“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

This is a question from a Japanese Zen Bhuddist kōan (a problem designed as a mental exercise for a student of meditation). It’s supposed to hone one’s wisdom, insight, peace, and compassion and lead to Inner Consciousness.

I don’t remember why I first decided to ask Sennet this kōan. Probably he was running around like a banshee and I wanted him to find some inner (and outer) peace – immediately. For whatever reason, I asked him the question and he immediately turned it into a song.

This first video was taken while we were in Guatemala, he’s drumming with pencils and singing his One Hand Clapping song.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF5T89e34hs]

Later, after we were back home in Seattle, I asked him again one day to see what the reaction would be. It was about the same. (Punk rock Zen Meditation? Hmmm…)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BumMuReS5E4]

(The popular western understanding sees kōan as referring to an unanswerable question or a meaningless statement. However, in Zen practice, a kōan is not meaningless, and not a riddle or a puzzle. Teachers do expect students to present an appropriate response when asked about a kōan. A central theme of many kōans is the ‘identity of opposites’: kōan after kōan explores the theme of nonduality. Hakuin’s well-known kōan, “Two hands clap and there is a sound, what is the sound of one hand?” is clearly about two and one. The monk himself, in his seeking, is the kōan. Realization of this is the insight; the response to the kōan – Subject and object – this is two hands clapping. When the monk realizes that the kōan is not merely an object of consciousness, but is also he himself as the activity of seeking an answer to the kōan, then subject and object are no longer separate and distinct. This is one hand clapping.)