The koan is where you find it, or what you brought with you. But some koans recur, and have been found useful, as Skill in Means, for raising the Thought of Awakening, the Great Doubt, non-attachment, non-duality, compassion, wisdom, further skill in means, the Bodhisattva vows, and adherence to the precepts. In Zen monastic training, the Master may assign a particular koan to the trainee to meditate on, or may quiz a trainee or all assembled monks with a relevant koan, asking for a Word of Zen. The trainee can also bring koans to the Master in regular mondo/question and answer ceremonies.
Compassion, compassion, because of your great compassion.
The koan is always and everywhere non-attachment, no-self, karma of selfishness and unselfishness. Keep working on that, as meditation, and also to recognize it whenever it appears in daily life. For example, the news is much less bothersome when viewed through this lens.
Should we offer the merit of our training to horrible people?
Who needs it more?
Rev. Abbess Jiyu Kennett
Today I am bringing together a variety of koan collections, all gathered and commented on as Skill in Means over the centuries.
I have, of course, not read all of these, but I’m working on it. Slowly. Don’t think you can just read koans, like eating candy. Study in detail.
I don't say that there is no Zen; I only say that there is no master.
Huang Po, in Case 11 of the Blue Cliff Record
- The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind, 9th century
- Tozan’s Five Ranks of the Ideal and the Actual, 9th century
- Zen Teaching of Instantaneous Awakening: being the teaching of the Zen Master Hui Hai, known as the Great Pearl, 10th century
- Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (Chinese Zǔtángjí), mid-10th century
- Rinzai Roku, tenth century
- The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, also rendered into English as The Record of Transmitting the Light (Chinese Jǐngdé Chuándēnglù), early 11th century.
- Blue Cliff Record, originally compiled in Song China in 1125, during the reign of Emperor Huizong, and then expanded into its present form by Chan master Yuanwu Keqin (1063–1135)
- The Book of Equanimity or Book of Serenity (Chinese: 從容録 Cóngróng lù; Japanese: 従容録 Shōyōroku) is a collection of 100 Kōans by Hongzhi Zhengjue (Chinese: 宏智正覺; Japanese: Wanshi Shōgaku) (1091–1157), compiled with commentaries by Wansong Xingxiu (1166–1246). The full title is The Record of the Temple of Equanimity With the Classic Odes of Venerable Tiantong Jue and the Responsive Commentary of Old Man Wansong 萬松老評唱天童覺和尚 頌古從容庵錄 (Wansong Laoren Pingchang Tiantong Jue Heshang Songgu Congrong An Lu) (Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 48, No. 2004)
- Mumonkan/Mumon’s Barrier/The Gate with No Door, early 13th century by the Chinese Zen master Wumen Huikai.
- The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Three Hundred Koans, 13th century; commentary 2005, John Daido Loori
- The Record of Transmitting the Light: Zen Master Keizan's Denkoroku, 1300
- Entangling Vines (Shumon Kattoshu) compiled in the 15th and 16th centuries, and published in 1689
- Kyojukaimon: The Giving and Receiving of the Precepts of the Buddha, 13th century
- Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record: Zen Comments by Hakuin and Tenkei, commentary from two of the greatest Zen masters of early modern Japan, Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768) of the Rinzai sect of Zen and Tenkei Denson (1648-1735) of the Soto sect of Zen.
- Verses and Commentaries on One Hundred Old Cases of Tenchian (Japanese: Tenchian hyakusoku hyoju, compiled by Tetsumon in 1771.)
- The Iron Flute (Japanese: Tetteki Tōsui 鐵笛倒吹, compiled by Genrō Ōryū 玄楼奥龍 in 1783), literally Playing an Iron Bar Backwards
- Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, 1957, Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps
- Ten Gates: The Kong-an Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn, 1987
- The Whole World is a Single Flower: 365 Kong-ans for Everyday Life with Questions and Commentary, Seung Sahn, 1992
- Opening a Mountain: Koans of the Zen Masters, 2002
- Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans That Will Save Your Life, 2008
- Sitting with Koans: Essential Writings on Zen Koan Introspection, 2012
- The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women, 2013
This is by no means a comprehensive list. I have purposely omitted all of the collections of canned answers that have grown up like weeds around the practices of various schools of Zen that were in severe decline at the time.
To do something yourself, without copying others, is to become an example to the world.
Kyojukaimon
If you are an example to the world, does that mean that others should copy you? There is a lot of it about, you know.
