Bukidnon State University

College of Arts and Sciences

Philosophy Department

Zen Buddhist Philosophy: The Koan Practice as

a means of Developing Critical Thinking

Submitted By:

Charles Jone M. Rosales

Jenalyn C. Medillo

Submitted to:

Mr. Joefer S. Maninang

As a Final Requirement for the Subject Modern

Asian Thoughts (A160)

November 2023

ABSTRACT
This philosophical research paper explores the Koan practice in Zen Buddhism,
traditionally utilized for attaining enlightenment. Koans, paradoxical puzzles designed
to defy rational resolution, challenge the ego-consciousness and dualistic thinking
inherent in conventional perspectives. The paper delves into whether Koans, aside
from enlightenment, can foster critical thinking. Through a literature review, it
examines Zen Buddhism's disposition towards critical thinking, emphasizing its
transcendence of logic. The discussion concludes that Zen Buddhism, rooted in
inexplicability and anti-philosophy, is incompatible with the mainstream
understanding of critical thinking. While Koans seem to involve understanding, their
irrational nature renders them unsuitable for developing logical and rational critical
thinking skills.

KEY WORDS: Zen Buddhism, Koan Practice, Critical Thinking.

INTRODUCTION
 One of the methods of Zen Buddhism in attaining Satori (i.e., enlightenment)
is the Koan practice.1 The Rinzai School of Zen Buddhism is the primary Zen
Buddhist School in the present times that employs the use of koans in a way of
utilizing it as a method created to assist an individual into becoming a “Zen Person”
that embodies both wisdom and compassion (Kasulis, 1981). Koan literally means
public record/case from the Chinese word kong-an. A koan is structured like a puzzle
or riddle and is created so that it cannot be solved alone by intellectual reasoning
without pushing intellectual reasoning to the breaking point and over the barrier of
ego-consciousness.2 According to Zen, this is the case because ego-consciousness is
protected by a dualistic conceptual paradigm, complete with all of its ancillary
assumptions and requirements.3 To maintain an everyday perspective, the ego-
consciousness of a certain cultural and historical environment acknowledges that
paradigm as true.4 Hakuin (1685–1768), the person who systematized koans, asserts
that there are theoretically seventeen hundred cases of koans, and that number rises to
almost three thousand when sub-questions are added.

The practice of koan is premised on the idea that one must resist to try to
explain the unexplainable; a means of calmly accepting the mystery of life. 5 By
grappling with the intentionally unexplainable koans, one is assisted to internalize and
practice zen buddhist teachings.6 Here are few examples of some popular koans:

A. On the practice of no-attachment: Two monks, Tanzan and Ekido,

are traveling together down a muddy road. Ahead, they see an
attractive traveler, unable to cross the muddy path. Tanzen politely
offers his help carrying the traveler on his back across the street, and
placing her down without a word. Ekido was shocked. According to
monastic law, monks were not supposed to go near women, let alone
touch a beautiful stranger. After miles of walking, Ekido could no
longer restrain himself, “How could you carry that woman?” Tanzan
smiled, “I left the traveler there. Are you still carrying her?”

Interpretation: Despite never having physically carried the traveler, Ekido broke the
monastic law by mentally “clinging to” the woman. This conflict examines the gray
area between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.

B. Koans ridiculing characters claiming to have total understanding

of the world around them: Three monks are debating a temple flag
rippling in the wind. The first monk refers to the flag as a moving
banner, while the second monk insists that they are not seeing the flag
move, but rather the wind blowing. They argue back and forth, until
1
Jeff Shore, “Koan Practice,” The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice, May 19, 2022, 335–52,
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190632922.013.15.
2
Shigenori Nagatomo, “Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy,” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(Department of Philosophy, Stanford University , June 28, 2006),
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/japanese-zen/#ZenMetKoaPraJusSit.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
5
Zen Koans: Unsolvable Enigmas Designed to Break Your Brain- Puqun Li, TED-Ed (TED, 2018),
https://youtu.be/9p5Oi4wPVVo?si=YLT77PZMT2qNOTfg.
6
Ibid.
 finally, a third monk intervenes, “It is not the flag moving, nor the
wind blowing, but rather movement of your minds!”

Interpretation: It plays on the supposed wisdom of the arguing monks. The first being
assertive of the importance of the observable world, the second inclining more
towards deeper knowledge we can infer from the world. However, each monk's
commitment to his own “answer” blinds him to the other’s insight, and in doing so,
defies an essential Buddhist ideal: abolishing binary thinking. The third monk
identifies their conflict as a perceptual one - both arguing monks fail to see the larger
picture.

