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Rating: 
Summary: A Public Case.
Review: Koan means "public case." That is to say a Zen Koan serves as a metaphor for principles of reality that go beyond the private opinion of one person. Koans are not solipsistic puzzles. A Koan is a type of irrational alarm clock used to wake us from our rational minds. To wake us from duality to nonduality. There is the sound of two hands clapping (duality) and then there is the sound of one hand clapping (nonduality). Caveat: It must always be remembered that nonduality does not mean numerically one, nonduality means not two. An often overlooked nuance that can lead to all sorts of wrong thinking. Reality is synergetic not linear. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Reality is not one, reality is whole.
Koans are often used as a point of concentration during Zen meditation- Zen is a hybrid of Buddhism and Taoism. It is better to realize the meaning of a Koan than to interpret it. Interpretation is a rational function. Realization is a wholistic function that includes the rational as well as the irrational aspects of our being. With the polar third-eye of our intuition we are able to transcend duality and enter the realm of nonduality. In interpreting a Koan it is easy to confuse the outward aspect with the underlying reality. To confuse the symbol for a thing with the thing itself. A map of Idaho is not Idaho, but then Idaho isn't really Idaho either, it is an abstraction. Seen from Space the Earth is one, is whole, for in fact in nature there are no lines of demarcation, rather merely areas of confluence. Everything is interconnected. We are not alone. We are public.
Koans are for helping us to utilize a type of understanding more complete than discursive intellect can ever provide. Intellection has a tendency to see things as distinct pairs of inimical opposites. Good versus evil. Intuition knows things don't exist separately from each other, that seeming opposites are in fact the expression of an underlying unity. To eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is to eat from the tree of duality. To eat from the Tree of Life is to eat from the tree of nonduality. Dualistic thinking separates us from the rest of reality. The Fall. To think nondualistically is to be born again, to wake up. Sit and enter the gateless gate of your heart, the holy of holies. The mind that divides is inferior to the heart that unites. Discursive logic is standing at a distance, knowing is coming into a relationship. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If you enter into me I will enter into you.
PS It does not matter what one believes if one does not have love in one's heart. Or as Tolstoy once said, "Where Love Is, There God Is Also."
Rating: 
Summary: 100 koans and many blows from the masters
Review: This collection of 100 Koans, was first compiled by Genro in the 18th century, and then is commented on by his disciple Fugai, and then by the Japanese Zen Master Senzaki who first brought Zen to America in the 20th century. The koans are remarkable, not puzzles ... not paradoxes ... but what? And having written this, I am worthy of a blow, and perhaps you the reader of this review another blow, for there are many blows from the master to the student here. So don't place to much credence on the words, which are just the shadows. The interweaving of the 3 commentaries, can be humorous, for example Fugai entreats his master Genro "Stop! Stop! Don't try to pull an unwilling cat over the carpet.". Senzaki's commentary places the koan in context. There is also some poetry from Genro, that comments on the Koan -- for example "A cloud rests at the mouth of the cave
Doing nothing all day.
The moonlight penetrates the waves through the night,
But leaves no trace in e water." Nyogen says "American Zen is running sideways writing books, lecturing, referring to theology, psychology, and what not". So don't get wrapped up in reviewing it, and don't let this donkey bring it down.
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