rreal one. As a for instance: What is the sound of one hand clapping? What was the appearance of your face before your ancestors were born? One's first impulse is to try and clap with one hand and conclude it has no sound, and then declare that you had no face before your ancestors were born, and these will seem like pretty logical answers that only took ten seconds. So how could one sit for two years trying to discern and answer? Well, a Zen practitioner isn't permitted to dismiss the questions as absurd, they must direct their full mind to them, but not in what we would think of as reasoning. Zen is convinced there are other ways. It is meant to finally exasperate the rational thinker, until the mind sees that thinking is never more than 'thinking about.' Ideally a flash of insight at this point of exsperation will bridge the gap. Twice a day the Zen practitioner will confront his master in a brief meeting, called sanzen. She will state the koan she's working on, and follow it with and 'answer', which the master will either confirm or reject. But what is the point, you ask? In spite of its rather special character, Zen is purely Buddhistic in its essence because its aim is no other than that of the Buddha himself: the attainment of enlightenment, an experience known in Zen as satori. Zen is unique in that it concentrates exclusively on this experience and is not interested in any further interpretations. Satori is the first important breakthrough which is Zen's version of the mystical experience. The experience may come in a flash of understanding, it is described as sense of reality which defies ordinary language. Zen is determined to widen the doors of perception so that the satori experience can seep into everyday life. The difference between Satori and the mystical experience, is that satori is seen as just the beginning of the quest.This is how Satori is seen as an 'introverted mystical experience'. ...
