Also koans. You give a pattern which will be significant when understood, but insignificant until then. The student tries random interpretations until the pattern is understood, and know that the random data they have found is valuable. This is done because the data is difficult to describe directly, but easy to hold once achieved.
The problem being, there can often be multiple things which “click” with the pattern!
Or I guess “problem” might be too strong/overstating. Like, if you get value out of the koan then you got value out of the koan, regardless of whether it’s the same value the koan-speaker hoped you would get.
But it’s a problem from a communication standpoint.
I wonder if koans work best under partial supervision. Instead of the master having to check each attempt, they check 1 in 100 attempts, allowing them to teach roughly 100 times as many students at once.
If any teachers out there use koan-likes, do they work well for homework?
Also koans. You give a pattern which will be significant when understood, but insignificant until then. The student tries random interpretations until the pattern is understood, and know that the random data they have found is valuable. This is done because the data is difficult to describe directly, but easy to hold once achieved.
The problem being, there can often be multiple things which “click” with the pattern!
Or I guess “problem” might be too strong/overstating. Like, if you get value out of the koan then you got value out of the koan, regardless of whether it’s the same value the koan-speaker hoped you would get.
But it’s a problem from a communication standpoint.
Yes, it’s an interesting issue.
I wonder if koans work best under partial supervision. Instead of the master having to check each attempt, they check 1 in 100 attempts, allowing them to teach roughly 100 times as many students at once.
If any teachers out there use koan-likes, do they work well for homework?