Most people know the famous riddle, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” Many are also aware that it is connected with Zen Buddhism, and some will even know that it is a famous koan by the ...

Continuing with my focus on mindfulness and what it has to teach us about procrastination, today I turn to the Zen tradition of the koan. Koans are enigmatic and paradoxical stories that defy solution ...

The famous question, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” is a Zen koan; a deliberately obtuse poem used by Buddhists to probe reality and test one’s ignorance. Zen Koans, by Steven Heine.

Koan study is the great gift of the Chan/Zen tradition to Buddhism and to world culture. This daylong includes some lecture exploring both the history of koan as a spiritual discipline, and an ...