| oshobob The Living Workshop |
| Osho meets China |
 |
| |
 |
Osho talks on "koan"
| Zen has a special method of meditation. They call it koan or 'ko-an'. A koan is a puzzle. But it is not like an ordinary puzzle. It is a puzzle that cannot be solved. Ordinary puzzles can be solved, they are meant to be solved. They may be difficult, but they are not impossible. A koan is an impossible puzzle. You cannot solve it; there is no way to solve it. For example, this is a Zen koan: what is the sound of one hand clapping? If you use two hands a sound is created, but if you use only one hand, what sound is created? This is a koan. Impossible to solve. Whatsoever you say will be wrong. Unless you remain totally silent, everything will be wrong. This koan is to create a total silence in you, where no answer is coming. If answers are coming they will go on being the wrong answers, because every answer is wrong – no sound can be created by one hand... --Osho The New Alchemy: To Turn You On, App. 9 |
| Chinese pinyin & simplified characters: gong an (pronounce it "gohng ahn") The more commonly known Japanese pronunciation of this Chinese double-character Zen word is "koan". It was developed in Chinese Zen monasteries in the "classical" period of Zen, in the 800s CE. This term originally meant "public case", a kind of legal term in China, and was used subsequently by the Zen masters to identify their "answerless" one-line questions, as a major Zen meditation technique. Examples are: What is the sound of one hand clapping? Why did Bodhidharma come from the West to China? Does a dog have the Buddha nature? What is your original face before you were born? |
 |
