Koans Index
Welcome to the Koans Index! Koans are listed alphabetically. Click a koan to see its text and related KALPA content.
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Showing 1–20 of 373 koans
| Koan | Total |
|---|---|
| 10000 Feet Down (MK27) | 14 |
| 12500 Feet Down Lies the Titanic (MK27) | 2 |
| 99 Curves (MK7) | 3 |
| A Donkey Sees a Well (BS52) | 5 |
| A Matter of Special Worth | 5 |
| A Stone Drenched with Rain (MK19) | 8 |
| A Straight Hook Seeks Fish That Turn Away From Life (MK54) | 4 |
| A Thousand Mountains (MK13) | 2 |
| A Woman Comes Out of Meditation (GG42) | 1 |
| Abiding Nowhere the Heart-Mind Comes Forth (MK65) | 15 |
| Alive or Dead? I Won't Say (BCR55) | 6 |
| All Things Fall Under the Law of Change | 2 |
| Alone and Poor (GG10) | 3 |
| Amnesty (BCR24) | 1 |
| An Australian Koan (MK41) | 4 |
| Ancestor Ma's Duck Flies Away (BCR53) | 1 |
| Baizhang Mountain's Wild Fox (GG2) | 2 |
| Baizhang's Fox (GG2) (BS8) | 13 |
| Baling Haojian’s Three Barriers (MK74)(BCR13)(BCR100) | 6 |
| Baling's Falling into a Well (MK74b) | 13 |
| Baling's Snow in a Silver Bowl (MK74a)(BCR13) | 13 |
| Baling’s Blown-Hair Sword (MK74c)(BCR100) | 9 |
| Bankei's Miracle | 7 |
| Be a Tiger in the Mountains | 2 |
| being imperfect | 1 |
| Blue Dragon's Cave (BCR3) | 20 |
| Bodhidharma and the Buddha-Heart Emperor and the Magical Duke (BCR1)(BS2) | 5 |
| Bodhidharma Comes and Goes (MK43) | 6 |
| Bodhidharma Sets the Mind to Rest (GG41) | 3 |
| Bodhidharma's Vast Emptiness (BCR1)(BS2) | 18 |
| Bodhisattva of Compassion | 2 |
| Bodhisattva Vows | 18 |
| Bodhisattvas Come Eat Your Rice (BCR74) | 1 |
| Buddha Has No Country (BS68) | 3 |
| Buddha's Hand (MK16a) | 7 |
| Buffalo through the Window (GG38) | 7 |
| Caoshan's Dharma Body (BS52) | 2 |
| Catching a Catfish with a Gourd | 1 |
| Changsha Wandering in the Mountains (BCR36) | 15 |
| Counting (MK8) | 1 |
| Crossing the Brook (MK23) | 1 |
| Dahui's Great Doubt | 4 |
| Dalong's Flowers Like Brocade (BCR82) | 3 |
| Dalong's Pure Everlasting Body (BCR82) | 21 |
| Dalong's What Is the Mysterious (Ta Lung) | 6 |
| Dancing Mountains (MK5) | 3 |
| Daowu and Jianyuan Offer Condolences (BCR55) | 1 |
| Dark Way Bird Path Open Hand (Dongshan) | 5 |
| Dasui's Fire at the End of the Kalpa (BCR 29) | 8 |
| Deshan Meets the Tea Lady (GG28) | 6 |
| Deshan's Bowls in Hand (GG1) | 1 |
| Deshan's Enlightenment (GG28) | 8 |
| Do You Practice? | 2 |
| Dogen's Study the Self | 3 |
| Dogen's Turn Your Light Inward | 1 |
| Dogen’s Storehouse of Treasures (MK66) | 19 |
| Dogs at Midnight (MK4) | 1 |
| Dolphins (MK10) | 1 |
| Don't Believe It | 6 |
| Donghan's Five Ranks (2nd) | 6 |
| Dongshan Mending | 2 |
| Dongshan Sick (BS94) | 4 |
| Dongshan's Cold Kills You Heat Kills You (BCR43) | 9 |
| Dongshan's Each Stitch | 4 |
| Dongshan's Five Ranks | 10 |
| Dongshan's Five Ranks (1st) | 18 |
