Note f120 — ON SATORI—THE REVELATION OF A NEW TRUTH IN ZEN BUDDHISM
Reading edition
Kō-ans (kung-an) are sometimes called “complications,” (kê-t‘êng) literally meaning “vines and wistarias” which are entwining and entangling; for according to the masters there ought not to be any such thing as a kō-an in the very nature of Zen, it was an unnecessary invention making things more entangled and complicated than ever before. The truth of Zen has no need for kō-ans. It is supposed that there are one thousand seven hundred kō-ans which will test the genuineness of satori.