To explore why koans are priceless and powerful, Henry focuses on a simple short koan. He tells a story from the lost books of Homer’s The Odyssey in which King Agamemnon sends his wise men out into the world to find the most important reasons to live. The wise men return with 1000 pages of reasons, which overwhelms the King. Next, he asks for a single sentence, then he asks for a single word that contains everything…
What single word contains everything? This is a koan – What is the last word?
Images by Mark Petrick.