Koan

The Traveling Salesman Problem is a pertinent koan among computer scientists.

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"?

Gibberish. Or else a koan that Achtfaden isn’t equipped to master, a transcendent puzzle that could lead him to some moment of light.

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.