Worthless Word for the Day

[teapeebubbles]

the worthless word for the day is: koan

[fr. Jp. ko, public + an, proposition] /KO an/
a paradox used in meditation for the training of
Zen Buddhist monks to abandon dependence on reason
and rather gain sudden intuitive enlightenment

Now we can do a more advanced exercise, based on
a Zen koan called "Ganto's Ax". Here is how it begins:
One day Tokusan told his student Ganto, "I have two
monks who have been here for many years. Go and
examine them." Ganto picked up an ax and went to the
hut where the two monks were meditating. He raised the
ax, saying, "If you say a word I will cut off your
heads; and if you do not say a word, I will also cut
off your heads."
- Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an EGB