A key concept of medieval chivalry and courtly love is choosing a more difficult path over an easier one. The more arduous journey is always to be preferred where the quest is concerned.
Consider the spiritual student who asks, "What is Cosmic Awareness?" What he's looking for (what he wants) is some easily digestible answer that he can easily absorb into his belief system.
But now consider how a Zen master might respond to such a question.
"What is Cosmic Awareness?"
"A rotting corpse thrown on top of a dung heap."
This is not the answer that the student was hoping for. What can possibly be meant by equating a sublime, eternal concept with one so revolting and corruptible?
In order to make any sense of this at all, the student will have to go away on his own and put in some real mental effort. And this is the point. A pat, comfortable answer proves nothing about the teaching or about the student. In each case, it's the student's effort that provides the real value.
A Zen koan is the opposite of a deepity. Whereas the deepity is a non-responsive phrase constructed to appear like an answer, the koan is an answer constructed to appear non-responsive.
There are a lot of deepities in spirituality but comparatively few real answers. Chivalry gives us pointers as to which we should choose and why.
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