By Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D.

One of the characteristics of Zen Buddhism is the use of koans–or riddles–for meditation practice.  Questions such as “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” and “What was your face before you were born?” are used to prompt reflection and a disentanglement from literal, rational thought.  Another popular koan is “If you meet the Buddha in the road, kill him.”

Recently, I experienced a modern variation of this traditional koan.  I accidentally taped two recordings of the PBS documentary, The Buddha, last week.  So, I sat down to delete one of the shows from my DVR and I received the following message, asking for confirmation:

“Are you sure that you want to delete The Buddha?”