Category: koan

In Zen Buddhism, enigmatic or paradoxical questions used by teachers to develop students’ intuition. Also refers to religious problems encountered in daily life.

  • swimming carp

    Two masters were walking by a pool in which carp were swimming.
    One master said “Look at those carp. How happy they are swimming in the pool.”
    The other master said “How can you presume to know whether the carp are happy or not?”
    The first master replied “How can you presume to know I don’t know how the carp feel”

  • any season is a good season

    In spring, hundreds of flowers;
    In autumn, a harvest moon;
    In summer, a refreshing breeze;
    In winter, snow will accompany you.
    If useless things do not hang in your mind,
    any season is a good season for you.

    – Mu-mon 1228

  • morning glory

    The morning glory blooms but an hour.
    Yet it differs not in heart from a giant pine,
    That lives for a thousand years.

    – Matsunaga Teitiku

  • Do not deny not by denying

    Do not deny not by denying.

    – zen saying

    “It has been told that Nature abhors a vacuum.
    I disagree.
    Nature doesn’t mind a vacuum.
    It is man that continually insists on filling them.”