The Solution of the Zen Koans of Mumonkan: Non-duality and freedom from the self for spiritual growth towards enlightenment and awakening

By Claudio Patrini

The Mumonkan, composed in the 13th century, comprises forty-eight koans in which anecdotes relating to the Chinese masters of the best Ch'an period, between the 7th and 10th centuries, are recorded in a characteristic concise and direct style. A typical situation reported in koans was the dialogue between master and student. But these series of questions and answers were very different from a normal conversation, they were rather a shock encounter between two mental attitudes: that of the student, who sought, with the use of reason, to understand what goes beyond reason; and that of the master, who by paradoxical and unpredictable actions and words blocked the way to any attempt at intellectual understanding, to bring the student to be able to experience, in a direct and immediate way, the contact with the ultimate reality. It is worth pointing out that Zen, at least in its heyday, was something very different from what is usually understood by religion. Each religion is characterized by a set of beliefs, precepts and practices, and by the intention to turn to a superior entity to worship and invoke its help. None of this is present in the koans. In fact, there is no exhortation to believe in revealed truths, nor the observance of particular obligations considered essential. Religious practices are therefore seen as positive, but only as fact. There may be training in life, but there is no life in training. Even the reference to a higher dimension in koans has a different character than in religions. The Buddha represents the highest goal towards which to direct one's life, but one turns to him to learn to know him and to recognize oneself as equal to him, not to worship him as a divinity. The path indicated by the koans is therefore not devotional, but cognitive. On the other hand, the way of koans is not even philosophical. Indeed, conceptual thinking is seen as the main obstacle to reaching the truth. But, if both devotion and reasoning are discarded, then what do the koans offer? Koans offer the starting point for a direct knowledge of reality, not mediated by mental forms. Such knowledge is possible because it coincides with our simple Being. In fact, it is not a question of reaching something difficult and distant, but of getting out of the prison of illusory mental constructions, in order to find one's true nature. Koans contain various approaches to getting rid of the deceptive worldview that is constructed by ordinary thought. They invite us to reject the mental structures and the "normal" ways we are used to seeing the world. Nothing is spared from a radical and uncompromising analysis, for the slightest concession to the habits of conceptual thought would mean a relapse into illusion. That is why it is said: "If you meet the Buddha in the street, kill him!".

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BLQRY47N
• ISBN13: 9798362722630
• Release Date: November 2022
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 131 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"