My own teacher who was transmitted seems to know the answers to the koans. Doesn that say something for his wisdom?
– When a teacher gives his Dharma heir a collection of koans with answers, which more or less is considered the succession of Dharma, he is merely recognizing his student’s potential to become a genuine Bodhisattva. In other words, the Dharma heir has only demonstrated his understanding of Buddhism, not his accomplishment of it. If you think that this individual can interpret a Mahayana Sutra correctly or has had genuine Bodhicitta after five or ten years of study, you are deluded. Before the Sung dynasty and the invention of the succession fable, for almost four hundred years prior to that, Zen was mainly Dark Zen. Teachers recognized genuine enlightenment in others without recourse to koans as a means of testing. Today, that has all changed.
