Introduction Koan Tradition: Self-Narrative And Contemporary Perspectives

Abstract

Abstract The term kōan (C. kung-an, literally “public cases”) refers to enigmatic and often shocking spiritual expressions based on dialogical encounters between masters and disciples that were used as pedagogical tools for religious training in the Zen (C. Ch’an) Buddhist tradition. This innovative practice is one of the best-known and most distinctive elements of Zen Buddhism. Originating in Tang/Sung China, the use of koans spread to Vietnam, Korea, and Japan and now attracts international attention. What is unique about the koan is the way in which it is thought to embody the enlightenment experience of the Buddha and Zen masters through an unbroken line of succession. The koan was conceived as both the tool by which enlightenment is brought about and an expression of the enlightened mind itself. Koans are generally appreciated today as pithy, epigrammatic, elusive utterances that seem to have a psychotherapeutic effect in liberating practitioners from bondage to ignorance, as well as for the way they are contained in the complex, multileveled literary form of koan collection commentaries. Perhaps no dimension of Asian religions has attracted so much interest and attention in the West, from psychological interpretations and comparative mystical theology to appropriations in beat poetry and deconstructive literary criticism.