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ZEN BUDDHISM There are said to be at least 1,700 koans, but, as Dr. Suzuki says, "for all practical purposes, less than ten, or even less than five, or just one may be sufficient to open one's mind to the ultimate truth of Zen. . . . Only let one gain an all-viewing and entirely satisfying insight into the living actuality of things and the koans will take care of themselves."l It has been said that the koan is chosen by the Master to produce a particular result, but of this I know nothing. I do know, however, that a koan may come out of a Zen experience. Thus, "the hill goes up and down" was produced from what I believe to have been a Zen “experience”, and the same applies, though it has an intellectual meaning, to my own description of Zen pantheism: "All is God, and there is no God.”
The mondo is a rapid question and answer, some of which are together used as a koan for other students. The language used is in one sense mystical to a degree, for it makes no sense to the reason. Nor is the question asked for information. The questioner "leads out" his mind, so to speak, to show its insufficiencies, and the Master sees thereby where the student has stuck on the sandbank of a still remaining thought. By his answer, rapidly given, he attempts to blow up the obstruction, as an expert frees the jammed up logs in the river, and allows them to flow once more to the sea. There is here no argument, and generally no explanation. The pupil "sees" or he does not see. If he sees, the Master may give him a further koan; if not, he makes the new answer his koan until that at least is "solved"! As the answer is personal to the pupil, it matters not that a dozen different answers may be given to the self-same question on the self-same day.
1 Introduction, p. 128.
