KUNG-AN PRACTICE

When your practice reaches a certain level, and I perceive that your mind has settled to a degree that you are ready for hard work, I may give you a kung-an to meditate on. I may ask you to meditate on "What is Wu?" or "What is my original face?"; or some other classical saying, or I may make one up. At that point, if you are to get some genuine results on this retreat, you must make finding the answer to that kung-an your life's work. Don't reflect on it, or try to reason out an answer. You'll never get it that way. You must work on it as if chewing on nails. You must use it to form in your mind a hot ball of doubt that will drive you to find the answer.

I will now say some things about kung-ans that will help your understanding of its practice. The kung-ans that have been handed down consist of sayings, instructions, and dialogues of Ch'an masters and their students. The word "sayings" implies more than verbal communication, for sometimes the master presented a kung-an without saying anything. The recorded sayings and actions hint at, but do not directly reveal, the meaning of the kung-ans, which can only be intuited by direct experience.

To one who does not understand their special quality, kung-ans may seem to be a dialogue between insane, or at least, eccentric people. Generally the kung-ans which are most clear are the most shallow, while the ones which are most obscure are the deepest. In fact, the different classes of kung-ans reflect the different levels of enlightenment.