Kishin Eric Arbiter
A Series of 6 Monday classes April 25 - May 30. 6:30-8:30 pm. Taught by Kishin Eric Arbiter.
An Introduction to the Zen Koan and Koan Practice
“Show me your original face before your parents were born” The Gateless Gate, Case 23
"Koans are dark to the mind but radiant to the heart." John Daido Loori
"Koan Study is not a matter of opening an esoteric door or unlocking a puzzle. It is a matter of realizing what you already know." Robert Aitken Roshi, The Practice of Perfection.
Zen koans have been collected for hundreds of years as teaching tools as well as stories about our Zen ancestors and teachers.
Beneath the surface of these old stories, if we develop the eyes to see, we can catch a glimpse of universal problems or difficulties we all face no matter when or where we live.
Recommended texts: We will refer to several sources including these two texts. Purchase of the books is not required: Bring Me the Rhinoceros, by John Tarrant. Advice Not Given, by Mark Epstein.
Koans are not explanatory. In some very real sense, they often use language to transcend language by showing us how trapped we are by words and concepts. And, in Eric’s view and experience, they are poetics to entice us to study the great matters of our lives. They serve as tools to free us from often unnoticed constraints that we ourselves and our society confine us.
Why then is their language so often confusing and unclear to us and why do the commentaries often seem even more obscure than the koans themselves? In this class we will unpack these issues.
There is a way of practicing and sitting with koans that can shed light in helping us to see both ourselves and our world more clearly; a way which allows us to plunge beneath the difficulties of the language and details of each case to distill the essence of each koan and apply them to our own lives. This will be another important aspect of the class.
We will briefly cover the history of koans, the major (and some less well-known) collections, Hakuin’s classifications of koans, various traditions of working with koans, however the main emphasis will be to take up these koans as our own personal matter. Many of the koans we will study were significant in Eric’s own life and therefore some of his favorites.
Eric has been a member of HZC since 1994 and was ordained in 2008. He retired recently from the Houston Symphony after a 45 year long career. He has also been a photographer since college. In 2020 Oxford University Press published his book about making bassoon reeds, The Way of Cane.
Eric’s initial interest in koans began while he was in college in 1968. After many years of blundering on his own he finally began formal koan practice with his teachers Jitsudo Ancheta and Musai Walter in 1999.
Everyone is welcome to this class. In-person attendance is available for fully vaccinated students. Zoom participation will also be available. The link will be provided before the class begins.