I am so fascinated by the women in the Zen tradition! That peculiar scene of Miaozong lying naked and giving such feisty, nuanced, answers was amazing. I'm just embarking on an online course with Natalie Goldberg about Zen practice, and I hope to learn a lot more but I don't think I'll ever be able to get to grips with koans! Thanks for these great posts on poetry and Zen, I love them.
Thank you, Kathy! I bet Natalie Goldberg’s course will be wonderful.
Koans are a practice, yes, meditated on worked with in conversation with a teacher. But they are also an amazing literature in their own right, as evocative stories and poems. They can be read and enjoyed!
I think you would especially enjoy The Hidden Lamp collection.
The cat is dead, blood is on the sword.
Who turns away? Who looks clearly?
I will bury that cat next to Hyakujo’s fox and give it all the honors of a holy monk.
Bows to Jimon!!! Thank you for your poem 🙏🏼
Interesting to find a tradition where prose and poetry speak together in this way, not to mention the conversations between poems and across time.
Indeed! I’m more used to the idea of prose that comments on poetry, but in the Koan tradition it is poems that get the last word.
I am so fascinated by the women in the Zen tradition! That peculiar scene of Miaozong lying naked and giving such feisty, nuanced, answers was amazing. I'm just embarking on an online course with Natalie Goldberg about Zen practice, and I hope to learn a lot more but I don't think I'll ever be able to get to grips with koans! Thanks for these great posts on poetry and Zen, I love them.
Thank you, Kathy! I bet Natalie Goldberg’s course will be wonderful.
Koans are a practice, yes, meditated on worked with in conversation with a teacher. But they are also an amazing literature in their own right, as evocative stories and poems. They can be read and enjoyed!
I think you would especially enjoy The Hidden Lamp collection.