How a koan works can be illustrated this way. There is a young woman who is too shy to leave her bedchamber to let her lover know she is waiting for him . Instead, she calls out the name of her servant girl. Hearing the voice of the young woman call out the name of the servant girl, tells the young woman’s lover that she is waiting for him in her bedchamber.
Likewise, the meaning of the Zen master’s response, itself, has nothing to do with what the koan is really pointing to which is pure Mind before name and concept arise in the student’s mind. It is only a means to the transcendent Mind. For example, in the Mumonkan (a collection of koans), Joshu’s “Mu,” in the first case, Joshu’s Dog, has no meaning. It is asking us to look at the source of Mu as we say it outloud or subvocally. Hyakuo’s Fox, the second case, is the same thing. Hyakujo response, “The enlightened man is one with the law of causation” is pointing to the source which is before his words, which is the hua-t’ou that is explained in The Zennist blog, “The Mystical Koan.”
We also might ask what does “Mu” have to do with Buddha Mind, or the same, the true Mind? The same goes for “The enlightened man is one with the law of causation” including Joshu’s, “Then you had better wash your bowl” (the seventh case). The answer is, nothing. Nevertheless, from the Buddha Mind that we haven’t realized as yet, out comes Mu or Then you had better wash your bowl. We can say these stock Zen phrases again and again. They still issue from the same Buddha Mind that we are in the dark about! Why else did Bodhidharma say this:
“Everyone wants to see this mind, and those who move their hands and feet by its light are as many as the grains of the sand along the Ganges, but when you ask them, they can't explain it. They're like puppets. It's theirs to use. Why do they not see it?”
These are pretty awesome words. They go along way in explaining the koan’s real machinery; what it’s really trying to do, that is, awaken us to the light of Mind which is purely animative.
Also worth mentioning, koans can be very simple as in “Who utters the Buddha’s name?” or, “Where do my thoughts arise from?” Such questions help to orient us to our true nature, hopefully, that we might awaken to it one day.
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