| Dongshan's Five Ranks (3rd) | 2 |
| Dongshan's Five Ranks (4th) | 3 |
| Dongshan's Five Ranks (5th) | 5 |
| Dongshan's Five Ranks (The Record of Dongshan) | 1 |
| Dongshan's Just This Is It | 6 |
| Dongshan's No Grass (BS89) | 1 |
| Dongshan's Three Paths | 2 |
| Dongshan's Voice of the Cuckoo (MK52) | 10 |
| Dongshan’s Jewel Mirror Samadhi | 7 |
| Dongshan’s Three Paths | 9 |
| Doushuai’s Third Barrier (MK73c) | 4 |
| Doushuai’s Three Barriers (MK73) (GG47) | 2 |
| Doushuai’s Wild Places (MK73a) | 4 |
| Dragon Murmurings (BCR2) | 2 |
| Dragon Singing in a Withered Tree | 6 |
| Each Branch of Coral Holds Up the Moon (MK74c) | 10 |
| Emperor Wu Questions Bodhidharma (BCR1)(BS2) | 19 |
| Empty Hands (MK24) | 2 |
| Entangle | 1 |
| Enter There | 2 |
| Fayan's Students Roll Up the Blinds (GG26) | 2 |
| Fayan's Where Is the Boat? (BS51) | 1 |
| Find Something That Is Not Medicine | 3 |
| Fire at the End of the Universe (BCR29) | 7 |
| Following the Scent of Flowers (BCR36) | 4 |
| For Another (MK50) | 1 |
| For Your Benefit (MK48) | 14 |
| Forget the Self | 2 |
| Four Boundless Vows | 1 |
| Free and Easy Wandering | 2 |
| Freely I Watch the Tracks of the Flying Birds (MK23b) | 13 |
| Ghost (MK17) | 7 |
| Ghosts Howl and Spirits Wail (BCR 59) | 1 |
| Give Me the Reaching | 2 |
| Going to Wild Places (MK73) | 6 |
| Great Silence at the Beginning | 11 |
| Great Yangshan's Dream | 2 |
| Guanyin the Bodhisattva of Compassion | 2 |
| Guanyin's Hands and Eyes (BCR89) | 26 |
| Guishan's No Foundation to Rely On (BS37) | 7 |
| Guishan’s Zen (MK67) | 4 |
| Hakuin's Great Light | 1 |
| Hakuin's Praise Song for Meditation | 23 |
| Hakuin's Sound of One Hand | 3 |
| Hanging by Your Teeth (GG5) | 10 |
| Hanshan’s Tree (MK39) | 3 |
| Happiness | 2 |
| Heart Sutra | 21 |
| Hell in an SUV (MK26) | 4 |
| Hermit of Lotus Peak (BCR25) | 5 |
| Hongzhi's Called Back from the Dream (MK34) | 9 |
| Hoshan Beats the Drum (BCR44) | 2 |
| How Are You? | 2 |
| How Do I Become Free? | 1 |
| How Do You Cross a Stream? | 3 |
| How Do You Unify Hawai'i? | 2 |
| Huangbo's Gobblers of Dregs (BCR11) | 1 |
| Huineng's No North & South (GG23) | 2 |
| Huineng's Original Face (GG23) | 24 |
| Huizhong's Seamless Monument (BCR18) | 7 |
| I Know for Myself if It Is Warm or Cold (GG23) | 1 |
| I Vow To Do Good | 1 |
| I Vow To Do No Harm | 3 |
| I Vow To Live the Great Buddha Way | 3 |
| I Vow to Set Endless Heartache to Rest | 3 |
| I Vow to Walk through Every Wisdom Gate | 1 |
| If You Are Scorned (BCR97) | 1 |
| If You Get It the First Time (BS76) | 3 |
| Ikkyu's Attention | 1 |
| Ikkyu's Well (MK22) | 9 |
| In Front of the Dead Tree Cliff (BS) | 4 |
| In the Dark (MK51) | 2 |
| Indra's Net | 4 |
| Jade Elephant | 1 |
| Jiashan Gardening (BS68) | 3 |
| Jiashan Meets the Boat Monk | 9 |
| Jiashan's State of Mind (EV99) | 11 |
