According to Shen-yen, if silent illumination is a slow and steady practice used to dissolve the self, then koans are “an intense, explosive approach where one keeps pounding at the self-center until it breaks apart.”

For example, you might repeatedly ask yourself, “What is my original face?”

Confused? That’s kind of the point!

The purpose of [koan] practice is to give rise to a sense of doubt which grows bigger and bigger until, when it finally explodes, one realizes sudden enlightenment.

*I am not liable for any destruction of the self*