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I would disagree with that. Rather, koans utilize our capacity to use representational thinking to make us see things in new ways. They make use of the non-literal, the analogy, the dialectic, etc.Okay, but the goal of koans is to make you overcome this type of thinking right?
The first rank is “the relative within the absolute.” This is emptiness: no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind. The second rank is the realization of that emptiness, and is referred to as “the absolute within the relative”—the realm in which the enlightenment experience, or “kensho,” occurs. Yet absolute and relative are still dualistic. The third rank is “coming from within the absolute.” No longer in the abstract, the whole universe becomes your very life itself and, inevitably, compassion arises. Dongshan’s fourth rank is “arriving at mutual integration,” the coming from both absolute and relative. At this stage, the absolute and relative are integrated, but they’re still two things. In the fifth rank, “unity attained,” there is no more duality. There is just one thing—neither absolute nor relative, up nor down, profane nor holy, good nor bad, male nor female.
What is representational thinking?.