Many years ago (in human terms) when I was voraciously hunting down every thing that could be found with my limited resources concerning the meaning of life and the core of consciousness, I encountered the koan exercise. I had been a meditator since my early teens (Self Realization Fellowship) and had been initiated into the Nichiren Sect while living in Japan in my early 20's. By my mid 20's I knew enough to know that I knew nothing about the ultimate nature of my own consciousness, and I got serious. I looked into every system I could find without regard to race, color, or creed; in those researches I discovered Zen Buddhism, and in discovering Zen I met the Koan Exercise.
The Koan borrows its name from jurisprudence and refers to established case law. It shows up in the enigmatic questions and answers between master and acolyte found in the historical records of Buddhist monasteries. The most famous koan is doubtlessly "The Sound of One Hand Clapping", but there is a veritable rainbow of koans; all of which are hopelessly opaque from one angle and and open to brilliant white light from another.
What captured my youthful imagination was the anecdotal evidence of human beings awakening to the very thing that had thus far eluded me: to encounter the root of ones consciousness. In these gleanings from the historical records we find a person who has practiced meditation and austerity: an intelligence that has practiced self cultivation, but that has not yet "awakened" (just the right word). The koan emerged as the pin prick to induce such awakening, and again and again we see an earnest human intelligence on one side of the koan and an enlightened being on the other. My favorite will always be Huang Po's slapping of Lin Chi. I took up the koan exercise in my clumsy way. It was maddening. What was it (always there from the Beginning) that they had so suddenly seen? What was the nature of this dramatic transformation that occurred in nanoseconds?
There are many koans and the literature concerning the efficacy of the koan exercise is often quite charming. D T Suzuki's "Essays in Zen Buddhism, second series" is devoted to the study of the koan exercise, and it is a hugely rewarding piece of work if you like that sort of thing. Chang Chung-Yuan's "Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism" is also second to none.
The light came on for me as the result of a phrase casually cast in conversation: casually cast, but cast into a mind harrowed by study of the koan exercise. I was stunned. A primal darkness was seen to be woven of light. I was looking into a mirror that was looking into a mirror that was looking into a mirror, and I then understood the timeless beauty of the koans: each an illuminated open book with nothing to hide: each a different key that opens the self-same door. Or better yet: dispells all doors. I have lived something of an ungoverned life, but stubbing your toe in the dark and stubbing your toe when you can see around are two entirely different events.
Oh, and by the way: what
is the sound of one hand clapping?
The Water
the sky warm tarnished silver
ground awash with crisp brown leaves
air so still sounds dilate behind the clatter of a single falling leaf
there is magic
it is not
not
it is not any amount of yes
seething explanation cannot contain it
annihilation cannot circumvent it
it is not circumscribed by time
nor confined in space
it is not known by knowledge
nor is it not known
it is that from which all certainty is contrived
it does not resist naming
yet is that most resistant to being named
it is the wellspring of all names light and dark
pattern within paradigm
paradigm within pattern
endless simple repetitions from which we weave complexity
the pattern children
look for the pattern in all things
for subtleties of connectedness and repetition
pull one thread and a thousand can not but follow
the waves are indeed
the water
