Blood & Ink: Cracking the Koans

“I believe life is a Zen koan, that is, an unsolvable riddle. But the contemplation of that riddle - even though it cannot be solved - is, in itself, transformative. And if the contemplation is of high enough quality, you can merge with the divine.”

— Tom Robbins

Koan’s appeared in many of my ceremonies during my 2-week diet…

The ‘unsolvable riddles’ of the Rinzai school of Zen, with footnotes to ancient Taoism.

That quote is one of my favourites of all time. It points to something of profound importance.

To try my hand at an all-but-inadequate interpretation, I’ll start with a line from Alan Watts:

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

The point of a Koan is not an answer. The end game of koan practice is a natural and spontaneous act.

To run the mind in circles attempting to resolve a problem that cannot be resolved. It can’t be resolved because it’s not a question. It’s an invitation.

• You don’t ‘solve’ dancing. You dance.
• You don’t get an ‘answer’ to breathing. You breathe.
• You aren’t being ‘tested’ in life. You participate.

The last statement of Robbins’ quote is of unique interest to us here.

What happens—and indeed what the aim of a koan is—is to tie the rational, thinking mind in knots. To frustrate it so deeply and so profoundly with its inadequacy to effectively solve the problem, that in a great fit of resignation, the mind is dropped entirely.

This opens the space for grace.

That is, the deep and ancient intelligence stored in the body, in the heart, and indeed in all of life itself, is finally allowed to burgeon forth in a completely natural, spontaneous act.

This is why some of the ‘answers’ to koans seem so ridiculous.

“What is the Buddha?” Three pounds of flax.

Flax seed is HERE. In REALITY. This is the origin-moment and the end goal of all Zen training. Here and now. Grounded in reality. Beyond the fantastical machinations of mind and merging fully with the Tao, the great river of being that flows through and orchestrates all things.

One of the things I love about koans is they offer you a powerful paradigm shift: stop looking for better answers, start looking for better questions.

Here are a couple of ‘unanswerable questions’ I love:

• Who am I?
• What do I want?
• What am I truly capable of?

These can never be answered in any final and satisfactory sense.

Why? Because as soon as you’ve got it, it’s gone. You, yourself, are the great force of change. Constant, dynamic, vital flux. The moment you’ve got an answer, you’ve changed reality, and thus changed the possibility-space of the question. The moment you reach a milestone, a new one is born. They arise mutually.

But the gold is in the pursuit. The earnest endeavour to answer them in your very Way of Being is transformative.

The only way to answer the question of “what am I capable of?” is to do it!

It’s not a theoretical question. You are capable of no less and no more than exactly what you do.

If you’ve ever done indoor rock climbing, they often have these pre-made pathways up the walls with various difficulties. What do they call them? Problems.

Koans are a sacred sparring partner. It’s not about victory. It’s about refinement, dynamic tension, elevating standards, and shifting paradigms.

Let’s pursue some better questions,
EB.