Koans are designed to be given by a teacher to a student when the teacher personally assesses that the student could benefit from considering it. They’re also designed to not be comprehensible rationally or immediately, but rather to prompt introspection and to get someone to reflect on their own thought patterns. You can’t just rip them out of that context while not understanding the belief system and treat them like a riddle from Reader’s Digest and expect to get anything out of them.
Rationality is the basis of any understanding. Something that can be understood but without the involvenment of rationality, is an oximoron.
Nothing can be understood without rationality.
How do you understand the taste of a peach with rationality?
Just taste it, then you’ll understand it. No rationality required, unless you’d rather spend hours being distracted by a series of abstractions that never actually tell you what a peach tastes like.
I once came to understand the answer to the classic: “Show me the face you had before your parents were born.” koan. One of the most amazing experiences of my life - the golden needle penetrated the veil of my mind.
I could tell you my answer but it would seem trivial and uninteresting. The answer has to be experienced to be grokked (fuck you, Elon). Plus also, perhaps the answer would be different for different people. Now, if only I could work out the sound of one hand fapping…
Fair, although I wouldn’t assume there is zero overlap between Zen and shitposting. Discordianism for instance is – possibly – a sort of DIY Zen shaped like a shitpost, though the jury’s still out on whether it’s just a shitpost shaped like a sort of DIY Zen.
Koans are designed to be given by a teacher to a student when the teacher personally assesses that the student could benefit from considering it. They’re also designed to not be comprehensible rationally or immediately, but rather to prompt introspection and to get someone to reflect on their own thought patterns. You can’t just rip them out of that context while not understanding the belief system and treat them like a riddle from Reader’s Digest and expect to get anything out of them.
Rationality is the basis of any understanding. Something that can be understood but without the involvenment of rationality, is an oximoron. Nothing can be understood without rationality.
How do you understand the taste of a peach with rationality?
Just taste it, then you’ll understand it. No rationality required, unless you’d rather spend hours being distracted by a series of abstractions that never actually tell you what a peach tastes like.
I once came to understand the answer to the classic: “Show me the face you had before your parents were born.” koan. One of the most amazing experiences of my life - the golden needle penetrated the veil of my mind.
I could tell you my answer but it would seem trivial and uninteresting. The answer has to be experienced to be grokked (fuck you, Elon). Plus also, perhaps the answer would be different for different people. Now, if only I could work out the sound of one hand fapping…
…and the Lemming was enlightened
I admire your knowledge of Buddhist theory.
But this is a shit post community so it’s as unserious as the most zen person in the world.
Meanwhile, the silliest zen practitioner:
Bonus:
I’m not very serious, to be fair
This comment when I read it aloud made the sound of one hand clapping
Fair, although I wouldn’t assume there is zero overlap between Zen and shitposting. Discordianism for instance is – possibly – a sort of DIY Zen shaped like a shitpost, though the jury’s still out on whether it’s just a shitpost shaped like a sort of DIY Zen.
I wold call it a Zensation