What does a Zen koan have to do with a glowing tunnel made of yellow packing materials and a bed of ginkgo leaves? More than ...

In his new book, Cosmological Koans: A Journey to the Heart of Physical Reality, physicist Anthony Aguirre explores deep questions about the nature of reality, using an approach inspired by Zen koans ...

As defined by Dictionary.com, koan [koh-ahn] is a nonsensical or paradoxical question to a student for which an answer is demanded, the stress of meditation on the question often being illuminating.

Henry Shukman considers the Zen koan to be the most condensed narrative. “They are very inscrutable. They make no sense to the mind, but they can bring on a dramatic shift in how we experience and see ...

Koans are paradoxical statements intended to derail mental business-as-usual for the Zen Buddhist student on the journey to enlightenment. A book about koans at first glance seems itself paradoxical, ...