Koans are enigmatic spiritual formulas used for religious training in the Zen Buddhist tradition. Arguing that our understanding of the koan tradition has been extremely limited, contributors to this collection examine previously unrecognized factors in the formation of this tradition, and highlight the rich complexity and diversity of koan practice and literature.
The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism
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"Anyone who would spend words on koans had best absorb the knowledge demonstrated in this book first."--Journal of Chinese Religions
"Those with a serious interest in the history of Zen Buddhism will find the essays collected here an invaluable resource. The koan, often subject of unwarranted mystification, is examined in a series of eleven substantial essays vy an international group of scholars."--Religious Studies Review
About the Author
Steven Heine is at Florida International University. Dale S. Wright is at Occidental College.
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35 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is now THE best overall book available in English ABOUT the koan tradition, finally supplanting Miura Roshi and Ruth Fuller Sasaki's The Zen Koan, (formerly Zen Dust) after more than three decades. The contributors to The Koan are among the best current American and Japanese scholars in the field, such as Griffith Foulk, John McRae, Ishii Shudo, and Dale Wright, and the material included covers a range of periods and methodologies involving koans, including information not available before in English, such as in the provocative article on the Japanese Soto kirigami tradition. The book makes accessible current scholarship about the history and development of the koan, for example in the overview in Foulk's article. One of the editors, Steven Heine, has previously published two important books about koans, Dogen and the Koan Tradition, and Shifting Shape, Shaping Text, about the Fox Koan, which greatly expand our awareness of the richness and complexity of the koan tradition. Heine's article in this book goes further to show the role of the supernatural in koans. However, the buyer should be aware that this is NOT an anthology of koans themselves, or a collection of commentaries by spiritual teachers, but rather an academic perspective about the history and methodology of the koan. Major koan anthologies, and their sources in the Collected Records of individual masters, or in Lamp Transmission catalogs, as well as multiple layers of commentaries by ancient masters, are now available in reasonable translations. Also a number of respected current Zen teachers have published practice-oriented commentaries for the consideration of modern Zen students. But this book offers valuable background context in the history and development of the tradition and its methodologies. In a previous, deplorably misguided and totally ignorant amazon review, this book was described as "bad," and irrelevant to the "living tradition." There has been a recent tension and unfortunate lack of communication between Zen scholars and practitioners. Happily, this gap is beginning to heal. Scholars are beginning to openly express appreciation for the value of Zen's spiritual teachings. And practitioners have been gaining a deeper appreciation from academic scholars to inform our practice with the historical context of the koans and the varying practice methodologies. If you are actively engaged in koan practice with a teacher in one of the lineages that sanctions only one single acceptable response to koans, maybe you should check with your teacher before reading this book. But for most practitioners, this book will be extremely valuable in giving context for koan work. Such context is definitely relevant to the "living tradition." A prime example is the final article in this book by Victor Sogen Hori, now a professor at McGill University, but previously a long-time Rinzai monk in Japan. According to highly reliable sources, Hori progressed further in the Japanese Rinzai koan curriculum than has any other Westerner. His article on "Kensho in the Rinzai Zen Curriculum" is highly illuminating, precisely explaining the important role of scholarly study in the Rinzai koan practice tradition itself, and clearly dispelling damaging and mistaken stereotypes about kensho that have been sadly prevalent in the West.
19 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By Hakuyu
Format:Paperback
Touted - in places, as the most definitive study of the Zen Koan to date - in Western sources, I would hesitate to accord such status to this book, not least the idea that it has supplanted Zen Dust (Miura/Sasaki). While certainly interesting , this study is not quite the innovative venture promised in the cover blurb - and, of the eleven chapters in its pages, the final entry by Sogen Hori, a practicing Zen monk, left me with the most misgivings (I explain why, later in this review). It might be useful to list chapter headings, noting the focus of the contributors. The text opens with an Introduction by Stephen Heine and Dale S. Wright.
