213 - No Water, No Moon
10/22/202530 min
Why are we so uncomfortable with not knowing? We often race toward any answer, even a bad one, just to escape the anxiety of uncertainty. This episode explores the strange and profound world of Zen koans.
Using the powerful story of the nun Chiyono and her breaking water pail ("No water, no moon"), Noah explains that koans are not intellectual puzzles to be "solved." Instead, they are a practice for developing a "don't-know mind" and building our tolerance for ambiguity.
Learn how sitting with confusion can be the most valuable preparation for the inevitable moments...
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsNoah Rochetta· Host0:00
The Secular Buddhism podcast is now on eightfoldpath.com with transcripts, AI chat, and more. Visit eightfoldpath.com. [gentle music] Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Secular Buddhism podcast. I am your host, Noah Rochetta, and as I always say, you don't need to use what you learned from Buddhism to become a Buddhist. You can use what you learned to simply be a better whatever you already are. Today, I wanna talk about something, a topic that at times feels strange, it could feel frustrating, and even a little absurd, and that is the topic of Zen koans. I'm thinking about this topic because recently I added a new channel or space in our online community where members can discuss Zen koans together. And as I was preparing for that, I realized this would probably make a good podcast episode because koans are something I haven't talked about in a long time, or at least not in depth. Some of you longtime listeners will probably recall that you have encountered koans through the podcast over the years. At one point, I used to share a koan with each, in each episode and allow you to kind of sit with it and then share my thoughts on it in the next episode.