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Nansen’s Koan Cat: Always Alive Even When Dead, and Schrödinger’s Cat
Two cats, two ways beyond logic
Paradoxes have always fascinated me, as I believe they have many others, because they break the custom of ordinary logic and throw open the door to deeper understandings. Throughout history, from ancient spiritual traditions like Zen to the frontiers of modern physics, we encounter situations that shake the foundations of our mental categories. The two “cats,” now almost archetypal despite being born in such different contexts, the one disputed in Nansen’s famous Zen koan and the one imagined by Schrödinger, invite us to venture into these extreme territories where thought renews itself every time it seems to reach an impasse
The Original Koan: Nansen Cuts the Cat (Mumonkan, Case 14)
The classic narrative of this koan continues to disturb anyone who approaches it.
“One day, the monks from the eastern hall and those from the western hall of Nansen’s monastery were arguing over the possession of a cat. Seeing the dispute, Master Nansen grabbed the cat and said to the monks: “If any of you can say a word of Zen, a word that transcends dualism, I will spare the cat. Otherwise, I will kill it.”…
