koan
Meditation on nonsense
A koan is a paradoxical statement or question used in Zen Buddhism to provoke enlightenment by transcending rational thought.
The most famous is What is the sound of one hand clapping?
Koans resist logical answers—the point is to exhaust the reasoning mind and open a path to direct insight.
Outside Buddhist practice, koan describes any profound riddle or seemingly unanswerable question.
Puzzling question to solve
- contradictionOpposing claims, incompatible together
- puzzleChallenge testing ingenuity
- conundrumPerplexing problem or question
- absurdityWildly illogical quality
oxymoron · paradoxical · illogical · nonsensical · irony · catch-22 · dilemma · ambiguity
Zen seated meditation
Profound spiritual awakening
- satoriSudden spiritual awakening
- insightDeep perceptive understanding
- realizationGrasping what's true
- breakthroughSudden important advance
illumination · clarity · liberation · understanding · seeing · sudden · direct · recognition
Focused attention practice
- reflectionReturned light or thought
- ponderingThinking deeply about something
- mindfulnessAwareness of the present
- stillnessComplete lack of motion
silence · sitting · concentration · inquiry · questioning · awareness · presence · attention
riddle
Puzzling question to solve
- contradictionOpposing claims, incompatible together
- puzzleChallenge testing ingenuity
- conundrumPerplexing problem or question
absurdity · oxymoron · paradoxical · illogical · nonsensical · irony · catch-22 · dilemma · ambiguity · unsolvable
zazen
Zen seated meditation
- satoriSudden spiritual awakening
- dharmaCosmic moral order
- BuddhismEnlightenment-seeking Eastern religion
monastery · monk · zendo · sangha · sutra · bodhisattva · emptiness
enlightenment
Profound spiritual awakening
- satoriSudden spiritual awakening
- insightDeep perceptive understanding
- realizationGrasping what's true
breakthrough · illumination · clarity · liberation · understanding · seeing · sudden · direct · recognition · transmission
meditation
Focused attention practice
- reflectionReturned light or thought
- ponderingThinking deeply about something
- mindfulnessAwareness of the present
stillness · silence · sitting · concentration · inquiry · questioning · awareness · presence · attention · listening
master
Authority or controller
- studentOne formally enrolled somewhere
- discipleCommitted follower of teaching
- transmissionSending of information
instruction · dialogue · encounter · pointing · guidance · tradition · lineage · training · practice · study
- puzzlespuzzles, sudoku, jigsaw puzzle, puzzle cube, crossword
- Japanese culturesamurai, kabuki, sumo, origami, tea ceremony
- brain teasersriddle, brain teaser, logic puzzles, puzzle, brainteasers
- cryptic puzzlesriddle, cipher, code, cryptogram, enigma
- meditationbreathing meditation, breath, breath meditation, mantra, breathing
- sayingssayings, saying, proverb, proverbs, adage
koanmath problem
Question requiring computation
syllogism · equation · logic puzzle · algorithm · formula
Deriving conclusions from premises
syllogism · formal logic · deductive reasoning · linear thinking · proof
- Zen koanParadox for enlightenment