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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

koan en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkoʊ.ɑn/ (US)
  • /ˈkəʊ.ɑːn/ (UK)
  • (US) audio

Etymology

From Japanese 公案 (kōan), derived from Chinese 公案 (gōng'àn, “official business”).

Meanings

  1. (qualifier:Zen Buddhism) A story about a Zen master and his student, sometimes like a riddle, other times like a fable or parable, which has become an object of Zen study, and which, when meditated upon, may unlock mechanisms in the Zen student’s mind leading to satori.
    • Zen, with its absurdist koan, laughs at life much the way the Marx brothers did. What exactly can you make of a philosophical system whose teacher answers the question, "How do you see things so clearly?" with the seeming one-liner, "I close my eyes"? 1977, Thomas Hoover, chapter 1, in Zen Culture, →ISBN:
  2. A riddle with no solution, used to provoke reflection on the inadequacy of logical reasoning, and to lead to enlightenment.
    • Gibberish. Or else a koan that Achtfaden isn’t equipped to master, a transcendent puzzle that could lead him to some moment of light. 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow:
    • As always the koan “Why, Why am I here, why here” begins in her head, but she beats it back like a housewife with a broom. 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 303:
  3. A therapy technique used by Traditional Chinese medicinal physicians or medical practitioners to break a presenting patients habitual pattern of thinking that has been diagnosed as the primary cause of an illness or disease.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
koans Number=Plur lexicographic
kōan alternative lexicographic

Deriveds

koanic · koanlike

Translations (19)

hu koan (riddle without solution) · de Koan (zen story) · vi công án (zen story) · it aporia (riddle without solution) · es aporía (riddle without solution) · ga cóán (zen story) · fi kōan (zen story) · nan-hbl 公案 (zen story) · fi kōan (riddle without solution) · fi aporia (riddle without solution) · ru коа́н (zen story) · cmn 公案 (zen story) · fr aporie (riddle without solution) · da koan (zen story) · hu koan (zen story) · ja 公案 (zen story) · pl koan (riddle without solution) · ko 화두 (zen story) · pl koan (zen story)