Upaya Dharma Podcasts - Henry Shukman: 11-16-2011: What Koans Are and Are Not

Nice talk on the nature of the koan. The image above is by Angelo Kerelov.

Henry Shukman: 11-16-2011: What Koans Are and Are Not

Speaker: Henry Shukman

Recorded: Wednesday Nov 16, 2011

Very broadly speaking, a koan is a type of teaching story used in Zen training.  In this Dharma talk, Henry Shukman explains in more detail what koans are and how they may be used.  ”Koans want to blast us from one angle to another,” Henry says, “to keep us free.”

Henry Shukman has worked as a trombonist, a trawlerman and a travel writer.  His fiction has won an Arts Council Award and has been a finalist for the O. Henry Award.  His first poetry collection, In Dr. No’s Garden, won the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and was a Book of the Year in The Times (London) and The Guardian.  He lives in New Mexico and has recently been appointed an Assistant Zen Teacher of the Sanbo Kyodan lineage.

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