koan

Fetched 2026-10-26 (cache).

Datamuse reports no synonyms or antonyms for this word.

Noun

1. {{lb|en|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 [[meditate]]d upon, may [[unlock]] [[mechanisms]] in the Zen student’s mind leading to [[satori]].
2. A riddle with no [[solution]], used to [[provoke]] [[reflection]] on the [[inadequacy]] of [[logical]] [[reasoning]], and to lead to [[enlightenment]].
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.<ref>{{cite-web|url=https://process.ogleschool.edu/drive?pdfid=B13t192&FilesData=Bodhidharma+Medicine.pdf|title=404|work=process.ogleschool.edu|accessdate=2023-09-20}}</ref>

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wiktionary dump) · cached copy, not a rewrite.