Word of the Week 5/13/18: Koan

From Wiktionary: 

"A story about a Zen master and his student, sometimes like a riddle, other times like a fable, which has become an object of Zen study, and which, when meditated upon, may unlock mechanisms in the Zen student’s mind leading to satori*."

 *A sudden inexpressible feeling of inner understanding or enlightenment.

From Wikipedia:

"A story, dialogue, question, or statement, which is used in Zen practice to provoke the 'great doubt' and test a student's progress in Zen practice.

The popular western understanding sees kōan as referring to an unanswerable question or a meaningless statement. However, in Zen practice, a kōan is not meaningless, and not a riddle or a puzzle. Teachers do expect students to present an appropriate response when asked about a kōan."

 From Encyclopedia Britannica:

"Koan, Japanese Kōan, in Zen Buddhism of Japan, a succinct paradoxical statement or question used as a meditation discipline for novices, particularly in the Rinzai sect. The effort to 'solve' a koan is intended to exhaust the analytic intellect and the egoistic will, readying the mind to entertain an appropriate response on the intuitive level. Each such exercise constitutes both a communication of some aspect of Zen experience and a test of the novice’s competence."

A few well-known koans:

"Two hands clap and there is a sound, what is the sound of one hand?"

"Without thinking of good or evil, show me your original face before your mother and father were born."

"If you meet the Buddha, kill him."