Concentration and Inquiry
　
Zinsan

For those of you who come out to morning meditation you may know that we spend forty minutes meditating and then five minutes of koan practice. Many of you may wonder why we do this.

During meditation there are two kinds of mind. There is the mind of concentration and the mind of questioning (or koan practice). Sometimes we practice meditation for one hour in order to attain the one mind. The one mind is not disturbed, never drowsy, but always concentrated.

It is common for many thoughts to arise during sitting meditation. All these thoughts are in some way a type of disturbance. As long as there’s disturbance, we are not meditating. If we feel drowsy that is also another kind of disturbance. We need to, therefore, abandon all thoughts and even abandon the desire to abandon all thoughts. That is the one mind.

Not only is concentration important but also asking questions (koans) is essential to spiritual practice. This type of questioning is not considered a type of disturbance but rather pure inquiry and thinking. Koans are a good way to focus on a paradoxical question. We need to constantly question and discover the nature of the mind. The word “koan” originally comes from the Chinese word “Chao- Chou” meaning “ The document’s word of judgment.”
There can be harmony between sitting meditation (concentration) and koans leading to oneness.

What is a koan? Originally the koan is to awaken our minds and recover our original nature.

To give an example of the importance of koans, suppose I accidentally drop a bunch of coins on the sidewalk and then pick them up just thinking they are my coins. This is not koan practice. However, if I pick them up asking first how these small coins are connected with the whole value of universe, then this is true koan practice. If we realize the interconnectedness of all things, then picking up a even small coin can be a very enlightening experience.

We have to realize that every thing whether small of big is somehow connected to us. Sometimes we drop a penny or two but don’t bother to pick it up because we think to ourselves, “It’s only a penny.” But we have to know the value of a penny. A penny by itself may seem insignificant in value, but if we save up many pennies then it adds up to a large amount. So, one penny is as important as a hundred dollar bill.
So to give a recap, when we practice sitting meditation we should concentrate and focus our minds by not being distracted by ?outside conditions. Focusing on our breath or our tanjeon (elixir field) are good methods to concentrate our one mind. Five to ten minutes before sitting meditation ends we should focus on a koan and reflect on it. The practice of concentration and questioning are essential ways to cultivating our spirit.

http://www.wonbuddhism.org/