Perhaps this is the most well known manifestation of the Zen parables. What is the answer?  The question has many answers and interpretations but the root of the expression, like so many Zen questions is to make you think.  One interpretation is that you cannot hear the sound of one clapping because you are not listening carefully and/or that you are focused on what you think the sound of one hand clapping will be. Can the correct answer be…silence?

Satoru