"What is the sound of one hand clapping?" is a traditional zen koan -- a question posed by a Zen master to a student.
It is meant to be pondered from within the routine of daily life until the answer opens the true heart of the question. All koans must be answered from within the realm of one's own personal experience, and thus be encountered in the journey of living rather than in the rationalizations of logical thought.
Accordingly, each koan has many answers, answers that will vary both in words and in the stirring of one's mind and emotions.
Even the wisest Zen teacher cannot tell you your own answer. You must find it for yourself, and not in your mind, and not in the comfort of a rational response. Once experienced, the answer is often a life changing experience, and needs no confirmation from anyone else.
Here are responses to the question from a variety of WikiAnswer users:
The Sound of One Hand Clapping was created in 1997.
The Sound of One Hand Clapping has 425 pages.
When clapping both hands one sound is heard. The sound only seems as one, but it is actually the sum of two sounds. Right hand and left hand. Each hand is making the sound of one hand clapping.
The ISBN of The Sound of One Hand Clapping is 0-7329-0896-5.
The duration of The Sound of One Hand Clapping - film - is 1.55 hours.
The Sound of One Hand Clapping - film - was created on 1996-04-23.
It is the sound of one hand clapping.
This question has 2 answers. Either a one-hand clapping makes a lighter sound than a two-hand clapping when your one hand tries to slap its fingers to its palm. The other answer would be that it sounds like this:
dubstep
no.that is not true because, you have to think "well what can I clap on one hand for it to make a sound?" or "is my clapping metaphorical as in silent applause?"there are many answers to this but there wouldn't be a definite "yes" or "no"Well.... No. Clapping is useing both hands and hitting them against eachother to make a sound, you cannot make a sound useing only one hand. Unless you use a object or another hand. There for there is no sound of one hand clapping.
What is the question ? The answer to -7 is a lot like one scissor, or the sound of one hand clapping.
The duration of One-Hand Clapping is 1.57 hours.