What is the sound of one hand clapping?
Thinking beyond logic with Koans
Ever been caught in a moment where things just don’t add up?
Maybe you’re at a crossroads, trying to make the “right” choice, only to realize there isn’t one. Maybe you’ve been searching for answers, only to find more questions. Life does that. And so do koans.
Koans are Zen’s way of shaking up the way we think. Simply put, they are paradoxical riddles used in Zen Buddhist practices meant to challenge how we perceive the world. They don’t play by the rules of logic. They turn meaning on its head, unravel words, and slip through your fingers just when you think you’ve got them figured out. They might come as a cryptic exchange between a Zen master and a bewildered student or a puzzling story that makes no sense—until it suddenly does.
Here are a few Koans to help you start:
Before you were born, what was your original face?
If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.
What is the colour of the wind?
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
Without speaking, without silence, how can you express the truth?
Puzzled about these paradoxes? Well, you are meant to be!
But here’s the thing: you’re not supposed to solve a koan like a math problem. You sit with it. You let it nudge at the edges of your understanding. You let it settle into your bones, like a lesson life is trying to teach you in whispers instead of shouts.
And isn’t that where the wisdom lies? Not in a neat answer, but in a shift in the way we see—a gentle unlearning of certainty, an invitation to sit with discomfort, a doorway to perspectives we hadn’t considered before. Wisdom isn’t about collecting truths like trophies; it’s about learning to hold contradictions without needing to resolve them. It’s the moment we stop demanding clarity and start embracing curiosity.
So here’s an invitation to sit with the uncertainties or the questions that refuse easy answers—not to solve them, but to let them unfold, like a koan revealing its wisdom in time.
Make friends with the riddle,
Team FUEL.
P.S. Is there a lesson that you have learned while embracing uncertainty? Share it with us here!