koan
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Japanese 公案 (kōan), which was from Chinese 公案 (gōng'àn, “official business”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
koan (plural koans)
- (Zen Buddhism) A story about a Zen master and his student, sometimes like a riddle, other times like a fable, 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.
- 1977, Thomas Hoover, chapter 1, in Zen Culture[2], →ISBN:
- 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"?
- A riddle with no solution, used to provoke reflection on the inadequacy of logical reasoning, and to lead to enlightenment.
- 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow:
- Gibberish. Or else a koan that Achtfaden isn’t equipped to master, a transcendent puzzle that could lead him to some moment of light.
- 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 303:
- 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.
- 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.[1]
Translations edit
zen story
riddle without solution
References edit
Anagrams edit
French edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Japanese 公案 (kōan), from Literary Chinese 公案 (gōng'àn, literally “public case”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
koan m (plural koan)
Further reading edit
- “koan”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams edit
Hungarian edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From English koan, from Japanese 公案 (kōan), from Literary Chinese 公案 (gōng'àn) (literally, "public case").
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
koan (plural koanok)
Declension edit
Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony) | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
nominative | koan | koanok |
accusative | koant | koanokat |
dative | koannak | koanoknak |
instrumental | koannal | koanokkal |
causal-final | koanért | koanokért |
translative | koanná | koanokká |
terminative | koanig | koanokig |
essive-formal | koanként | koanokként |
essive-modal | — | — |
inessive | koanban | koanokban |
superessive | koanon | koanokon |
adessive | koannál | koanoknál |
illative | koanba | koanokba |
sublative | koanra | koanokra |
allative | koanhoz | koanokhoz |
elative | koanból | koanokból |
delative | koanról | koanokról |
ablative | koantól | koanoktól |
non-attributive possessive - singular |
koané | koanoké |
non-attributive possessive - plural |
koanéi | koanokéi |
Possessive forms of koan | ||
---|---|---|
possessor | single possession | multiple possessions |
1st person sing. | koanom | koanjaim |
2nd person sing. | koanod | koanjaid |
3rd person sing. | koanja | koanjai |
1st person plural | koanunk | koanjaink |
2nd person plural | koanotok | koanjaitok |
3rd person plural | koanjuk | koanjaik |
Volapük edit
Noun edit
koan (nominative plural koans)
Declension edit
declension of koan
Derived terms edit
- koanaf (“shellfish”)
Yola edit
Noun edit
koan
- Alternative form of cooan
References edit
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 51