Dhyāna in Buddhism "silent illumination." This became the source of some differences in practice between the Línjì and Cáodòng schools. A kōan, literally "public case", is a story or dialogue, describing an interaction between a Zen master and a student. These anecdotes give a demonstration of the master's insight. Koans emphasize the non-conceptional insight that the Buddhist teachings are pointing to. Koans can be used to provoke the "great doubt", and test a student's progress in Zen practice. Kōan-inquiry may be practiced during zazen (sitting meditation), kinhin (walking meditation), and throughout all the activities of daily life. Kōan practice is particularly emphasized by
Buddhism in the West also influenced by Theosophy and Swedenborgianism. Suzuki's writings had a strong impact on Western intellectuals such as psychologists Erich Fromm and Karen Horney, poets like Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac as well as on other figures like Alan Watts and Edward Conze. Through his writings Suzuki contributed to the emergence of a Zen modernism which blends Asian Buddhism with transcendentalism and romanticism. The works of the early important figures in Western Buddhism such as Henry Olcott, Paul Carus and Soyen Shaku promoted a kind of Buddhism that has been called by contemporary scholars "Buddhist modernism" and also "protestant Buddhism." This