koan

IPA(Pronunciation)

/ˈkəʊ.ɑːn/

Noun

(Zen Buddhism) 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.

Japanese Meaning

禅の修行における啓発のための逸話や問答。禅の師と弟子の間で交わされる、しばしば謎解きや寓話的な性格を持つ話で、瞑想を通じて悟りに導く手段とされる。

What is this buttons?

Google Translation / DeepL Translation

夜明けに禅の師は最年少の弟子に公案を示し、その逆説を黙想することがいつか悟りをもたらすだろうと信じていた。

Details

Sense（1）

Zen, with its absurdist koan, laughs at life much the way the Marx brothers did. What exactly can you make of a philosophical system whose teacher answers the question, "How do you see things so clearly?" with the seeming one-liner, "I close my eyes"?

Google Translation / DeepL Translation