Have you ever heard the term "Kōan"? It's plays a very important part in the Zen practice.Wikipedia defines Kōan as a story, dialogue, question, or statement, which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and test a student's progress in Zen practice. Basically it's not a teaching. some of them might very well look like something made up by some AI/Machine Learning project.
A Kōan is not something that should ever be a part of a standardized system. It is not a sutra. It's not an aphorism. The reason I got connected with the practice is something I believe in. I believe in Cybersecurity Penetration Tests. If something gets attacked and it doesn't break, one thing you can be sure of is whatever that was attacked is stronger than what was used to attack it. A diamond cuts through any known natural substance while no natural substance can do the same to a diamond. That's just the way I look at it.
Like unto space it knows no boundaries;
Yet it is right here with us, ever retaining its serenity and fullness;
It is only when you seek it that you lose it.
You cannot take hold of it, nor can you get rid of it:
While you can do neither, it goes on its own way;
You remain silent and it speaks; you speak and it is silent;
The great gate of compassion is wide open with no obstructions
whatever before it.
I talked about my philosophical outlook on solving paradoxes and one thing that is common to all paradoxes is that there is just one odd thing. Sometimes there are many odd things. Look below:
To me the above picture is a Kōan. there is a neat little trick to solving it. Just check the diagonal line. It's not a straight line. When you figure this out.... when you realize the true nature of the image in question, the "Paradox" will disappear. until you see that you are thinking and baking your brains over something that doesn't seem to make any sense.
Realizing spiritual truths is like realizing the "trick" to the paradox. When the paradox is the only life a human being has knows, one needs to poke holes at points where that reality would break. this will gain a person's attention. But for those who are in the world, he transcendence of the world would be the ting that look paradoxical.
The truth is a realization. You cannot simply explain it to a person. If you do they may simply miss the point. If I a made a post on geometry and try tried to explain what you realized through the above faux paradox, how do you think it would have gone?
Analysing the Kōan for its literal meaning won't lead to insight, though understanding the context from which koans emerged can make them more intelligible. For example, when a monk asked Zhaozhou (Joshu) "does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?", the monk was referring to the understanding of the teachings on Buddha-nature, which were understood in the Chinese context of absolute and relative reality.
The Kōan referred above is from The Gateless Barrier. Wikipedia mentions 48 Chan (Zen) Kōans. But the collection I managed to find only had 31 which you can access here: http://www.ibiblio.org/zen/cgi-bin/koan-index.pl
Has a dog Buddha-nature?
This is the most serious question of all.
If you say yes or no,
You lose your own Buddha-nature.
No Enlightenment Is Promised
You might even get very confused over some of these Kōans. you can study well at http://www.thezensite.com/MainPages/koan_studies.html but never rely too much on interpretations. Kōans are meant to break the conceptions. They are exercises than teachings. if you can't wrap your head around them, think of it as a workout that doesn't fit you yet. Simply move on. Not realizing the meaning behind will jot hold you back from enlightenment and it is not a measurement of your illusions or delusions. but if you do manage to develop new insights and break new grounds, then that is simply excellent.
