Koan and Parable

Asian and European Background of Monastic Contemplation

Abstract

As long as we accomplish the escape from the mostly Aristotelian definiteness of European Christianity, Bible stories can open up new perspectives. This paper asserts that the formal, structural and sometimes connotative similarities between the parables of Jesus and the koans of Chan and Zen Buddhism make sense in terms of spiritual experience. The author aims to highlight the background of similar contemplative practices of Asian and European monasticism from two perspectives. On the one hand, through the differences in the interpretation of reality, on the other hand, through the similar internal history of religious development in Europe and the Indian subcontinent, insofar as monastic practices of individual experience of God and enlightenment necessarily confront the structural religious organization on a social scale.