Deciphering Her Koan

Remember this: Subject and object become one; whole.

There are no questions and answers. This is a predicament of the mind. Everything is, as it is. When you put known and unknown existence under the knife of human’s curiosity, we treat it as if it is a mystery that needs discovering, when it is already un-mysterious in its existence; there is no need of discovery, only awareness.

There are unanswered questions posed in the direction of the hunting act. I reached out to several people, on different occasions, and asked them to send me these unanswerable questions. I would attempt to answer them, in the face of people who would rather turn a blind eye. Everybody is scared; not me.

Silencio!

This is the port you arrive at when realization tells you, no one wants the answers. Not one person wants the distasteful resolution to conundrums. If the resolution is finite, there is no longer an argument to fight over, or win; conversation over a subject long beat to death is no longer perpetuated.

Argument loves impasse. Impasse becomes blight. Blight destroys.

I have known for quite some time, I was in the midst of attempting to solve a koan based around hunting; a koan that has no koan sentence. The koan I was seeking an answer to is relentless and as elusive as a deer. The answer to the koan was how I am one with hunting. 

Due to hunting’s simplicity and the elaborate maze of concepts, the decipherer of the koan will be led back to the same concept, over and over. I would not expect someone to understand the nature of the koan of hunting, unless you attempted the cipher yourself. It is not even a cipher or a puzzle. It is what it has always been.

The first attempt is to understand: All literal things must go.

Breaking topics down, scientifically and logically, will make sense in the literal, but overall it has nothing to do with the end realization.

The second attempt is to understand: All emotional things must go.

As you approach the koan of hunting, when topics are assessed, emotions can make the waters of understanding murky. You do not think clearly.

The third attempt is to understand: Do not think when koaning. No koan shall be unturned. 

Over-thinking will make you hit a brick wall in the mind. You will struggle like a drunken man in a bed sheet, who thinks a ghost is stealing his precious life.

To begin to decipher the koan of hunting, the one must understand the concept of hunting is the subject. The hunter is the object. Hunting and hunter are often perceived as two separate entities; subject and object. This brings up the concept of duality.

One must realize that hunters are hunting, at all times. The two are never split apart.

Here is my attempt at distinguishing recognition of a non-hunting koan.

There was a question: Why is a domestic turkey any different than a wild turkey, in treatment and consideration?

The objects are domestic and wild turkey. The subject is not hunting. The subject is either turkey, or creature treatment. This is a koan that has nothing to do with hunting.

Here is my attempt at distinguishing recognition of a hunting koan.

I pose the question: The turkey hunter went hunting. Why did the hunter shoot the tree, when aiming for the wild turkey? Should he just shoot himself?

The subject is hunting. The objects are the turkey and the hunter. The turkey and hunting is one koan. The turkey hunter and hunting is another koan. The encompassing koan is the turkey, turkey hunter, and hunting itself. The turkey and turkey hunter are imbued into hunting as one entity, instead of three different things.

One must understand in a koan, there is always non-duality and non-existent literalness. When attempting to split the parts of a koan to understand the outcome, it is futile. It is always what it will be; one meaning.

There are hunters that never think about this. Their life is in the literal sense at all time and locked into a machine mentality.

Hunting is about food to me. When searching for the ultimate meaning of a subject, the subject becomes more to the seeking individual, who is uniquely attempting to understand the simplest of concepts.

When we are thinking on concepts, think in the greater whole, and how it is affected. Everything on the planet is the planet. Why do we cause ourselves and others angst by separation? It is only killing us, slowly. Koans help the person realize the ability to walk blindly through the thick, concentrated cloud in the mind’s eye, and when the pressure is alleviated, the answer appears, as it has always been the answer.

I attempted to write a koan.

Beginning of Angelia’s Koan

A chef of fine, hunting cuisine has one empty platter. The waiter walks in and says, “She’ll have turkey”, and then promptly walks back out. In dismay, the chef looks over to see one wild turkey and one domestic turkey, cooked and ready. The chef blurts out, while waving his hands at the platter, “Which one?”

End of Angelia’s Koan

I am a whole person, not just a construct of a hand here, a foot there, or a head looking over yonder. In my hunting koan, I have become the clap of one hand, not two.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

~Courtesy of the AOFH~