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Someone may be “walking on water” not because they have learned a great secret, but rather that they have not ‘learned’ that they cannot do such a thing. Sometimes the correction for a situation is not to do something more, but primarily to stop what we have being doing; rather than learning something new, relinquish limiting information that you have acquired along the way.

Knowledge is gained by daily increment,
Tao is gained by daily loss
Verse 48: Tao Te Ching

Some would assert that except in certain medically or psychologically induced conditions unlearning our limitations is a hopeless fantasy. But isn’t the effect of a Zen koan a bit of “un-learning”? In such things exposed via a koan, the conscious mind is provided ‘enough rope to hang itself’ so that the wisdom beyond and before the dubious learning can come forward. When the blaring flaw in any held/learned concept is exposed, the accepted reality of it crumbles.

One might argue that the purpose of a Zen koan is redirection of the mind. It is generally a question unanswerable in the context of the logical mind—something like, “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” The logical mind will grapple with such a question until it exhausts itself. At that point, with it defenses—the infallible fortress of reason—down, the mind is open for a new perspective…thinking outside the box, as it is sometimes called…

(Continue reading this post via Into the Mist)

“If a tree falls and no one is around to hear it does the tree make a sound?” asks the one with Zen.

“Yes,” says the confident one without Zen.

“But if no one is around to hear it then how do you know it still makes a sound?” replies the one with Zen.

“…” replies the one without Zen.

I love this but not because of it’s supposed capability to transcend human conscious thought but because of the narrow-mindedness of both the one asking the question and the one responding so assuredly. Especially if you consider if a tree still makes a sound if a deaf person is on hand to see such an event but is still otherwise unable to hear what he sees (pre-supposing that the rhetorical question is rooted in the mere sight of this event.)

A simple fact is that the ear does not create sound but it is made to receive sound waves emitted from a source. And depending on the way in which the many functions of the ears are created, the sound itself can be heard in many various ways (such as certain animals having different hearing abilities than us). Trees also do not make sound but if it falls the act of it striking the ground creates a sonic wave that the ears are designed to receive…

(Continue reading this post via A Flagrant Repulsive Counterpoint)

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