My current interest in writing ZneMajstroLegendoj has led me to start exploring koans. The page referenced led me to the Zen Mountain Monastery and their Dharma Discourse Library which has excellent commentaries on many of the koans.

My doctoral studies in constructivism and the philosophy of science led me to explore buddhism during graduate school. Exploring these koans has helped me revisit some of the ideas that I struggled with then and see them now in a new light. Several themes that have emerged that I am reflecting on: (1) know yourself and have confidence in yourself, (2) transcend questions and don't be limited by seeming contradictions, and (3) zen monks seem to enjoy being intentionally obscure. Many of the koans are less obscure than I had originally thought, though, and a big part, not surprisingly, is that they make culturally grounded references that are outside of the frame of reference of a westerner. So when they talk about becoming a water buffalo at a donor's house, it helps to know what associations water buffalos have to traditional asian villagers.

I've been meaning to get up to the Peace Pagoda, but keep getting distracted by work. Soon.

Is there any easy way to (automatically) mark text as having been added later by someone else? Or do I just need to do it in-line myself?

Added by PhilipBrewer Tue Jun 18 13:28:08 CDT 2002:

Another thing about buddhist writings is that they tend to make their point by an exaggerated reversal of the student's expectations. Buddhism is all about the middle way, so, the famous response, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him," was an attempt to show where the middle was. But it only works if the student begins with the attitude "If I meet the Buddha on the road I will praise him, worship him, and strive to serve him in every way." Then the middle between these two extremes is what the teacher is trying to show. The technique works poorly if the student is coming from a very different place than the student the master was actually talking to.

Reply by StevenBrewer

I'm not sure I agree with this analysis. The "middle way", as I understand it, doesn't refer to something between two extremes. It rather represents a third option, available only to an enlightened analysis in which the question (which allows only 2 responses, or n+1 responses, in the generalized model) no longer makes any sense. In this analysis lies "a middle way", but it is middle only in the way that 'mu' is between 'yes' and 'no'.

My analysis would be that if someone talks about meeting Buddha on the it means they're falling into dualistic thinking, creating a separation between themself and the world. Buddhism is about seeing yourself, your internal representation of the world, and the world as all being one. I would interpret the koan as about shocking the student into seeing that they themselves are the buddha and their question is like asking what they should do if they met themself on the road.