3. Having abandoned sexual misconduct, one refrains from it.
4. Having abandoned false speech, one refrains from it.
5. Having abandoned divisive speech, one refrains from it.
6. Having abandoned harsh speech, one refrains from it.
7. Having abandoned idle chatter, one refrains from it.
8. Having abandoned covetousness, one's mind/heart is free of it.
9. Having abandoned ill will, one's mind/heart is free of it.
10. Having abandoned wrong view, one adopts right view.

• [See "Ten Courses of Unwholesome and Wholesome Conduct," Bhikkhu Bodhi.]

"That disciple of the noble ones, chieftain -- devoid of covetousness, devoid of ill will, unbewildered, alert, mindful -- keeps pervading the first direction [east] with an awareness [a mind/heart] imbued with friendliness [metta, loving kindness], likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth directions. So above, below, and all around, everywhere, in their entirety, one keeps pervading the all-encompassing universe with awareness imbued with friendliness -- abundant, grown great, immeasurable, free of hostility, free of ill will.

"Just as a strong conch-trumpet blower can notify the four directions without difficulty, in the same way, when the wisdom-liberation through friendliness is so developed, so pursued, any deed done to a limited extent no longer remains there, no longer stays there.
 
"That disciple of the noble ones -- free of covetousness, free of ill will, unbewildered, alert, and mindful -- keeps pervading the first direction with awareness imbued with compassion... with awareness imbued with appreciation... with awareness imbued with equanimity, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth direction. So above, below, and all around, everywhere, in their entirety, one keeps pervading the all-encompassing universe with awareness imbued with equanimity -- abundant, grown great, immeasurable, free of hostility, free of ill will.

Buddha, Thailand (Andyzart/flickr.com)

"Just as a strong conch-trumpet blower can notify the four directions without difficulty, in the same way, when the wisdom-liberation through equanimity is so developed, so pursued, any karma done to a limited extent no longer remains there, no longer stays there."
 
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When this was said, Asibandhakaputta the village chieftain, the disciple of the Niganthas (Jains), said to the Blessed One: "Magnificent, venerable sir! Magnificent, venerable sir! It is just as if one were to place upright what was overturned, to reveal what was hidden, to point out the way to one who was lost, or to carry a lamp into the dark so that those with eyes could see what was there to be seen! In the same way has the Blessed One -- through many lines of reasoning -- made the Dharma clear. I go to the Blessed One for guidance. I go to the Dharma for guidance. I go to the Sangha for guidance. May the Blessed One remember me as a lay follower who has gone for guidance from this day forward."

• Karma and the Ending of Karma (Wings of Awakening, Tan Geoff)
• See also: MN 21; MN 101; SN 42.9; AN 3.33; AN 3.65; AN 3.99