Zen Koan: The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Masters of Zen Buddhism often give their more advanced students a Koan to contemplate. A Koan is essentially an unsolvable riddle. Its purpose is to get the student to transcend mere logical, every-day reasoning. As this video shows, the process can be fraught with mind-searching difficulty that takes the student close to the very limits of sanity.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Buddhism
• Koan
• Rinzai
• Soto
• Zen
• Ch'an

[danjrael1]

Clever, but no cigar!

[RichardPrangnell]

@danjrael1 Yes. No cigar, no smoker, not even a wisp of smoke. Just a hint of incense floating on light airs.

[bigvandave]

the answer is "ego"

[RichardPrangnell]

@bigvandave "ego"? That doesn't sound right

[TheIgnoramus]

the answer to what is the sound of one hand is "silence"

[shiifu]

The sound is very mistycal thing.. it give us the power to hear.. but still, it can deafen uss, it is lika a sword that cuts, but still it cannot cut it self.. it is like the eye that sees.. but cannot see it self..

The sound of one hand clapping has many sounds, and it depends who is hearing it, for me the sound is loneliness, to make a sound or to make a life, one needs the other part to clap with, or to live it. Life is nothing if its not shared,

/ Shifu M.