Chapter 1.The Form and Function of Koan Literature.
-T. Griffith Foulk.
Chapter 2. The Antecedents of Encounter Dialogue in
Chinese Chan Buddhism.
- John R. Macrae
Chapter 3. Mahakasyapa's Smile: Silent Transmission
and the Kung-an (Koan) tradition.
- Albert Welter.
Chapter 4. Kung-an Ch'an and the Tsung-men tung
yao chi.
- Ishii Shudo.
Chapter 5. Visions, Divisions, Revisions. The
Encounter between Iconoclasm and
Supernaturalism in Koan cases about
Mt. Wu-tai.
- Stephen Heine.
Chapter 6. "Before the Empty Aeon" versus
"A Dog has no Buddha-nature. "
Kung-an use in the Ts'ao-tung
tradition and Ta-hui's Kung-an
Introspection Ch'an.
- Morten Schlutter.
Chapter 7. Koan History: Transformative
Language in Chinese Buddhist
Thought.
- Dale. S. Wright.
Chapter 8. Ikkyu and Koans.
- Alexander Kabanoff
Chapter 9. Transmission of the Kirigami
(Secret Initiation Documents):
A Soto Practice in Medieval
Japan.
- Ishikawa Rikizan.
Chapter 10. Emerging from Non-duality.
Koan Practice in the Rinzai
Tradition since Hakuin.
- Michel Mohr.
Chapter 11. Koan and Kensho in the
Rinzai Zen Curriculum.
- G. Victor Sogen Hori.
As the title suggests (The Zen Koan: Texts and Contexts) the contributors to this study are, for the most part, working with the hypothesis that koans are 'textually' based entities, even if ultimately related to a supra-textual (i.e. experiential) context. Besides John MacRae's essay (Chapter 2) dealing with the Antecedents of the Encounter Dialogue in Ch'an Buddhism, we learn relatively little about the background to the Zen wen-ta/ mondo which provided the basis for kung-an/koan texts. We might note that for the early Zen Buddhists, it was axiomatic "not to speak too plainly " (pu shuo pu), their way being to teach in a purely spontaneous manner - direct pointing, without reference to fixed study programmes, texts. The content of such dialogues became the basis for the kung-an/koan. The Zen way of 'commenting' - 'capping' one phrase or remark - with another, gave us the so called Zen 'capping phrases' (jakugo). Both sound familiar enough, but we must recognise that in its original context, this did not mean working with fixed texts like the Hekiganroku (Chin. Pi Yen Lu) - or 'capping phrasebooks.' What we hear of Zen 'koan' today reflects later developments, the signal difference being that - unlike the records found in the Chuan Teng Lu, Tsu Tang Chi etc., reflecting an earlier, oral tradition, the Mu-mon Kan, Pi-yen Lu etc., had been conceived as 'literary' products from the start. No doubt, John MacRae would hasten to add that even the earliest records have been re-worked, which is probably true. Still, the material was derived from 'dialogues' - and didn't begin life as polished works of art.
Alas, the opening chapter by T. Griffith Foulk (Form and Function of Koan Literature)barely rises above a few generalisations. Isshi Shudo's essay (Chapter 4)amounts to a series of textual notes and cross references, set out to show that the 'Tsung-men T'ung Yao chi' (Jpn. Shumontoyoshu) had a formative influence upon more well known sources e.g., the Wu-men Kuan (Jpn. Mumonkan), Pi-yen Lu (Jpn. Hekiganroku). Isshi's essay opens with a rule-of-thumb distinction, identifying Tang Chan with 'intrinsic enlightenment' (pen-chueh) and Sung Chan with 'acquired enlightenment' (shih chueh). It must be said that - stated in such polarised terms, such distinctions would have meant little to Chinese Buddhists of the Tang/Sung (or Japanese masters such as Hakuin, for the matter). One of the 'straw men' of Japanese Buddhist scholasticism - this distinction has given rise to hopelessly dichotomised views - winning fresh notoriety in the hands of the 'Critical Buddhist' fraternity.' In practical terms, isolating such idioms makes about as much sense as trying to understand the 'Sho' and the 'Hen' of the Zen Go-I (Five Ranks) in isolation. Reliable sources show that Zen training necessarily involves both aspects(without 'pen-chueh' [inherent enlightenment]- there can be no 'shih-chueh' [experiential enlightenment], and vice versa. Given all the attention paid to 'language' in this book, viz. the koan, one might have expected more focus on the practical relevance of such idioms.
