{"product_id":"2940012242860","title":"The Gateless Gate: 49 Koans (Classic Zen Text) [NOOK OPTIMIZED]","description":"The e-text comes with a full Table of Contents, allowing you to easily move between chapters.  Within seconds, you'll be able to read any part of the book that you want! It's been formatted for the Nook to allow you the best reading experience. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn The Gateless Gate, one of modern Zen Buddhism's uniquely influential masters offers classic commentaries on the Mumonkan, one of Zen's greatest collections of teaching stories.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKoans are a Zen Buddhist spiritual technique which use word-play to achieve enlightenment. They frequently involve absurd or contradictory statements, which are intended to create extreme cognitive dissonance in the mind of the pupil. As such, their actual content or structure is not as important as the mental state which they induce. This collection includes some of the most famous koans, such as Tozan's \"three pounds of flax\":\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat is the Buddha? -- This flax weighs three pounds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eand Baso's conundrum:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat is Buddha? -- This mind is not Buddha.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eas well as some involving bizarre behavior, such as Nansen Cuts the Cat in Two and Blow out the Candle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile short and succinct, this book has enormous depth, and offers new rewards on repeated readings.","brand":"Classic Century Works","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47179883217136,"sku":"2940012242860","price":1.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012242860_p0.jpg?v=1763553924","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012242860","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}