A koan is a paradoxical statement or question used to train Zen Buddhist monks to abandon dependence on reason, leaving the mind open for an intuitive response. Perhaps the most well known, by Zen Master Hakuin, being, “You know the sound of two hands clapping; tell me, what is the sound of one hand?” Or in my world… “what is the sound water makes against the edge of my boat as it floats in the sky above a Japanese temple”? I believe koans carry a direct correlation with surrealism in their ability to bypass logic to access a deeper level of experience. Afterall, the things that happen in this world which we call magic or miracles, are mostly illogical when dissected, but they happen anyway. And, I believe, more often to people who don’t have a need for rational explanations to everything. These are the dreamers and the artists and the mystics. Those who are comfortable wandering into the mysterious alleyways of life once in a while.