1) Write a paragraph describing some of the challenges that faced Japanese Zen monks attempting to process, master, and eventually reproduce Chinese gÅng’Ã n that entered from China? Among these challenges, what does Bodiford have to say about language as a barrier to understanding?
2) Considering this challenge and the ways in which Japanese Zen monks overcame them, as well as new methods for the standardization of gÅng’Ã n answer among Japanese Zen monastics, how does this change your outlook on gÅng’Ã n/kÅan as a Do not distribute without prior permission 12 genre? What, if anything, is lost in the mastery of a non-native language in order to understand a religious text, or in the standardization of suitable answers to religious questions? Are gÅng’Ã n/kÅan expressive in the same way when they are transformed? Why or why not?
