Koans just take away the painful beliefs and so provide freedom. What you do with that freedom is up to you.

Koans light up a life that may have been dormant in you; they hold out the possibility of transformation even if you are trying to address unclear or apparently insoluble problems.

It can also be true that if a koan makes you suffer in such a way, then it might be especially useful to you. And if you are interested in freedom, it might lie in this direction. You could go toward rather than away from the sign in your mind that says NO TRESPASSING.

Ordinary means that there is no need to add or take away from what is going on in the mind. Each portion of life has the whole of life. There is nothing wrong with what is in the mind except the sense that something is wrong. In this way simplicity turns to a form of compassion.