Zen koans.....are difficult. I had a Zen Page-A-Day calendar in 2011 that had quite a few koans. I would always think a little more when I got to a day
that had a koan on it. The koan would go something like this:
"Teacher, why is the bird brown?"
The teacher replied "Now you understand."
I completely made that up off the top of my head, but I'm not too far off from the abstract thought involved with these riddles. I was perplexed, yet intrigued. I don't quite remember how I found this book, but
I'm pretty sure I just typed "Zen koans book" into Google's search box.
Either way, this book is going to take some brainpower to get through.
Each koan gives you pause. The author presents the koan, the background story to the koan, and how you can work with the koan. You really have to examine it and
the various ways it can apply to life. There are fourteen koans.
Not all of them are life changing and sometimes the description of the koan is dry and uninteresting. However, that
could also be because those are the ones that left me scratching my head.
There are several, though, that led me to moments of clarity and
introspection. If you want something to mentally chew on, this could
definitely be considered a hearty meal of meat and potatoes.
