Zen Buddhism

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

steve_bank said:

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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One hand can't clap. Clapping requires two or more hands - or objects - moving with sufficient force against one another to create a 'clapping' sound. OR, one hand could clap against something else, like a wall, a table, a back...

Additionally, one empty half of a coconut could be used to bang against another empty half of a coconut (not necessarily the same coconut) to make a clapping, clopping sound. One could have each half of a coconut tied to a line, or one could simply take one empty half of coconut, grip it by the husk, and collide it with another empty half of a coconut...

Please pay no attention...

As the story goes as I remember it..

New monks are given a koan to solve, a puzzle.

A teacher gives his student the question ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’


The strident returns and starts into a logical rational dissertation. The teacher hits him over the head with a rice bowl and says ’Try again!’.

The student returns, sits down, and move one hand back and forth The master smiled in approval.

Simplicity and directness. Not all truths can be reduced to logic and reason. Some are only realized by experience. One can not reach enlightenment trough logic alone.
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There is also the Chan Shout, shocking one into awareness.

Zen is a psychology. Western philosophy is grounded in logic and treason gong back to Greeks. Redding all things to logical profs.

Chinese and Japanese philosophies have a different perspective. Not that logic and reason are abandoned, but Aristotelian logic does not apply to everything.

Some argue that our western problems are from trying to shoe horn everything into rational lo0gc

A kōan (/ˈkoʊæn, -ɑːn/ KOH-a(h)n;[1] Japanese: 公案; Chinese: 公案; pinyin: gōng'àn [kʊ́ŋ ân]; Korean: 화두; Vietnamese: công án) 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. The main goal of kōan practice in Zen is to achieve kenshō (Chinese: jianxing 見性), to see or observe one's buddha-nature.[2]

Extended study of kōan literature as well as meditation (zazen) on a kōan is a major feature of modern Rinzai Zen. They are also studied in the Sōtō school of Zen to a lesser extent. In Chinese Chan and Korean Seon Buddhism, meditating on a huatou, a key phrase of a kōan, is also a major Zen meditation method.

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Katsu (Chinese: 喝; Pinyin: hè, Wade-Giles: ho; Cantonese: hot3ⓘ, rōmaji: katsu) is a shout that is described in Chan and Zen Buddhism encounter-stories, to expose the enlightened state (Japanese: satori) of the Zen-master, and/or to induce initial enlightenment experience in a student.[1][2] The shout is also sometimes used in the East Asian martial arts for a variety of purposes; in this context, katsu is very similar to the shout kiai.[3]

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The generalized Japanese term for meditation is 瞑想 (meisō); however, zazen has been used informally to include all forms of seated Buddhist meditation. The term zuòchán can be found in early Chinese Buddhist sources, such as the Dhyāna sutras. For example, the famous translator Kumārajīva (344–413) translated a work termed Zuòchán sān mēi jīng (A Manual on the Samādhi of Sitting Meditation) and the Chinese Tiantai master Zhiyi (538–597 CE) wrote some very influential works on sitting meditation.[3][4]

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I listened to many hours of his lectures back in the 80's.

robnisch said:

I listened to many hours of his lectures back in the 80's.

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I listened to hours of him in the 60s.

robnisch said:

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I listened to many hours of his lectures back in the 80's.

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Me too...

I know who Watts was, but did not listen to or read him.

I did read some of Suzuki. He was popular in the 70s-80s.

I read that not a;; Buddhists accept Zen as Buddhism.

Zen's origins are linked to Bushido.

I read Musashi's Book Of Five Rings. In the 80s it was popular philosophy in the business community.

In Japanese martial arts Musashi is a kiond of saint.

Miyamoto Musashi
(1584–1645) was not a ordained Zen monk, but his life, philosophy, and martial arts (Niten Ichi-ryū) were profoundly influenced by Zen principles. He studied Zen at temples like Daisen-ji. His, writings, such as the Book of Five Rings, emphasize discipline, focus, and "no-mind" (mushin), core tenets of Zen

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The original Shaolin monks in China were Buddhist warrior monks.

Back when I was a hard drinker sitting at the bar in the local tavern with the other hard drinkers, one could always get a laugh by suddenly announcing, in a loud, weighty voice, BE HERE NOW.