Below is a list of modern Koans, or inquiry questions, arranged under the supervision of the webmaster.

A.

A-1 “In seeing, there is only the seeing.”

A-2 “In hearing, there is only the hearing”

A-3 “In smelling, there is only the smelling”

A-4 “In touching, there is only the touching”

A-5 “In thinking, there is only the thinking”

B.

B-1 Show me your true nature

B-2 How high (heavy) is it?

B-3 How does it look like?

B-4 How does it move?

B-5 Where did it come from?

B-6 Where will it go after death?

B-7 When was it born?

B-8 When will it perish?

B-9 H0w do you use it?

B-10 What is its source?

C.

C-1 Is this a hand, or not a hand?

C-2 When you don’t call it a hand, what is it?

C-3 Whose hand is it?

C-4 (Clapping hands) What is this?

C-5 Where does this sound come from?

C-6 Is it right hand touching left, or left touching right?

C-7 Is it one hand or two hands?

C-8 What is the sound of one hand clapping?

C-9 What do you plan to do with that sound?

C-10 What is the source of one hand clapping?

D.

D-1 How do you go straight on a winding road?

D-2 How do you swim in the river without getting wet?

D-3 How do you sweep the floor without a broom?

D-4 How do you drive a car high up in the sky?

D-5 How do you save a man about to fall from a cliff?

D-6 How do you get me up without touching me?

D-7 How do you get a man out of the pitfall without using a ladder?

D-8 How do you get to a place where there is no heat in the summer?

D-9 How do you greet the Buddha, here, in this moment?

D-10 What is it like when the mountain moves and the river water is unmoving?

E.

E-1 “Think of neither good nor evil”

E-2 “Think of the unthinkable”

E-3 “Thoughts flow on without stopping”

E-4 “Ordinary mind is the way”

E-5 “Desire equals Enlightenment”

E-6 “Dropping off body and mind”

E-7 “Body and mind dropped off”

E-8 “To know yourself, just avoid picking and choosing”

E-9 “Mind changes its shape; how it changes is profound”

E-10 “Put your mind in a bowl and bring it to me”

 

F.

F-1 “When Bob drinks wine, Mike gets boozed”

F-2 “The earth is as big as a grain of rice”

F-3 “The world is not world; it’s called the world”

F-4 “Traveling around heaven, hell, and earth”

F-5 “Throughout heaven, hell, and earth, only I am”

F-6 “You can’t grasp your mind of the past“

F-7 “You can’t grasp your mind of the present moment”

F-8 “You can’t grasp your mind of the future”

F-9 “Which of the three minds do you apply to eat lunch?”

F-10 “There is no truth anywhere in the universe. Where would you go?”

G.

G-1 Form is emptiness

G-2 Emptiness is form

  G-3 The world is like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, or a shadow

G-4 Show me the emptiness of dishwashing chore

G-5 How old is an empty man?

G-6 How does an emptiness taste?

G-7 How do you paint emptiness on an empty canvas?

G-8 How do you make scrambled egg out of emptiness?

G-9 How do you split emptiness into two?

G-10 If things are empty in their nature, what’s the point of making a living?

H.

H-1 “There is no person within the law of causation”

H-2 “The enlightened man is not subject to the law of causation”

H-3 “The enlightened man is with the law of causation”

H-4 “You are despised by those in this world; sins in your previous life will be extinguished”

H-5 “Every day is a good day”

I. Five Modes

I-1 Emptiness

I-2 Form

I-3 Source of Emptiness and Form

I-4 Both Empty and Formed

I-5 Neither Empty nor Formed