Albert Welter's essay (Chapter 3) was useful, noting the role of Yung-ming and Wu-yueh Ch'an, making better sense of the inter-face between scriptural Buddhism, orality - and the ultimately ineffable nature of totality. Morten Schlutter's essay (Chapter 6) focused on the tensions affecting Zen practice in the Sung - happily, playing down the 'polemical' tension between the Lin-chi and Ts'ao-tung schools, exploring the constructive interface between them.
Surprisingly, only one chapter in this book (Mohr's, Chapter 10) touched on what is arguably the most disputed question in contemporary Rinzai Zen practice - namely, the status of the Rinzai Zen 'Ken-ge,' 'capping phrases' (jakugo) and Hakuin's putative role in that regard. Mohr casts a sceptical eye on the matter. Mohr's essay promised to be engaging, with observations about Hakuin's classification of koan, Torei's views etc. Hakuin's comments were well worth assessing at length - but, Mohr's essay digresses into background issues just where one might have expected the focus on Hakuin to continue (the emergence of the Obaku school is mentioned, but only enough to act as disruptive interlude. The digressions on Gattegno's theory of education had but slender bearing on the Buddhist topics at hand). A propos Hakuin's interest in Taoist 'nai-kan' methods (which, after all, restored the Master's health), Mohr joins in the academic chorus, 'poo-pooing' Hakuin's mention of Hakuyushi - the Taoist figure he claimed to have met in Shirakawa. However, earnest Japanese Buddhist biographers such as Rikukawa Taiun, have confirmed Hakuin's account, related in the Yasenkanna. Twelve years ago, there was still a Dojo on the mountain road between Shirawkawa and Hiei-zan, full of memorabilia, bokuseki etc. relating to Hakuin's meeting with Hakuyushi. The incumbent was 96 years old, and certainly regarded Hakuin's meeting with Hakuyushi as genuine. (after all, the Dojo was full of artifacts, bokuseki etc. The incumbent has since passed on, the building no longer functions as a Dojo, but the reviewer saw these things for himself. Yasenkanna is not 'definitely fiction' - as Mohr asserts, and Hakuin did not confess that he made the story up - as Mohr claims. When Hakuin stated, in his postface to the Yasenkanna (1757) that he "had not set up (mokeru) the story (of Hakuyushi) for gifted people who had realised the truth in a single hammer blow" - he was not defining the story as an expedient fable, but qualifying the point that those who had made significant advances in Zen training could dispense with what he had to say about 'nai-kan' and Hakuyushi's teaching. As Mohr's essay otherwise makes clear, Hakuin retained an interest in such practices, and continued to teach them to his followers - if needed. (For the record, the Shisendo [Hall of Immortal Poets] in Shirakawa, formerly Ishikawa Jozan's home, is dedicated to Chinese poets. In the Tokugawa, the toshukan there was full of Chinese texts, including Taoist manuals, and there is nothing odd in the idea that Ishikawa Jishun [nom de plume, Hakuyushi] availed himself of its resources).