The purpose of these koans isn’t reaching a fixed solution, it is the very act of
struggling with these paradoxical puzzles which challenge our desire for resolution,
and our understanding of understanding itself. 7 Given such a comprehensive
overview, the paper delves into the inquiry of whether koans, aside from its
fundamental role of being a device for becoming enlightened, can be utilized as a
means of developing critical thinking; critical thinking in the modern sense of the
phrase.8 That is, thinking about how we think. 9 To do so, the paper will first examine
the relationship of Zen Buddhism with the idea of critical thinking. It will then
enumerate the distinctive general features of koans in relation to critical thinking.
From such examination and assessment will be derived arguments with regards the
possibility or non-possibility of the Koan Practice as means for developing critical
thinking.

METHODOLOGY

The paper will utilize a literature review of the necessary and relevant texts
and studies related to the current aim of the paper. The literature will be from reliable
academic sources such as, but are not limited to, Google Scholar, Anna’s Archive,
Jstor, and Elsevier. Primary texts of Zen Buddhism, such as the Platform Sutra, will
also be utilized. In doing so, (1) what Zen Buddhism actually thinks about critical
thinking will be reasonably extracted; and (2) fixed general distinctions of koans will
be identified, leading to arguments in favor of or against the possibility of Koan
Practice as a means for developing critical thinking.

It is important to mention that the argumentations formulated by the

researchers are based upon the inclination of the related information needed for this
research with regards Zen Buddhism and its Koan Practice. This is to ensure unbiased
and impartial employment of the gathered information. In addition, it is also a
compelling mechanism for arguments to remain logical, which means that it follows
from what the gathered information obviously implies to avoid an erroneous
conclusion.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

7
Ibid.
8
Thinking about our modes of thinking or on how we think as stipulated by Natasha Robson (Natasha
Robson, “Critical Thinking for a Global Society,” The RSA, May 25, 2022,
https://www.thersa.org/comment/2022/05/critical-thinking-global-society.)
9
Ibid.
 Buddhism in general needs explicit parallelisms in order to accurately
establish that it is in harmony with critical thinking. 10 When it comes to Zen
Buddhism, D.T. Suzuki, a Japanese essayist and philosopher, authoritatively
expounds on the general disposition of Zen Buddhism towards critical thinking
through his thesis of transcendence of logic and rationality in the context of eastern
philosophy. “Zen is the most irrational, inconceivable thing in the world,” that it
“defies all concept-making” and that the essence of Zen is satori or the experience of
“sudden enlightenment,” which is irrational, inexplicable, and incommunicable. 11 He
adds that “if we are to judge Zen from our common-sense view of things, we shall
find the ground sinking away under our feet. Our so-called rationalistic way of
thinking has apparently no use in evaluating the truth or untruth of Zen. It is
altogether beyond the ken of human understanding. All that we can therefore state
about Zen is that its uniqueness lies in its irrationality or its passing beyond our
logical comprehension.”12 In response to the Chinese sinologist Hu Shih’s criticism,
D.T. Suzuki says, “Zen is not explainable by mere intellectual analysis. As long as the
intellect is concerned with words and ideas, it can never reach Zen.”13

This is in relation to the fact that Zen Buddhism’s aim is to transcend beyond
the samsara (cycle of death and rebirth) and that one should enter the non dualistic
world of Zen.14 Both of which do not require rational/logical thinking, subsequently,
critical thinking. For Zen, To be free from the dualistic cage and enter into this
beautiful world, one must know nothing; because to fall into the dualistic abyss, one is
forced to know something conceptualized. 15 Zen or the insight of sunyata is
nothingness, because there is nothing in it which can be conceptualized. In accordance
with such, one is compelled to argue that indeed, Zen Buddhism is not compatible
with the mainstream, or even western, understanding of critical thinking. For its
fundamental distinction is to embody wisdom and compassion not through thinking
but through “nothing”; the nothingness in zen meditation, the non-binary and
positionless position in koans, and even the tracelessness of the attained buddhahood.
That is why, one of Zen’s fundamental features is its being anti-philosophy.16

Hence:

(1) Critical Thinking requires Logic and Rationality,

(2) Zen Buddhism transcends beyond Logic and Rationality to the point of
Inexplicability,

10
Ruihan Zhang , “Critical Thinking and Buddhism ,” Outstanding Gateway Papers , 2018, 1–3,
https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=gateway#:~:text=A
%20true%20Buddhist%20mind%20employs,compassionate%20to%20all%20living%20beings.
11
Fung Y.M., “Reason and Unreason in Chinese Philosophy,” essay, in Rationality: Contexts and
Constraints (Cambridge, Massachusetts : Academic Press, 2017), 149–72,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128046005000088.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
14
Kapleau, Philip. The three pillars of Zen. New York: Doubleday, 1989.
15
Huineng and Red Pine, The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-Neng (Berkeley, CA:
Counterpoint, 2009).
16
Davis, Bret W. Zen pathways: An introduction to the philosophy and practice of zen buddhism. New
York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2022.
 (3) Therefore, Zen Buddhism, along with its features and extensions that are
rooted from inexplicability, is not applicable for the development of Critical
Thinking.

