In Zen, the student asks a question to the master, and the reply brings sudden enlightenment. It means something had long cluttered the mind, and in one deft stroke, like a genius, the master cuts the relationship between the ego and its belief.
What Vedanta does through persuasive argument, the koan does through an abrupt shock.
A beautiful article connecting popular koans with vedantic perspective.
In this article Acharya Prashant discusses on futility of the artificial concept of Will power, A forced requirement made super essential by us.
Short excerpt from the article:
"Willpower is a useless medicine for a non-existent disease.
What do you want to overcome through willpower? There is nothing to be overcome. You want to ask a question, so you get up and ask a question, what is the use of willpower in this? You require willpower only because you are living in illusions. I can very certainly tell you that at this moment I do not require any willpower to speak to you. What is right, what is natural is being done, what is the role of willpower in all this? But we make matters complicated for ourselves. What do we do? We first let imaginary fears encircle us, and then we fight these fears using willpower."