Forum Overview :: Laurence Fishburne's Dance Dance Revolution :: The purpose of a Koan is not to be profound.

[quote name="Mischief Bodhisattva"]The purpose of a koan is similar to the Socratic method. If you want to break a person of a dysfunctional belief, the most effective way is to lead them towards making that conclusion themselves. Simply telling them head-on that their belief is wrong will at best give them a purely intellectual understanding, at worst make them hostile and defensive. It's like when you're telling a joke, the audience must have the "Aha!" moment themselves or they won't laugh. If you dryly explain the joke, no laughter. If you ever watch Chris Rock's standup, you'll notice that when he's telling a group of jokes, he's constantly repeating the premise in between, (eg. "I'm not talking about <I>rich</I>, I'm talking about <I>wealth</I>"), to make certain the audience isn't lost once it's time for the punchline. My first year of law school my criminal procedure II class was taught by Walter Dickey, a man of great distinction in the legal community who, among other things, <U>ran</U> the Wisconsin prison system for several years. I'm not saying that everything he said was true, but he was a man whose had a great deal more experience than a room full of snot-nosed 1Ls. However, Prof. Dickey did not use the Socratic method when teaching the class, he just challenged our beliefs about law in the real world, the actual effectiveness of prison sentences, truth-in-sentencing laws, and justice in general head-on. My classmates <B>hated</B> him! Ooh! They had rage steam shooting out their ears as they shuffled out of class and grumbled things along the lines of, "He thinks he knows everything!" What the hell did <I>they</I> know with their 4 years of sitting in history or poli-sci class? I'm not claiming to be morally superior, I just happened to be a science major undergraduate, so I had already been thoroughly trained in not taking my personal beliefs that seriously. All in all a very illuminating experience, though not for the reasons intended. In any case, the porridge bowl koan was a reference to <A HREF="http://www.diamond-sutra.com/diamond_sutra_text/page6.html" TARGET="new">Chapter 6 of the Diamond Sutra</A>, where the Buddha says: [quote][A]nyone who seeks total Enlightenment should discard not only all conceptions of their own selfhood, of other selves, or of a universal self, but they should also discard all notions of the non-existence of such concepts. When the Buddha explains these things using such concepts and ideas, people should remember the unreality of all such concepts and ideas. They should recall that in teaching spiritual truths the Buddha always uses these concepts and ideas in the way that a raft is used to cross a river. Once the river has been crossed over, the raft is of no more use, and should be discarded. These arbitrary concepts and ideas about spiritual things need to be explained to us as we seek to attain Enlightenment. However, ultimately these arbitrary conceptions can be discarded.[/quote] The student here doubtlessly knew the Diamond Sutra by heart at this point. The Master could have just said, "You have learned the concepts of Zen well, now it is the time for you to abandon the concepts of Zen in order to reach Enlightenment, as stated in Chapter 6 of the Diamond Sutra," but this would have left the student with a shallow understanding at best, an unconscious rebellion against the Master's guidance at worst. To put it in geekier terms, the student wouldn't Grok the Master's meaning. So instead the Master stated this concept in strange symbolic language. The student then had to puzzle through what the hell the Master was telling him until he had the "Aha!" moment of realizing the time had come to abandon the concepts of Zen. He had crossed the river, so to speak, and it was time to leave the raft behind. Note that not all koans are meant to be solved in an instant. Some koans are meant to be meditated on over the course of years before the student has the "Aha!" moment. It's an unfortunate cultural artifact here in the US that so many people spout out koans completely out of context. Without any background knowledge they're just gibberish. Like this: [quote]A Zen Master and his student were meditating in the woods when an ancient rotten tree suddenly came crashing down near them. The student remarked how ironic it would have been if the tree had fallen onto them as they were sitting there meditating. "It would have been fortunate!" retorted the Master. "Why?" "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"[/quote][/quote]