Quotes by Aitken

Each koan is a window that show the whole truth but just from a single vantage. It is limited in perspective. One hundred koans give one hundred vantages. When they are enriched with insightful comments and poems, then you have ten thousand vantages. There is no end to this process of enrichment.

Koan. A presentation of the harmony of the Universal and the Particular; a theme of Zazen to be made clear. A classic Mondo, or a Zen story.

Koans are the folk stories of Zen Buddhism, metaphorical narratives that particularize essential nature.