Koans

"Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand clapping?"

Continuing with the idea that less structure leads to more discussion, we pull a koan out every now and then and throw it out there to see what transpires.   Here's one example of how this goes:

“A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away at the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!”

What do you think the field represents? The tiger? The vine? The mice? The strawberry?
What are your tigers?
What is your vine?
What are you mice, the things that gnaw away at you?
What are your strawberries? What could you enjoy more?
When are you a tiger or mouse?
Do you think you’ve ever been a vine or a strawberry to someone? When and how?
What’s the point of this story?

Closing Question/Candles: What is one small thing that makes you ridiculously, blissfully happy?

Find more koans here:
http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/zenindex.html
http://www.nozen.com/koans.htm
http://www.ibiblio.org/zen/cgi-bin/koan-index.pl