| Jiashan's Surroundings (EV99) | 2 |
| Jingqing's Sound of Rain (BCR46) | 16 |
| Jinniu Dances Before the Meal (BCR74) | 2 |
| Jinqing's Pecking Out of the Shell (BCR16) | 6 |
| Judi's One Finger Zen (BCR19) (BS84)(GG3) | 3 |
| Juifeng Does Not Acknowledge (BS96) | 1 |
| Juiyan Calls to Himself (GG12) | 1 |
| Just This Is It | 10 |
| Knock on Any Door (BCR) | 15 |
| Laozi's True Traveler | 4 |
| Learning Speech & Silence (GG24) | 6 |
| Legend of Yellow Crane Pavilion | 4 |
| Lingzhao's Blades of Grass | 3 |
| Linji's Blockhead | 3 |
| Linji's Nothing I Dislike (MK38a) | 8 |
| Linji's Nothing To Do | 4 |
| Linji's Solitary Brightness (MK38c) | 18 |
| Linji's Take the Role of Host (MK38d) | 17 |
| Linji's True Person (MK38b)(BS38) | 11 |
| Linji's True Place (MK38d) | 6 |
| Little Jade (MK47) | 10 |
| Loch Ness Monster (MK11) | 3 |
| Longya's Why Bodhidharma Came from the West (BCR20) | 2 |
| Luopu About To Die (BS41) | 3 |
| Ma's Sun Face Moon Face Buddha (BCR3) | 3 |
| Mahasattva Fu Explains Things to Emperor Wu (BCR67) | 2 |
| Maralung | 3 |
| Maralung, An Australian Koan (MK41) | 1 |
| Master Ma Is Unwell (BCR3) | 1 |
| Mayu Fanning (GK) | 1 |
| Mazu's Make Yourself a Raft | 27 |
| Mazu's Purpose of Your Life | 14 |
| Mazu's Salt and Sauce (EV61) | 3 |
| Mazu's Samadhi of Buddha Nature | 1 |
| Mazu's Your Own Heart Mind | 6 |
| Morning Star | 1 |
| Muzhou Shuts the Door | 1 |
| Non-Attained Buddha (GG9) | 1 |
| Not for Anything Else (BCR11) | 2 |
| Not Knowing Is Most Intimate (MK62)(BS20) | 20 |
| Not Picking & Choosing (BCR2) | 15 |
| Not Picking and Choosing (BCR 58) | 1 |
| Not the Flag (GG29) | 1 |
| Nothing to Complain About | 2 |
| One Strip of White Silk (BS96) | 5 |
| Ordinary Mind Is the Way (GG19) | 15 |
| Ox Herding | 3 |
| Pang Family's Helping (MK40) | 3 |
| Peach Blossoms (MK37) (EV8) | 28 |
| Peach Trees Make a Path (BS79) | 3 |
| Pillar (MK18) | 1 |
| Poverty (MK71) | 4 |
| Pure Vows | 2 |
| Ready (MK57) | 2 |
| Refuges | 1 |
| Rhinoceros Fan BCR91)(BS25) | 7 |
| Salt and Sauce (EV61) | 2 |
| Say a Word of Zen (GG3)(BCR19)(BS84) | 4 |
| Say Something in Response (BCR14) | 8 |
| Say Something without Moving Your Lips (MK30b) | 2 |
| Searching for the Ox | 2 |
| See with Your Ears (GG16) | 2 |
| Shelter (MK14) | 8 |
| Shishuang's 100-Foot Pole (GG46)(BS79) | 13 |
| Shitou's Grass Hut | 2 |
| Shitou's Rightful Heir | 1 |
| Shitou's Turn Your Light Inwards | 1 |
| Shoushan's Three Phrase BS76 | 1 |
| Shoushan’s Three Shots at Getting It (BS76) | 1 |
| Sickness and Medicine (BCR87) | 9 |
| Silver Mountain and Iron Cliff (BCR 57) | 4 |
| Sixteen Bodhisattvas Take a Bath (BCR78) | 23 |
| Solitary Boat | 14 |
| Someone with No Shadow or Form Is Drawing the Water | 1 |
| Southern Barbarians | 1 |
| Spoken by Demons | 1 |
| Standing at the Edge of a Cliff | 1 |
| Standing on the Point of a Needle (MK36c) | 1 |
