Zen Koan Day 1 - What is a Koan?

I have decided to make it a mission of mine to share a Zen Koan every day on the Steemit platform.

So what is a Koan?
A kōan (公案?) (/ˈkoʊ.ɑːn/; Chinese: 公案; pinyin: gōng'àn; Korean: 공안 (kong'an); Vietnamese: công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement, which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and test a student's progress in Zen practice.

We begin at 12PM EST on Wednesday 7/13. Be ready to awaken!!