Closer attention could have been paid to the moot question of Hakuin's role in devising fixed 'koan systems' and attendant ken-ge etc. Mohr expresses caution over Hakuin's alleged contribution to the latter (i.e. fixed ken-ge), but in view of known sources such as the Keiso dokuzui (1756) and Keiso dokuzui shui (1759), it was a little bold for Mohr to assert (p.265) that "neither Hakuin's nor his direct disciples' works mention an explicit sequence of koans " for on the very same page (first para.), Mohr noted the sequential function of the 'hosshin' and 'nanto' koans, outlined by Hakuin in Sokkoroku kaien fusetsu (which simply reiterates Hakuin's position in the other works I have noted). Still, Mohr is right in the sense that Hakuin refers not so much to specific, individual koan, but rather, to complexes of koan which fulfil a certain function - vis-a-vis the maturation of Zen practice. Hence, if Mohr is saying that Hakuin wasn't a meticulous drudge who devised Zen ken-ge with a rigid bearing on a student's 'kyogai' or situational maturation of insight- well, I would have to agree. Hakuin wasn't that dull!
Ironically, the one chapter contributed by a practicing Rinzai Zen monk (Chapter 11, by Sogen Hori), struck me as the most problematic. That Hori describes Rinzai Zen training as a 'curriculum' - makes his position clear. It is worth noting that Master Rinzai knew nothing of a 'curriculum' - as Hori presents it. What kind of 'curriculum' is Rinzai's 'true man of no fixed position' (wu wei chen-jen)? Read more ›
Chapter 1.The Form and Function of Koan Literature.
-T. Griffith Foulk.
Chapter 2. The Antecedents of Encounter Dialogue in
Chinese Chan Buddhism.
- John R. Macrae
Chapter 3. Mahakasyapa's Smile: Silent Transmission
and the Kung-an (Koan) tradition.
- Albert Welter.
Chapter 4. Kung-an Ch'an and the Tsung-men tung
yao chi.
- Ishii Shudo.
Chapter 5. Visions, Divisions, Revisions. The
Encounter between Iconoclasm and
Supernaturalism in Koan cases about
Mt. Wu-tai.
- Stephen Heine.
Chapter 6. "Before the Empty Aeon" versus
"A Dog has no Buddha-nature. "
Kung-an use in the Ts'ao-tung
tradition and Ta-hui's Kung-an
Introspection Ch'an.
- Morten Schlutter.
Chapter 7. Koan History: Transformative
Language in Chinese Buddhist
Thought.
- Dale. S. Wright.
Chapter 8. Ikkyu and Koans.
- Alexander Kabanoff
Chapter 9. Transmission of the Kirigami
(Secret Initiation Documents):
A Soto Practice in Medieval
Japan.
- Ishikawa Rikizan.
Chapter 10. Emerging from Non-duality.
Koan Practice in the Rinzai
Tradition since Hakuin.
- Michel Mohr.
Chapter 11. Koan and Kensho in the
Rinzai Zen Curriculum.
- G. Victor Sogen Hori.
As the title suggests (The Zen Koan: Texts and Contexts) the contributors to this study are, for the most part, working with the hypothesis that koans are 'textually' based entities, even if ultimately related to a supra-textual (i.e. experiential) context. Besides John MacRae's essay (Chapter 2) dealing with the Antecedents of the Encounter Dialogue in Ch'an Buddhism, we learn relatively little about the background to the Zen wen-ta/ mondo which provided the basis for kung-an/koan texts. We might note that for the early Zen Buddhists, it was axiomatic "not to speak too plainly " (pu shuo pu), their way being to teach in a purely spontaneous manner - direct pointing, without reference to fixed study programmes, texts. The content of such dialogues became the basis for the kung-an/koan. The Zen way of 'commenting' - 'capping' one phrase or remark - with another, gave us the so called Zen 'capping phrases' (jakugo). Both sound familiar enough, but we must recognise that in its original context, this did not mean working with fixed texts like the Hekiganroku (Chin. Pi Yen Lu) - or 'capping phrasebooks.' What we hear of Zen 'koan' today reflects later developments, the signal difference being that - unlike the records found in the Chuan Teng Lu, Tsu Tang Chi etc., reflecting an earlier, oral tradition, the Mu-mon Kan, Pi-yen Lu etc., had been conceived as 'literary' products from the start. No doubt, John MacRae would hasten to add that even the earliest records have been re-worked, which is probably true. Still, the material was derived from 'dialogues' - and didn't begin life as polished works of art.
