Zen Parables

{Research paper for English class. Uses paraphrasing and cited works. Very well written. Didnt recieve a grade. Focuses on Zen Parables (koans), but also talks well-nigh Zen Buddhism. (5 pages, 1,252 words)}

        Zen parables, also called koans, are stories or questions meant for aspect between a master and his schoolchild. They substitute meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition for religious belief and devotion (Marinello 1). Koans are the means by which one essential achieve enlightenment.

        So what is Zen? Zen is a Buddhist sect primarily in China and Japan that uses a particular from of meditation and mental practice to end distress and achieve enlightenment in this lifetime. These practices often consist of reflecting on the meaning of koans (Byrne 6). While Westerners can adopt these beliefs and practices, they make pocket-sized sense outside the context of zazen and in the company of different students and under the guidance of a master. Zazen is simply Zen meditation. It is posing in which one cuts all connections with the external world and lets go of all concerns within (Roshi 1). Often, koans are sifted through the thought shape when students practice zazen.

        In order to acquire a deeper soul of what exactly koans are and how they are used, one must initiatory learn a little more of Zens guidelines.

If Zen has an essence, it is to be found not by uncovering any law that may be hidden to others, but by having an berth to life that is at the same time playful merely disciplined, sophisticated til now quite simple, full of tradition and yet completely spontaneous. Such contradictions are essential to Zen: the student strives for enlightenment, but to become enlightened, one must give up all striving. To further complicate things, no eternal self exists to enlighten anyway. On the other hand, everyone...

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