If life is absurd, however, that doesn’t mean you should just give up and accept the
absurdity without putting any effort into your life. Zen isn’t cynicism. You have to
internalize this illogical logic, and one way to do this is by internalizing a koan.
Ironically, the result is that eventually you can accept the absurdity of life and you
won’t have to put any effort into this understanding. But it takes effort to get to that
point.
You have to take in the understanding that logic doesn’t always work in life and that
the greatest truths are perceived on a level beyond logic. Koans help us to debunk
the myth that logic is everything. By foiling logic, they clear the path so you can
keep moving into postlogical territory. Star Trek’s Mr. Spock probably wouldn’t approve,
but that’s probably because Zen wasn’t a common practice on Vulcan (as far
as we know!).
Koans also tackle the notion of duality. Being humans, we think dualistically. In
other words, there is an “I” and a “you,” an “us” and a “them,” a “subjective” and
an “objective,” a “self” and an “other.” But is that really true? Or is duality an illusion,
something temporary, like those ocean waves that all look so distinct, but