10 lines
2.2 KiB
HTML
10 lines
2.2 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>koan</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../K.html" title="K"/><link rel="previous" href="Knuth.html" title="Knuth"/><link rel="next" href="kook.html" title="kook"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">koan</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="Knuth.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">K</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="kook.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="koan"/><dt xmlns="" id="koan"><b>koan</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/koh´an/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> A Zen teaching riddle. Classically, koans are attractive paradoxes
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to be meditated on; their purpose is to help one to enlightenment by
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temporarily jamming normal cognitive processing so that something more
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interesting can happen (this practice is associated with Rinzai Zen
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Buddhism). Defined here because hackers are very fond of the koan form and
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compose their own koans for humorous and/or enlightening effect. See
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<a href="../koans.html" title="Some AI Koans">Some AI Koans</a>,
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<a href="../H/has-the-X-nature.html"><i class="glossterm">has the X nature</i></a>, <a href="../H/hacker-humor.html"><i class="glossterm">hacker humor</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="Knuth.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../K.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="kook.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Knuth </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> kook</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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