Alas, the opening chapter by T. Griffith Foulk (Form and Function of Koan Literature)barely rises above a few generalisations. Isshi Shudo's essay (Chapter 4)amounts to a series of textual notes and cross references, set out to show that the 'Tsung-men T'ung Yao chi' (Jpn. Shumontoyoshu) had a formative influence upon more well known sources e.g., the Wu-men Kuan (Jpn. Mumonkan), Pi-yen Lu (Jpn. Hekiganroku). Isshi's essay opens with a rule-of-thumb distinction, identifying Tang Chan with 'intrinsic enlightenment' (pen-chueh) and Sung Chan with 'acquired enlightenment' (shih chueh). It must be said that - stated in such polarised terms, such distinctions would have meant little to Chinese Buddhists of the Tang/Sung (or Japanese masters such as Hakuin, for the matter). One of the 'straw men' of Japanese Buddhist scholasticism - this distinction has given rise to hopelessly dichotomised views - winning fresh notoriety in the hands of the 'Critical Buddhist' fraternity.' In practical terms, isolating such idioms makes about as much sense as trying to understand the 'Sho' and the 'Hen' of the Zen Go-I (Five Ranks) in isolation. Reliable sources show that Zen training necessarily involves both aspects(without 'pen-chueh' [inherent enlightenment]- there can be no 'shih-chueh' [experiential enlightenment], and vice versa. Given all the attention paid to 'language' in this book, viz. the koan, one might have expected more focus on the practical relevance of such idioms.
Albert Welter's essay (Chapter 3) was useful, noting the role of Yung-ming and Wu-yueh Ch'an, making better sense of the inter-face between scriptural Buddhism, orality - and the ultimately ineffable nature of totality. Morten Schlutter's essay (Chapter 6) focused on the tensions affecting Zen practice in the Sung - happily, playing down the 'polemical' tension between the Lin-chi and Ts'ao-tung schools, exploring the constructive interface between them.
Surprisingly, only one chapter in this book (Mohr's, Chapter 10) touched on what is arguably the most disputed question in contemporary Rinzai Zen practice - namely, the status of the Rinzai Zen 'Ken-ge,' 'capping phrases' (jakugo) and Hakuin's putative role in that regard. Mohr casts a sceptical eye on the matter. Mohr's essay promised to be engaging, with observations about Hakuin's classification of koan, Torei's views etc. Hakuin's comments were well worth assessing at length - but, Mohr's essay digresses into background issues just where one might have expected the focus on Hakuin to continue (the emergence of the Obaku school is mentioned, but only enough to act as disruptive interlude. The digressions on Gattegno's theory of education had but slender bearing on the Buddhist topics at hand). A propos Hakuin's interest in Taoist 'nai-kan' methods (which, after all, restored the Master's health), Mohr joins in the academic chorus, 'poo-pooing' Hakuin's mention of Hakuyushi - the Taoist figure he claimed to have met in Shirakawa. However, earnest Japanese Buddhist biographers such as Rikukawa Taiun, have confirmed Hakuin's account, related in the Yasenkanna. Twelve years ago, there was still a Dojo on the mountain road between Shirawkawa and Hiei-zan, full of memorabilia, bokuseki etc. relating to Hakuin's meeting with Hakuyushi. The incumbent was 96 years old, and certainly regarded Hakuin's meeting with Hakuyushi as genuine. (after all, the Dojo was full of artifacts, bokuseki etc. The incumbent has since passed on, the building no longer functions as a Dojo, but the reviewer saw these things for himself. Yasenkanna is not 'definitely fiction' - as Mohr asserts, and Hakuin did not confess that he made the story up - as Mohr claims. When Hakuin stated, in his postface to the Yasenkanna (1757) that he "had not set up (mokeru) the story (of Hakuyushi) for gifted people who had realised the truth in a single hammer blow" - he was not defining the story as an expedient fable, but qualifying the point that those who had made significant advances in Zen training could dispense with what he had to say about 'nai-kan' and Hakuyushi's teaching. As Mohr's essay otherwise makes clear, Hakuin retained an interest in such practices, and continued to teach them to his followers - if needed. (For the record, the Shisendo [Hall of Immortal Poets] in Shirakawa, formerly Ishikawa Jozan's home, is dedicated to Chinese poets. In the Tokugawa, the toshukan there was full of Chinese texts, including Taoist manuals, and there is nothing odd in the idea that Ishikawa Jishun [nom de plume, Hakuyushi] availed himself of its resources).
