great answer - try again
I had have a truly excellent mentor – mr. lee - who is one of my inspirations for coming up with and realising noochi. he is gifted with an ability to ask the right questions and to spread his words of wisdom when needed. yesterday, we chatted about Kōan practice. there are different views on how to practice kōan, and even of how to define it, but i liked what he said:
Meditate on a question (or simply pose a question to yourself, unless you happen to be a friggin’ cool zen master) such as: 2 hands clap and make a sound; what is the sound of just one hand? Every time you answer, the response (from yourself or from your “master”) is that your answer is a good answer, but not the right one. Not until this has been repeated between 7-15 times you are allowed to end your train of thoughts. This will challenge your way of thinking and furthen your ability to broaden your horizon.
being pragmatic, one could ask any question, not necessarily a deeply philosophical one: what makes me happy? or how can i contribute to make this world a better one? or even just how do i make the most out of the coming weekend? the method is likely to ensure that you get around any issue in a way that adds to your insights. that is a good thing. thanks for sharing, mr. lee!
p.s. when i checked with mr. lee if i could post the above, he commented that my noochi blog leaves an after taste like that of eating a caramel with really nice glossy paper on it! I totally get the point and am working on it… Promise…tags:caramel, koan, mentor, share, zen
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