| Step by Step in the Dark (MK72) | 9 |
| Stone Crypt (MK20) | 14 |
| Stone Hitting Bamboo (GG5) | 1 |
| Stone Woman Gives Birth (MK33) | 3 |
| Stop Chasing About | 1 |
| Suddenly It's Midnight | 6 |
| Sun Face Moon Face Buddha (BCR3) | 3 |
| Sutra of Complete Enlightenment (BS45) | 2 |
| Sweet Olive Blossoms | 2 |
| Taking Part in the Gathering | 40 |
| Talking about the Deepest Matters | 1 |
| Talking to a Rock | 3 |
| Teaching That Lasts a Lifetime (BCR14) | 6 |
| Temple Bell (MK1) | 9 |
| The Buddha Responds to an Outsider (GG32) | 1 |
| The Coin Lost in the River (MK64) | 15 |
| The Dao Is in the Ant | 3 |
| The Dao That Can Be Named | 1 |
| The Diamond Sutra (MK65) | 1 |
| The Diamond Sutra (MK65b) | 4 |
| The Diamond Sutra's Scorn (BCR97) | 1 |
| The Egg (MK53) | 1 |
| The Fire Across the River (MK2) | 8 |
| The Four Boundless Vows | 26 |
| The Fresh Breeze | 5 |
| The Gate of Nonduality (BS48) | 1 |
| The Golden Bird | 1 |
| The Goose in the Bottle (MK63) | 8 |
| The Great Koan NO (GG1) (BS18) | 5 |
| The Great Way Is Not Difficult (BCR2) | 9 |
| The Green Mountain Walks About (BS41) | 3 |
| The Hazy Moon of Spring | 2 |
| The Heart Sutra Is Everywhere | 2 |
| The Heart-Mind at Peace | 2 |
| The Journey Itself Is Home | 2 |
| The Land of Demons (EV42) | 8 |
| The Mind Is a Great Artist (Flower Ornament Sutra) | 2 |
| The Moon Sets at Midnight (BS76) | 8 |
| The Oak Tree in the Garden (GG37)(BS47) | 2 |
| The Pangs & Their Practice | 2 |
| the precepts | 1 |
| The Sieve (MK58) | 5 |
| The Sound of One Hand | 1 |
| The Story of Dragon Mind | 2 |
| The Story of the Buddha | 5 |
| The Strawberry | 3 |
| The Teaching Is Upside Down (BCR15) | 1 |
| The Universe Is in a Tea Bowl | 2 |
| The Valley Spirit Never Dies (DDJ6) | 6 |
| The Valley Streams Run Deepest Indigo | 6 |
| The War (MK25) | 6 |
| The Whole Purpose of Your life | 1 |
| The Whole World Is Medicine (BCR87) | 3 |
| The Woman at the Inn (MK32) | 11 |
| The World Honored One Points to the Ground (BS4) | 2 |
| Things Are Not As They Appear | 3 |
| This Very Heart-Mind Is Buddha | 8 |
| Tile Polishing | 2 |
| Times of Great Difficulty | 3 |
| Torei Zenji's Bodhisattva Vow (Sutra) | 1 |
| Torei Zenji's Bodhisattva's Vow (Sutra) | 1 |
| Tortoise Mountain Wakes Up | 11 |
| Touzi Plunges Into Daylight (BCR41) | 2 |
| Treasures of the Lost Cities | 1 |
| Trust the Light Within | 4 |
| Turning Around (MK68) | 2 |
| Unofficially (MK21) | 1 |
| Vimalakirti at the Gate (BCR84) | 2 |
| We Are What We Think | 1 |
| What Am I? | 3 |
| What Does Essential Nature Look Like? (MK28) | 3 |
| What if it's a disaster? | 1 |
| What Is Buddha? | 18 |
| What Is It Like To Be You? | 8 |
| What Is It Like to Have a Self? | 1 |
| What Is It You Lack (MK38e) | 4 |
| What Is Meditation? | 1 |
| What Is Most Urgent for Me? | 5 |
| What Is the Light in Things? | 2 |
