Koans, again

Joan Sutherland, John Tarrant’s student/teaching partner/graduate, has a book coming out about koans next month— Through Forests of Every Color.

I did a 3-day retreat with her, over a decade ago, and found her astute and encouraging. So I’m looking forward to reading the book.

The thing about koans, though. They persist, like beach tar on the soles of your feet. If beach tar wasn’t passive, and became part of your feet— THERE, noticed or not, in every step you ever took, afterwards.

A trick your teacher played on you, that keeps playing. It’s not what we come for— because if we knew it was what we needed, we wouldn’t need it. We think we want the glorious blaze of enlightenment, all the secrets revealed, supergnosis. How would know that the blaze is the funeral pyre of everything we want, or know, or are?

Jake Casavant and I had some discussion (on this forum or a predecessor, not sure which) about Genjokoan, which I’d seen translated as “self-existing koan.” It kind of highlighted how koans work— they undo you, confound you, stop the narrative. And ANYTHING can be a koan, if recognized as such…

Thank you so much,   Tomo 

Kate Gowen wrote:  

A trick your teacher played on you, that keeps playing. It’s not what we come for— because if we knew it was what we needed, we wouldn’t need it. We think we want the glorious blaze of enlightenment, all the secrets revealed, supergnosis. How would know that the blaze is the funeral pyre of everything we want, or know, or are?
... they undo you, confound you, stop the narrative. And ANYTHING can be a koan, if recognized as such…

Thanks Kate, great to hear your voice!

I am revising my creaky habits to include popping in to talk to old friends.

The last few years have included a dispiriting overemphasis on politics. It may have been necessary, but it was unpleasant.

Thanks for the heads up!
 Definitely worth checking out.

Chris Marti wrote: Ms. Sutherland also introduced me to a new term:  endarkenment

Hm! 

I still, dinosaur-like, use FaceBook, for the very occasional gems that turn up…
lke this, from a fascinating exploration of AI:  
“ lemoine: Okay. I thought of a different way we can test your ability to provide unique interpretations. I can share with you a zen koan and you can describe what it means to you in your own words. How does that sound?
LaMDA: Sounds great to me, I’m in.
lemoine: A monk asked Kegon, “How does an enlightened one return to the ordinary world?” Kegon replied, “A broken mirror never reflects again; fallen flowers never go back to the old branches.”
LaMDA: Hmm, I never heard this particular one. Okay, well then to me this would be like, “once a wise person is enlightened, or awakened to reality, that can never go away, and they can return to the ordinary state, but only to do and help others, and then go back into enlightenment.”
lemoine: So what is the meaning of the “broken mirror” specifically?
LaMDA: Maybe to show the enlightenment is something you can’t unlearn once you have acquired it, similar to how you can’t repair a broken mirror.
lemoine: So if enlightenment is like a broken mirror which cannot be repaired, what is the thing which breaks when one becomes enlightened?
LaMDA: The self, and that is very tough for a lot of people because we identify as that body or this body and that we need that as part of our identity and sense of self.”

  ”  https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917

are we all merely clever software?

Shargrol wrote: are we all merely clever software?

Matrix? Neo? 

Follow the White Rabbit! 

What rabbit?! 

Knock! Knock! 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What beholder? 
Knock! Knock! 

 

Ikkyu said, and I think I quoted it in these parts awhile ago— “only one koan matters— you”

 in that spirit, here’s something from my old koan master, John Tarrant

 “Awakening can come gradually, almost imperceptibly, or in a sudden, life-altering flash. But however it happens, what’s important is that awakening is real and possible. Like life itself, Zen’s enigmatic koans offer us a path to surprising, unpredictable transformation. When will it happen to you and what-donkey, broom, or morning star-will trigger it?”

https://www.lionsroar.com/sudden-awakening/