...is a Zen phrase that explains why formal koans are not answered in public. Seeing through a koan (existential riddle), and understanding how to answer it, can be fun, and the enjoyment and power of it is diminished if you are simply told the answer.
There are several informal koans that are used to show people that they have simple answers. The answers are usually not seen because most people interact with the world through their thoughts and the "solutions" to koans involve seeing the truth directly.
IOW, Zen folks are interested in direct perception rather than thinking, so koans are used to test how much someone is living in his/her head. People are strongly conditioned by their culture, so they tend to see the world through cultural and ideational filters. Koans can be used to check a person's existential understanding and clarity.
There are about two-thousand formal koans, and these are not discussed in public except in a general sense. Some of the koans are esoteric, but most of them are pretty straight-forward. If I ask an ordinary person, "Who are you, really?" s/he will probably look confused and respond with their name. If I ask a Zen person that question, they will respond quite differently. If they have played with koans for a while, they may answer in such a way that poses a challenge to me, and thereby show that they can play at a higher level than usual. A great number of koans are answered with a physical action rather than with words.
Here's an informal koan:
In a particular baseball game the bases were loaded, and the batter hit a home run, yet not a man scored. Why?
There are several informal koans that are used to show people that they have simple answers. The answers are usually not seen because most people interact with the world through their thoughts and the "solutions" to koans involve seeing the truth directly.
IOW, Zen folks are interested in direct perception rather than thinking, so koans are used to test how much someone is living in his/her head. People are strongly conditioned by their culture, so they tend to see the world through cultural and ideational filters. Koans can be used to check a person's existential understanding and clarity.
There are about two-thousand formal koans, and these are not discussed in public except in a general sense. Some of the koans are esoteric, but most of them are pretty straight-forward. If I ask an ordinary person, "Who are you, really?" s/he will probably look confused and respond with their name. If I ask a Zen person that question, they will respond quite differently. If they have played with koans for a while, they may answer in such a way that poses a challenge to me, and thereby show that they can play at a higher level than usual. A great number of koans are answered with a physical action rather than with words.
Here's an informal koan:
In a particular baseball game the bases were loaded, and the batter hit a home run, yet not a man scored. Why?
