Why do Rinzai masters use shouts, blows, and question-and-answer sessions?
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Zen
Soto monk meditating while begging, Kyoto, Japan.
In Rinzai Zen, masters utilize techniques such as shouts (katsu), physical blows, and question-and-answer sessions known as mondo to facilitate the student's spiritual progress.1
These methods, alongside the practice of meditating on paradoxical koan, are designed to exhaust the student's analytic intellect and egoistic will. By disrupting normal patterns of thought, these interventions aim to accelerate a breakthrough beyond the boundaries of ordinary consciousness. Ultimately, these practices serve to awaken an intuitive insight that transcends logical distinctions, leading the practitioner toward the abrupt realization of transcendental wisdom, or enlightenment.21