The one that most Americans are familiar with is, “What is the sound of one hand ?” Many Koans were created by specific zen masters and recorded by their schools and there is a sort of academia around them but the nature of the koan can be found in languages and cultures throughout time and geography, often in the form of poetry or enigmatic idioms or jokes. They are small objects of language that trip up our logic and offer a momentary transcendence. One that acts as a vehicle to pass the limitations of thought. Every person who has ever lived has had the odd experience she describes.Ī koan is a sort of zen thought experiment. The passages that read like koans, which are Zen paradoxes that encourage enlightenment. I’ve paired the different Bodhisattva characters with passages from some of my favorite writers.
#ZEN BUDDHIST SAYINGS THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING SERIES#
Using a sound recording device, clap with one hand.This series is inspired by a book that I recently bought on very old Japanese woodblock prints carved by Buddhist monks.If you never realize that, you are just insane by definition and you will continue to be the one hand that connects with nothingness. The sound of one hand clapping is a conversation with someone that never connects with them so you try again and again before realizing you are only talking to yourself - they don't get it.the hand is the human heart and the clapping is emotions the other hand represents the one that makes us whole thus the clapping of both hands is the power of two people's emotions and the hands touching each other is the connection between the two people.The sound of one hand clapping is a tiny sound that can be barley heard by humans.That stillness is the same everywhere in everything. What is the sound of one hand clapping? Who are you when your thinking is silenced?.The silence refers to the essence of being which is nothingness. The sound of one hand clapping is silence.
What is the sound of one hand clapping in your own life?.The simpler answer- It depends on what the hand is clapping against! The yin and yang of it.In my experience, the sound of one hand clapping is the emotion of loneliness deeply felt in an increasingly self centered pursuit of enlightenment Experiencing this "answer" turned me away from relative isolation and the self-centered desire to "know," and towards the world and the practice of metta. In my own travels down this path with this particular question, there eventually came to be a certain opening of awareness, and a manifestation of the heart of compassion became tangible within. People who have truly lived with a koan for an extended period of time come to experience the answer. What is the sound of one hand clapping? To know, you must experience those aspects of your own life that create this very soundless sound (emotion) within your own being.Here are responses to the question from a variety of WikiAnswer users: Once experienced, the answer is often a life changing experience, and needs no confirmation from anyone else. You must find it for yourself, and not in your mind, and not in the comfort of a rational response. All koans must be answered from within the realm of one's own personal experience, and thus be encountered in the journey of living rather than in the rationalizations of logical thought.Īccordingly, each koan has many answers, answers that will vary both in words and in the stirring of one's mind and emotions.Įven the wisest Zen teacher cannot tell you your own answer.
It is meant to be pondered from within the routine of daily life until the answer opens the true heart of the question.
"What is the sound of one hand clapping?" is a traditional zen koan - a question posed by a Zen master to a student.
0 kommentar(er)
