So am I right in thinking that the purpose of koan is to produce concentration without discursive thoughts. 'After hearing this, Ananda and all those present were completely bewildered.' A Zen Koan (riddle) made famous by appearing in J.D. This is the purpose of zen, create a natural concentration: sila -> concentration -> panna But what is the sound of one hand clapping Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769). This concentration can lead to some insight. Then the student has serious concentration because of that koan. Zen is like that, it needs the deep understanding between teacher and student, e.g the teacher knows the personality of his student, what things he is inclined in so he could create a koan in his mind. With naked perception however, we see that a hand is not a separate and distinct hand.

Sound of one clapping handyou wont find the answer, you cant. But this is approaching the question in our ordinary way - that is, conceptually. Koan purpose is to stop your thinking mind, because there is no answer on intellectual level. It a trick similar to the story the Buddha let his brother Nanda see the nymphs and promise he will get 500 of them if he practices the dhamma. When we conceive of a hand, its just a single, isolated hand, and were puzzled at the question. Well, that is the normal logical answer, and it is not the goal of zen koan. In a similar vein, I can ask an unmarried person, 'How is your husband/wife doing?'

We will no longer be grasping at things that are not really there. When we don’t restore that context or fabricate a new one, they will help us realizing this dreamlike nature of reality. There is no answer or perhaps the 'answer' is silence. Koan-stories and questions are - like the one hand clapping - removed from context. Pegembara wrote:This question is nonsense.

Koan one hand clapping