The Funny Thing About Zen Koan

The funny thing about Zen koan is that there is the questioning, which IS the answer. In essence, the answer is in the moment. And this is a living experience. When there are expectations of a future gift or payoff, or when there are dwellings on past pains and even successes, there is the loss of relaxation into the moment, where all thoughts are actually occurring.

We have this natural appreciation for those who dwell in the moment. They are the most spontaneous people we see. They are comfortable in their own skin. They can cry on camera without showing the least sign of being out of the moment, and we pay these great actors well. But they are not acting. They are really there in this place of tears. They are the crying. Their being IS the experience being conveyed. And we love them.

If the last idea or concept in the mind is that once all concepts, thoughts, and ideas are let go of we will experience oneness and peace, then when we let go of this last idea we will experience its truth. This means saying, "I don't know." This means letting go of all sides we might choose to fall to, be it democrat or republican, atheist or believer, black or white, liberal or conservative, hippie or yuppie, racist or humanitarian, hetero or gay, drunk or sober, blah blah blah. Buddha suggested a middle way. This would point to awareness falling upon the noticing of both sides of all without choosing either side.

The mind is a reflection of all that there is. There is emptiness in silence. And when the mind is silent, life springs into existence out of this nothingness in the form of thoughts and impressions. And as suns and planets arise and disappear within the infinity of space, space never once chooses to identify with any of it. It simply sits still as the womb that holds and supports existence.

We come out of the universe like a leaf on a tree. And yet our impressions from our senses along with our inward opinions about them creates this sense of self that we call our self-view. We see how inaccurate self-views can be for those who are skinny and yet see themselves as "fat". We see how inflated egos can be way off the mark. The world as we see it in our opinions of mind arises simultaneously with the self-view as we see it. And what is not acceptable is seen out there, while what is acceptable is seen in here. In the absence of this view of out there and in here, in the silence of mind without these thoughts, we are left with what actually is, which is one and which is our actual selves, our nature.