Original face

The original face is a concept in Zen Buddhism. It originates in the following koan:^[1][2]

What did your face look like before your parents were born?

This koan is an invitation for one to recognize the empty nature of reality^[3] by looking beyond the particulars of one's socio-cultural and psychological understanding of self, body, and mind. It is related to the saying:

Before we study Zen, the mountains are mountains and the rivers are rivers. While we are studying Zen, however, the mountains are no longer mountains and the rivers are no longer rivers. But then, when our study of Zen is completed, the mountains are once again mountains and the rivers once again rivers.

Zen masters have described the original face as so:

The American Buddhist musician Stuart Davis has recorded a song called "Original Face". The chorus goes:

There's a light bulb in everyone

Bright enough to swallow the sun,

Earth and sky are all one taste,

There is just the original face.

References

This Zen-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e