My actions are those of the universe itself
If people do not know these how can they know me?
—Tao Te Ching, verse 70
The capacity for creative thought is of utmost importance for the survival and furtherance of humanity. Luckily, creative thought is the most essential aspect of humanity; it is what defines us. Unfortunately, we have created a society that tries to make us forget that.
I am building a body of work that encourages mindfulness and heightens awareness. Awareness of self and mindfulness in everyday activities are prerequisites to social and spiritual evolution. I want nothing less than to expand human consciousness.
108 Kōans occurred over a period of time that I devoted to maintaining a “beginner's mind.” During that time, 108 evidences of this practice were produced. These are my kōans. They are events, observations, sounds, interventions, texts, images, scripts, objects, rearrangements, etc.—experiments in recontextualization that attempt to remind people of the ability they have to recontextualize their everyday.
We can keep the human mind in shape through creativity and play. These activities multiply our synaptic connections, make us mentally flexible, provide us with better ways to communicate, and reveal new possibilities for innovation and evolution.
If we can become aware of our everyday habits and assumptions and experiences—the mundane thoughts and actions that make up the bulk of who we are—then we will realize that there are other ways of being that are available to us. This awareness will then extend to examinations of cultural, social, and institutional habits.
People cannot imagine another way of existence for society until they can imagine another way of being themselves. We must become literate in the language of creativity. We must celebrate our self as one with the Universe and realize that the nature of the Universe is change.
108 Kōans can be used as a book of techniques or prompts to help you develop a regular practice of free play and exploration of your self/Universe. Or they might be used to overcome a creative block. These functions are similar to the way Zen masters employ traditional kōans. And like Zen kōans, other artists may make “comments” on the kōans in the form of text or other works of art, that eventually become canonized as part of the original kōan.
In Zen Buddhism, a kōan is a short statement or anecdote used to help students along their path to enlightenment. The canonical kōans originate from twelfth- and thirteenth-century China. Many kōans originated from Zen masters' responses to their students' questions. “The master took advantage of all such opportunities to demonstrate the Principle, to awaken the questioner to deeper levels of understanding, or to destroy his pretensions: The answer the master gave, whether in word or in action, though always pointing to the Principle, was invariably adapted to the particular occasion.”[1]
The kōan is a piece of documentation—an artifact of the enlightenment of a Zen master. If a student could come to understand the state of mind of the master in that spontaneous, kōan-worthy moment, then that student could achieve satori, a brief awakening. Here is an example, a kōan from a collection called The Gateless Gate.
A monk told Joshu: “I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.”
Joshu asked: “Have you eaten your rice porridge?”
The monk replied: “I have eaten.”
Joshu said: “Then you had better wash your bowl.”
At that moment the monk was enlightened.[2]
The kōans are not meant to be understood logically. The goal of kōan study is to “bring the student to direct intuitive realization of Reality without recourse to the mediation of words or concepts. . . . When the kōan is resolved it is realized to be a simple and clear statement made from the state of consciousness which it has helped to awaken.”[3]
My 108 Kōans are meant to serve the same purpose as Zen kōans; they are a tool to help you achieve moments of enlightenment in your daily life. In my kōans, I am not playing the role of the master. I am the student asking the question, letting the universe answer.