2 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: A Couple of Questions Regarding Koans
I'd say go for it, regardless of what you call your stories or cases, your Zen-blog idea is cool.
Maybe instead of calling them Koans just call them "my Zen cases" or something to prevent mis-information. I for one would love to read Koans that were created in today's world.
Comment by Erutaerc-Art at 14/01/2025 at 00:45 UTC*
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Thank you! I really appreciate the support. I might call them "Short Stories" too, just to keep it simple, but I like "Zen cases" as well, or maybe even something more conversational, like "Zen tales"!
I haven't made any posts on it besides a short introductory one, but I just got the blog up and running! Just calling it "Zazen Log" for now. Thinking of using it like a psuedo-journal, just writing about my experiences with meditation, along side some "Zen cases" and drawings. It's actally quite therapeutic :)
I was thinking of linking it on a post on this sub, but I saw there was a self-promo rule, which I understand, so I can link it in this comment instead! https://zazenlog.blogspot.com/[1][2]
1: https://zazenlog.blogspot.com/
2: https://zazenlog.blogspot.com/
I don't mean to be all sappy, but I'm really thankful for all of your guys's support. I only just joined the sub, and already the amount of feedback I'm getting is astonishing and so helpful!
Comment by HakuninMatata at 14/01/2025 at 00:11 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
There is a book called something about "Householder Koans", which makes an attempt in this direction.
More accurately, probably, some Seung Sahn books include student interactions with him which could probably qualify as koans.
Thing is, why would we need new ones? One answer is that some of the nuance of some classic koans is lost in the linguistic, cultural and historic shift between classical China and the modern West. But a little context and explanation can be enough to deal with that. The entry koans, we don't need any more of. We have mu, we have your original face before your parents were born, we have one hand clapping. The post-awakening koans, maybe we could do with new ones, but it's worth asking what doesn't suffice about the ones used for generations on end.