MindCoeur Magazine · Koan — Zen

This Is It

2026-11-12T20:26:41+00:00

This Is it

A student bows deeply. Master Fudo says nothing. The soundless gong resounds in emptiness, the uncarved block itself is Zen. Breath stops, stone becomes mind— what was this before our birth? Breathing ceased? Mind vanished? Never. In the stillness of falling leaves is found what we have lost long ago. What’s it like to look up at heaven without any thought as a small child, to run freely across endless fields with no goal in sight—like playing. In old age, when wisdom is ripe— the mind knows itself alone and empty.

← Return to Magazine