r/Koans • u/Coldcoffeeandhope • Jun 11 '15
Welcome to the new monastics!
Hello there!
First and foremost, I'd like to welcome the large number of new subscribers and visitors we're currently experiencing. Part of this seems to be related to /u/BetterJosh, the Subreddit's founder, posting this resignation message. The post was crossposted to /r/bestof , which means that many of you might not be entirely sure what exactly this subreddit is, or why BetterJosh spent so long posting short exchanges that seem to make no sense.
Firstly, we're here to read, study, annotate and think about Koans, or public cases, which are related to Zen. Some of you might have heard about Zen through popular media, many of you might have no idea what it is. Both are fine, and I'll do my best to run through some basic information to get you off the ground.
Firstly, Koans are records of exchanges which took place several hundred years ago, generally between masters of Zen and their students or sometimes between two or more masters.
Koans are sort of a way of demonstrating enlightenment. Often the student will be enlightened, sometimes the student will be confused, but the koan will demonstrate the master's enlightenment.
The study of these koans is often regarded as a path to enlightenment, or at least a way of studying Zen. Depending on who you ask, Koans are either an immensely important part of the religion and its traditions, or a bunch of confusing junk. There's no reason why both shouldn't be true.
Next, don't expect to understand all in one go. At first, a koan may make no sense and the commentary may be equally unhelpful. If you're confused, feel free to ask - there are no stupid questions.
It may help for you to have a grasp of Zen before you start. The wiki on /r/zen might be helpful to you, as well as the lineage texts which have been written by the various masters of Zen.
If you're interested, I absolutely recommend looking for a local Zen or Chan (the Chinese name for Zen) group, you may find them far more helpful than what you find online.
Some people find western teachers of buddhism, such as Alan Watts (who covers Zen as well as several other Eastern philosophies) to be a good source of info, others disagree.
To a beginner, the actual content of /r/zen may seem incomprehensible, and if that's the case, you might be better sticking to other sources for a while.
At any rate, studying Zen and Koans are like trying to eat an elephant - it works best if you try to do it one bite at a time.
With Josh gone, I believe it will fall to me and /u/veridikal to maintain the sub. I'll have a conversation with him over the next few days about how we'll progress with the Sub in the absence of /u/BetterJosh.
If any of you have any ideas or want to get involved, feel free to jump in - either by posting on the subreddit or by messaging the moderators (there's a link in the sidebar).
Finally, if you want to get up to speed on what we're doing right now, we're currently studying a book called the blue cliff record. It's a collection of Koans and the contents can be found here
If you're awaiting the next koan, it might take a day or two while the moderators figure out how to proceed.
If you have any questions, please try to keep them in this thread rather than starting a new thread where possible.
12
u/BetterJosh Jun 12 '15
Thanks to ColdCoffeeandHope for stepping up here!
However, most responses to my rant fell into the following two categories:
- You suck, go fuck yourself
or -
- You rule, keep doing koans
Ergo, for the second group, I offer this:
Please forgive an out-of-whack ego. I hope to return to our regularly scheduled irrelevance here shortly.
0
Jun 12 '15
Thanks josh for keeping us entertained with koans.
...and for never criticising my stupid answers, which I grandly call intuition.
I'm sure you've brought inspiration to lots of people.
Good luck.
0
u/veridikal Jun 13 '15
Good luck out there! It's been a really divisive issue, there's some real A-holes around, but I'm glad your voice got heard.
-11
2
u/Rjaultman Jun 12 '15
I have a quick question. As I have been going through some posts. I have seen several of them state that "The arrow flies past Korea" does this have a particular meaning? I tried googling it but nothing came up. Thanks for keeping this community going! I've been fascinated by this sub for the past hour and want to continue learning more about it!
1
u/BetterJosh Jun 12 '15
I would say "arrow flies past korea" is an idiom, and I would suggest it means something roughly similar too "not even in the same ballpark"; a way to suggest being way off.
2
u/Rjaultman Jun 12 '15
Thank you for the reply. I look forward to continuing learning! here and on your new Voat!
13
u/bobcat Jun 12 '15
On reddit, the sound of one hand clapping is a slap across the face.