This koan was composed by the Japanese Zen Master Hakuin (1686-1769). It is either this koan or the koan on "mu" which the novice receives as his first koan upon entering the monastery. The pupil is usually expected to "contemplate" his first koan for a long time. It may take him up to three years to reach the answer. In the meantime, the master rejects all the answers that do no correspond to the answer of "thrusting one hand forward." However, the master may guide the pupil in various ways. For instance, if the pupil comes up with an answer such as, "It is half" (namely, half the sound of clapping both hands), the master may reject the answer, explaining that the pupil is taken in by "two" (i.e. dualistic thinking). The master may also hint at the answer in a more concrete way. He may say, for instance, "Think of handing over your ticket upon entering the train" (i.e. extending one hand forward). In this case however, there is the danger that the pupil, through guessing, reaches only the correct form of the answer without realizing its "meaning."
It will not be of much use trying to "explain" the koan. The state of mind which it embodies is not fully understood if we take into consideration only its philosophical or rather anti-philosophical (anti-rational) aspect. The formation of the koan and its answers are to be viewed in relation to zazen (Zen meditation).
In the "clapping of both hands" the phenomenon ("sound") is the outcome of the interaction between two (or more) factors. It is thus possible, through distinction and differentatioon, to trace its "reason" in other phenomena. In rational thinking we are always concerned with the relation of one "thing" with the "other." When "the sound of the one hand" is "heard," not a thing has been excluded. Everything is ("u") in as far as it cannot be denied. However its raison d'etre does not lie in any "other" thing, nor does it lie in some principle or truth beyond the thing itself. The essence of a thing is no-thing or nothing ("mu"). Thus the one who has heard "the sound of the one hand" has realized "mu" without denying "u."
The seemingly paradoxical requirement to hear the sound of the one hand is answered through an act of extreme simplicity. To reach this height of simplicity, the pupil's mind undergoes a process of every-growing sophistication. Yet however sophisticated rational thinking may be, its basic function is still that of adding one to one. Through seeing each one in itself and all as one, the pupil abandons rational thinking as a mode of being. This does not of necessity imply that logical thinking can no longer be employed for pragmatic purposes.
- Yoel Hoffmann, The Sound of the One Hand
Submitted September 26, 2018 at 08:04AM by Dillon123 https://ift.tt/2OXYdcU
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