The argumentation above renders the Koan Practice as inapplicable to

developing critical thinking. However, there are identifications that seem to imply the
compatibility of Koan as a means of developing critical thinking. These are its
characteristics of seemingly “understanding understanding itself” or even the fact of
being able to extract interpretations as stated in the preceding discussions above.
However, Suzuki reminds us that koans, incoherent and paradoxical, were necessary
to be utilized by Zen Masters in the first place to express their insight. 17 The
fundamental intention is “to set the minds of their disciples or of scholars free from
being oppressed by any fixed opinion or prejudices or so-called logical
interpretations.”18 Thus, the openness of koans to different interpretations.19 Its being
unsolvable with the help of reason and its seeming profoundness beyond the auspice
of reason20 speak volumes of how the illogical and non-rational nature of Zen
Buddhist Philosophy extends toward its Koan Practice.

Moreover, paradoxes, contradictions, and even what appears to be utter

nonsense abound in Zen literature. The Koan Practice exemplifies this point. Here are
some examples of the irrationality/being illogical of koans:

“The river does not flow but the bridge does.”

“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

“When you can do nothing, what can you do?”

If one attempts to understand those by relying upon common logic (which is

the mainstream standard of critical thinking) as the standard for understanding, one
will be under the impression that this expression is nonsensical or meaningless.

Hence:

(1) Koan Practice stems from Non-dual, Irrational, Illogical, and Transcendental
Zen Buddhism,
(2) Koan Practice itself is illogical and nonsensical,
(3) Critical Thinking is Logical and Rational,
(4) Therefore, Koan Practice cannot be utilized as a means for developing critical
thinking.

CONCLUSION

17
Fung Y.M., “Reason and Unreason in Chinese Philosophy,” essay, in Rationality: Contexts and
Constraints (Cambridge, Massachusetts : Academic Press, 2017), 149–72,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128046005000088.
18
Ibid.
19
Patrick Cox, “Would My Zen Master Fail Me for Writing This Article?,” Philosophy Now: A Magazine
of Ideas, 2009,
https://philosophynow.org/issues/74/Would_My_Zen_Master_Fail_Me_For_Writing_This_Article.
20
Ibid.
 The Koan Practice was fundamentally created to shut-off the binary and
logical mind.21 It is meant for Zen disciples to be harmoniously accepting of the
unexplainable and refrain from struggling with concepts. 22 In dealing with a much
essential and comprehensive understanding of Zen Buddhism and its method of Koan
Practice, this research has yielded to the reasonable conclusion that indeed, Koan
practice, as a means of integrating one’s self into the Zen worldview, cannot be used
as a means to develop critical thinking.

REFERENCES

21
“On Nondualism.” Jikoji Zen Center. Accessed November 27, 2023. https://www.jikoji.org/kobun-
on-dualism-nondualism.
22
Ibid.
Cox, Patrick. “Would My Zen Master Fail Me for Writing This Article?”
Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas, 2009.
https://philosophynow.org/issues/74/Would_My_Zen_Master_Fail_Me_For_W
riting_This_Article.

Davis, Bret W. Zen pathways: An introduction to the philosophy and practice of

zen buddhism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2022.

Huineng, and Red Pine. The platform sutra: The zen teaching of Hui-neng.
Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2009.

Huineng, and Red Pine. The platform sutra: The zen teaching of Hui-neng.
Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2009.

Kapleau, Philip. The three pillars of Zen. New York: Doubleday, 1989.

Nagatomo, Shigenori. “Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy.” In the Stanford

Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Department of Philosophy, Stanford University ,
June 28, 2006.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/japanese-zen/#ZenMetKoaPraJusSit.

“On Nondualism.” Jikoji Zen Center. Accessed November 27, 2023.

https://www.jikoji.org/kobun-on-dualism-nondualism.

Robson, Natasha. “Critical Thinking for a Global Society.” The RSA, May 25,
2022. https://www.thersa.org/comment/2022/05/critical-thinking-global-society.

Shore, Jeff. “Koan Practice.” The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice, May
19, 2022, 335–52. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190632922.013.15.

Y.M., Fung. “Reason and Unreason in Chinese Philosophy.” Essay. In

Rationality: Contexts and Constraints, 149–72. Cambridge, Massachusetts :
Academic Press, 2017.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128046005000088.

Zen Koans: Unsolvable enigmas designed to break your brain- Puqun Li. TED-
Ed. TED, 2018. https://youtu.be/9p5Oi4wPVVo?si=YLT77PZMT2qNOTfg.

Zhang , Ruihan. “Critical Thinking and Buddhism .” Outstanding Gateway

Papers , 2018, 1–3. https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1016&context=gateway#:~:text=A%20true%20Buddhist%20mind
%20employs,compassionate%20to%20all%20living%20beings.