Open-Ended Tangled Hierarchies: Zen Koans and Paradox in Public Administration

Abstract

Koans are mysterious stories used to teach Zen Buddhism for over a thousand years. The use of paradox in koans differs from the approach to paradox found throughout much writing about public administration. Koan practice and its central principle of nonduality suggest that apparently paradoxical objects are dynamically interconnected. This paper examines a nondualistic view of paradox through the analysis of koans and koan study. I use the term "open-ended tangled hierarchies" to describe one model of paradox based on nonduality. Public administration can gain from koans an enhanced focus on the interconnectedness of social systems rather than on boundaries.