| What Is the Problem? | 1 |
| What Is the Source? | 2 |
| What Is the Ultimate Nature of Reality? | 1 |
| What Is the Way? | 7 |
| What Is This? (BCR51) | 47 |
| What Is Your Light? (BCR86) | 16 |
| What Is Your Way? | 2 |
| What Is Zen? | 1 |
| What Will Sansheng Eat? (BCR49) | 1 |
| Whatever Confronts You | 8 |
| When the Rain Beats Down (MK28d) | 2 |
| When Will You Meet Today? | 2 |
| Where Are You Coming From? | 2 |
| Where Do Songs Come From? (MK41) | 1 |
| Where Do You Go When You Die? | 26 |
| Where Have You Come From? | 3 |
| Who Am I? | 17 |
| Who Are You? | 2 |
| Who Is Hearing? | 21 |
| Who Is Meditating | 5 |
| Who Is Speaking? | 1 |
| Who Is Teaching? | 1 |
| Why Can't a Clear-eyed Person Cut the Red Thread? (MK30c) | 8 |
| Why? | 2 |
| Wuzi's True Qian (GG35) | 1 |
| Wuzu's Buffalo Passes Through the Window (GG38) | 2 |
| Wuzu's Remember Me When You Are Sick (MK47) | 5 |
| Xianglin's Why Bodhidharma Came from the West (BCR17) | 2 |
| Xizhong Builds Carts (GG8) | 1 |
| Xuefeng's What's This? (BCR51) | 14 |
| Yangshan's Mind and Environment (BS32) | 1 |
| Yangshan's Officially | 1 |
| Yangshan's Sermon from the Third Seat (GG25) | 1 |
| Yangshan’s Enlightenment (BS62) | 1 |
| Yanguan's Rhinoceros (BCR91) | 3 |
| Your Mother Is Ugly! | 1 |
| Your Original Face before Your Parents Were Born (GG23) | 5 |
| Your Own Heart and Mind | 9 |
| Yu the Doughnut Maker (MK75) | 9 |
| Yunmen Reveals the Golden Wind (BCR27) | 10 |
| Yunmen Says It Upside Down (BCR15) | 6 |
| Yunmen Says Something in Response (BCR14) | 5 |
| Yunmen's Barrier (BCR8) | 1 |
| Yunmen's Day of the Full Moon (BCR6) | 4 |
| Yunmen's East Mountain Walks on the Water (EV49) | 9 |
| Yunmen's Give Me the Reaching | 8 |
| Yunmen's Good Day (BCR6) | 12 |
| Yunmen's Light (BCR86) | 25 |
| Yunmen's Lion with Golden Hair (BCR39) | 5 |
| Yunmen's Midnight | 9 |
| Yunmen's One Treasure (BCR62) | 10 |
| Yunmen's Particle-by-Particle Samadhi (BCR50) | 1 |
| Yunmen's Sound of the Bell (GG16) | 5 |
| Yunmen's Two Sicknesses (BS11) | 2 |
| Yunmen’s Medicine and Sickness Cure Each Other (BCR87) | 23 |
| Yunyan Sweeps the Ground (BS21) | 2 |
| Yunyan's Talking to a Rock | 3 |
| Zhaozhou and the Hermits (GG11) | 1 |
| Zhaozhou Can't Explain (BCR 58) | 3 |
| Zhaozhou's Beating Heart | 1 |
| Zhaozhou's Dharmakaya | 1 |
| Zhaozhou's Gates (BCR9) | 2 |
| Zhaozhou's Idiot (BCR 57) | 3 |
| Zhaozhou's No (GG1)(BS18) | 26 |
| Zhaozhou's True Buddha (MK56)(BCR96) | 1 |
| Zhaozhou's Wash Your Bowls (GG7) | 3 |
| Zhaozhou's Welcome | 3 |
| Zhaozhou's Why Don't You Finish It? (BCR 59) | 2 |
| Zhaozhou’s Dog (GG1)(BS18) | 7 |
| Zhaozhou’s Greatest Way Isn't Difficult (BCR2) | 7 |
| Zhaozhou’s Three Turning Words (BCR96) | 3 |
| Zhuangzi Dreamed He Was a Butterfly | 5 |
| Zhuangzi's Great Fear Is Vast and Calm | 1 |
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