“What is the sound of one hand clapping?” “If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear, does it make a sound?” Ever hear these odd questions? We usually think of them as silly, humorous, even nonsensical statements. What most people don’t realize is that these are genuine expressions of Zen Buddhist belief. Called koans, these questions are meant to cause a person to go outside rational thought and experience an intuitive understanding of reality. This flash of spiritual perception, called satori, is the goal of the Zen practitioner. Zen teaches that enlightenment is not basically a matter of belief, or intellectual comprehension. Instead, it is a non-rational experience of the divine, of recognizing one’s own identity with “the all.” It is emptying the mind of thought so that a person comes into an immediate perception of ultimate truth. One man defined Zen practice as “concentration with an empty mind.” Continue reading →