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I was discussing these along with some freinds of mine and was wondering how the buddhist guild would interperet these proverbs. I shall post several, just for the purpose of generating thought and hopefully discussion in the thread.

Parable 1.
Zen Master Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A young novice began to imitate him in this way. When Gutei was told about the novice's imitation, he sent for him and asked him if it was true. The novice admitted it was so. Gutei asked him if he understood. In reply the novice held up his index finger. Gutei promptly cut it off. The novice ran from the room, howling in pain. As he reached the threshold, Gutei called, "Boy!" When the novice turned, Gutei raised his index finger. At that instant the novice was enlightened.

Parable 2.
Hyakujo wished to send a monk to open a new monastery. He told his pupils that whoever answered a question most ably would be appointed. Placing a water vase on the ground, he asked: "Who can say what this is without calling its name?"

The chief monk said: "No one can call it a wooden shoe."

Isan, the cooking monk, tipped over the vase with his shoe and went out.

Hyakujo smiled and said: "The chief monk loses." And Isan became the master of the new monastery.

Parable 3.
In Japan, a monk who had studied Chan Buddhism wanted direly to release the chan (or more commonly known in japan, "zen") buddhist sutra. He had no money, as he was a travelling monk; so he asked of anyone, rich or poor, for any amount of money to get the Sutra published. He thanked everyone equally, as it did not matter to him how much they gave, so long as they had the generosity to give.

After a decade, he had saved up enough money to publish the Zen sutra. There was one problem, however: There had been a large famine in the village where he had settled. He decided to help by giving the money he had saved to publish the sutra to help those affected by the famine. He then continued to save up for the Sutra publication.

After another decade, he had yet again enough money to publish the Zen sutra. There, however, was another problem. The village had had a disastrous flood that had ravaged the village. He decided that the money would be better spent on helping people with funding to rebuild. Again, he went on to save up for money to publish the Zen sutra.

After another decade of saving up, He once again had enough money to publish the Zen sutra, and that's what he did. He had published the only Zen sutra; yet it is said that when it came out; he had published three. How is this so?

Perhaps I should look into that. My knowledge of buddhism is limited to the many parables that buddhism has to offer, but I was unsure that they had an actual term for them, which would be "Koan".

Oh, well then I would assume you are correct in referring to them as parables. My apologies. sweatdrop

It's best that each of us gets our koan from our teacher, and that we figure them out in meditation alone. Getting our answers here wouldn't help us, a roshi could see right through it.

Koans are traditionally used in Rinzai Zen, and I'm not aware of them outside of this discipline. If you're not Rinzai, don't expect to get a koan. You can do your own koan work, but it may not be part of your particular training.

Agreed! Improper use of koans can detract from the journey from enlightenment rather than contribute to it.

I love that =)

Some of those parables are very confusing but it looks like I'll have to leave them be, not having a teacher and since noone here seems to want to discuss them...