Koans: Logic Bombs

Zen masters use koans — paradoxical riddles designed to short-circuit rational thinking. "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" "What was your original face before your parents were born?" These questions have no logical answer. That is the point.

Koans work by exhausting the rational mind. You wrestle with an impossible question until your usual way of thinking breaks down. In that breakdown, something else can emerge — a direct perception of reality unclouded by conceptual thinking.