A Free Spirit in a Free Environment: The Art of Koans for Today

Surprise and create meaning

Historically, one could say that the first kôan was silent: when the Buddha twirled a flower between his fingers in front of an assembly of monks and only one of his disciples, Mahakashyapa, understood and smiled, the latter then received the transmission which is called "beyond the scriptures". And the tradition says in this regard that "by his smile, men and gods were confounded".

This gesture opens the door to the kôans that I would call “meta-ecological”. Thus for example: "The woman, the man look at the flower, the flower smiles". All those who love nature know that there is a communication, silent but real, between plants and us!

Echoing this kôan there is also the famous answer: "The cypress in the garden" to the question: what is the meaning of the coming of Bodhidharma (1) in China? Any question about meaning and truth is therefore resolved by contemplating the mystery of nature.

As the first collection of kôans dating from the Song dynasty in the XNUMXth century says, The pass without a door (2): “The treasure of the sight of the correct law is found in the wondrous and utterly quiet mind, devoid of characteristics”. A lucid and pure gaze in a way… Sensei Deshimaru also liked very much this kôan: "The pines have neither ancient nor modern color", which says all the beauty of nature if we know how to look at it. It is enough to walk in a forest, for example, to see how much we see nothing if we are lost, drowned in our thoughts, and how much it opens up to us and revitalizes us if, with the help of walking and a few conscious breaths, you calm your mind and enjoy the present moments.

An enigmatic brevity

Let's move on to predominantly meta-psychological kôans such as: “The soul looks at the well, the well looks at the soul”. Of course, one can detect there the correspondences dear to Baudelaire, but is it not also a metaphor similar to this splendid adage of master Dogen who, in the twelfth century, introduced the practice of zazen in Japan and declared: "As in a mirror, you are the reflection, but the reflection is not you!" » Phrase which, in itself, sums up the whole process of the psyche during meditation, where it is a question of ceasing to be the actor of one's own thoughts-emotions, in order to become the spectator and thus create in be a healthy letting go.

The many fluctuating inner states that we pass through are obviously taken into account by the koans, as evidenced by this eighth-century response from the ailing master Ma, when asked how he feels: "Buddha with the face of the sun, Buddha in the face of the moon. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's not, the negative is not only negative, the positive either, everything is mixed, it is important to get out of this black-white duality which makes us think and act in ready-made categories .

Dying, the Korean master Seung Sahn said in 2004: "My body does not feel very well", recalling that the Buddha is the awakened spirit in each of us...

Sensei Deshimaru was very fond of this kôan: "The pines have neither ancient nor modern color", which says all the beauty of nature if you know how to look at it. It is enough to walk in a forest, for example, to see how much we see nothing if we are lost, drowned in our thoughts, and how much it opens up to us and revitalizes us if, with the help of walking and a few conscious breaths, you calm your mind and enjoy the present moments.

The relationship to teaching is vigorously considered by Linji (Lin Tsi) who, in the XNUMXth century in China, shouts in front of his dumbfounded students: “If you meet the Buddha, kill him! If you encounter the Masters and Patriarchs, kill them! His disciples stuck too much to a dogmatic reading of the texts and endless rituals, so they had to be shaken up.

Here is a beautiful variant that Deshimaru quoted very often: “In meditation, if the devil comes to visit you, give him 100 blows with a stick. And if Buddha comes to visit you, beat him 100 times. Which invites us not to remain frozen or cling to infernal or blissful states. Don't take pleasure in anything, let it go, let it go...

A single reality is better than a thousand false daydreams

There is also the famous response to a pupil who asks: “What do you do during meditation? And the master who replies: "I do without doing." This allows us to evoke here the oriental metaphor which compares the act of meditating to a mountain, motionless; but around it there are clouds, more or less dense: our various thoughts-emotions. Fortunately, there are also the winds, which disperse the clouds and bring back the blue sky of the original consciousness. This wind is obviously that of the conscious breathing activated and concentrated on a deep exhalation. Do without doing, act without acting.

Let us quote again, in bulk: “What is eternity? This present moment” by Fayan, (XNUMXth century). Or, in the same style: “The ordinary mind is the Way” by Mazu (XNUMXth century), to which responds this formula that my dear master was fond of: “The Way is under your feet! » Just as he liked this grandiose kôan on which we are going to conclude: « What was your face before the birth of your parents? Not having the answer to this variant of our "Who am I?" », we will just cite that of Huikai in the XNUMXth century in the Pass without door “It cannot be sketched, nor depicted, nor praised: stop looking for it. No place to hide this original face which, when the universe is destroyed, remains intact…” Of which act.