In “What is a kōan?” Rev. Clairissa clarifies the gift of the arising of the kōan, the spiritual question that each of us carries through life, and reflects on how we train with the kōan in Sōtō Zen practice. She relates a kōan story from Dōgen, in which a monk and Zen master explore the spiritual question together. In this practice that we share, she says, “this work with the kōan is gentle work, persistent, kind, compassionate work, the work of a lifetime.”