Closer attention could have been paid to the moot question of Hakuin's role in devising fixed 'koan systems' and attendant ken-ge etc. Mohr expresses caution over Hakuin's alleged contribution to the latter (i.e. fixed ken-ge), but in view of known sources such as the Keiso dokuzui (1756) and Keiso dokuzui shui (1759), it was a little bold for Mohr to assert (p.265) that "neither Hakuin's nor his direct disciples' works mention an explicit sequence of koans " for on the very same page (first para.), Mohr noted the sequential function of the 'hosshin' and 'nanto' koans, outlined by Hakuin in Sokkoroku kaien fusetsu (which simply reiterates Hakuin's position in the other works I have noted). Still, Mohr is right in the sense that Hakuin refers not so much to specific, individual koan, but rather, to complexes of koan which fulfil a certain function - vis-a-vis the maturation of Zen practice. Hence, if Mohr is saying that Hakuin wasn't a meticulous drudge who devised Zen ken-ge with a rigid bearing on a student's 'kyogai' or situational maturation of insight- well, I would have to agree. Hakuin wasn't that dull!
Ironically, the one chapter contributed by a practicing Rinzai Zen monk (Chapter 11, by Sogen Hori), struck me as the most problematic. That Hori describes Rinzai Zen training as a 'curriculum' - makes his position clear. It is worth noting that Master Rinzai knew nothing of a 'curriculum' - as Hori presents it. What kind of 'curriculum' is Rinzai's 'true man of no fixed position' (wu wei chen-jen)? Read more ›
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By S. Clippard
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I can't disagree with most of these reviewers. This is an excellent resource for understanding the koan tradition. Many of the essays are penetrating and leave the reader with an ever deeper and wider understanding of the koan tradition. I do in fact think this volume surpasses Zen Dust. The lengthy review by Ikeda pretty much tells you all you need to know about the contents. But let me just say that this is as true a "drink of water" as any other on the topic. Like any scholarly work on religion, its inspiration comes in its analysis. Yes, koans can be analyzed, studied, and researched, and they should be.
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 71
books:
See all 71 books this book cites
8
books
cite this book:
See all 8 books citing this book
- Zen Buddhism by Daisetz T. Suzuki on 10 pages
- Sudden and Gradual (Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought) by Peter N. Gregory on 8 pages
- New York by Tama Janowitz on 6 pages
- Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series by D.T. Suzuki on 6 pages
- Zen Buddhism: A History -- Japan Vol. 2 by Heinrich Dumoulin on 4 pages
See all 71 books this book cites
- The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth-through Tenth-century China by Jinhua Jia in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts by Dale S. Wright in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- Beyond Thinking: A Guide to Zen Meditation by Eihei Dogen in Back Matter
- The Different Paths of Buddhism: A Narrative-Historical Introduction by Carl Olson in Back Matter
- Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience by Donald W. Mitchell on page 281
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