Genre

Koan

Religious and Devotional Writing

A koan is a story, dialogue, question or statement drawn from Chinese Chan Buddhist lore, often carried along with commentary, that is used in Chan, Zen, Seon and Thien Buddhist practice. Working through a koan, whether by extended study of koan literature or by meditating on one during zazen, is a central feature of modern Rinzai Zen, and the Soto school of Zen studies koans too, if to a lesser degree. In Chinese Chan and Korean Seon Buddhism a related method has a student meditate on a huatou, the key phrase drawn out of a koan. The aim across these traditions is to reach kensho, a direct glimpse of one's own buddha nature, rather than to solve the koan the way an ordinary riddle is solved.

Facts

Place of Origin

Chinese Chan Buddhism of the late Tang to Song dynasty period, where the practice of citing and commenting on old cases developed before spreading to Japanese Zen, Korean Seon and Vietnamese Thien Buddhism. 1

Notable Example

Hakuin's sound-of-one-hand koan, "what is the sound of one hand?", one of the best known break-through koans in Rinzai practice. 1

Defining Trait

A story, dialogue, question or statement drawn from Chinese Chan Buddhist lore, supplemented with commentaries, used in Chan, Zen, Seon and Thien Buddhist practice to point toward nonduality. 1

Sources

1. Koan (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)

Summary lead
A kōan is a story, dialogue, question, or statement from Chinese Chan Buddhist lore, supplemented with commentaries, that is used in Chan, Zen, Seon and Thiền Buddhist practice in different ways.
Doctrinal background section
Hakuin's well-known kōan, "Two hands clap and there is a sound, what is the sound of one hand?" is clearly about two and one.
Gong'an in China section, opening sentence
Gong'an literature developed at some point in between the late Tang dynasty (10th century) to the Song dynasty (960-1279), though the details are unclear.

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Koan