Most people understand too much. This understanding cannot help your life. Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." So "I" makes "I". If you are not thinking, then what? Even if you have a big experience, if you cannot attain the one pure and clear thing, then all you understanding and experience cannot help your practice. Therefore Zen practice is not about understanding. Zen means only go straight, don't know.

So you must relinquish everything - your opinion, your condition, and your situation. Then your mind is clear like space. Then a correct answer to any Kōan will appear by itself. This is wisdom.

When you try a Kōan, if you don't attain it, don't worry! Don't be attached to the Kōan, and also don't try to understand the Kōan. Only go straight, don't know: try, try, try for then thousand years, nonstop. Then you attain the Way, the Truth, and the Life, which means from moment to moment keeping the correct situation, correct relationship, and correct function. That is already Great Love, Great Compassion, and the Great Bodhisattva Way.