What Is a Zen Koan?
Discover how ancient Zen koans can awaken you to present-moment awareness and free you from mental confusion through guided practice with experienced teacher Karen Maezen Miller.
Introduction to Koans
Learn what Zen koans truly are beyond common misconceptions - not riddles or puzzles, but powerful teaching tools designed to open your eyes to reality.
1:07
Introduction to Koans
Learn what Zen koans truly are beyond common misconceptions - not riddles or puzzles, but powerful teaching tools designed to open your eyes to reality.
1:07
Understanding Koan Practice
Explore the history and purpose of koans while discovering how to move beyond intellectual thinking into direct, embodied wisdom through becoming one with practice.
7:12
Working with "Wash Your Bowl"
Experience authentic koan practice firsthand as you learn to embody the famous "wash your bowl" teaching and discover enlightenment in everyday actions.
8:43
Takeaways and Integration
Understand how koan practice extracts you from mental commentary and worry, guiding you into awakened presence where clarity and direction naturally emerge.
3:22Related Readings
How Koans Show Us the Way
Koans, says Zen teacher Rachel Boughton, are a gate into the never-boring world of what we don't know. She shares how to work with them.
How to Practice Zen Koans
John Tarrant demystifies Zen koan practice. Yes, it’s paradoxical, poetic, and totally personal. And so is life.
Koans: One with the Question
The enlightenment stories of the ancient masters are confounding to conventional mind. Their truth, says Melissa Myozen Blacker, is revealed only when our whole being becomes the koan.