ZEN KOANS
A koan is a question a teacher poses to his devotees. What is the answer, the students think.
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
Does a dog have a Buddha nature? If you answer, you lose your own Buddha nature.
What was your face before your mother was born?
Is there a teaching no master ever preached before? Yes, there is. What is it? It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things.
First the adept thinks. She thinks until the thinker breaks into pieces and can think no more. For there is no reasoning a koan. A koan becomes inside of you. And you become inside of the koan, so to speak. One cannot think nor reason their way to zen. Zen is an awakening that happens. One must be present and mindful when it occurs. The mind must be quiet.
Otherwise, what will that student do when Satori comes like a lightning rod, when, the most glorious of katanas comes to slice you in two, what will the adept choose, wisdom or delusion?
Zen or Ego?
I recommend Zen Flesh Zen Bones, A Collection of Zen and PreZen Writings Compiled by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki