GREAT ZEN

Actually, Zen should be pronounced as Chan. That is, Chan Buddhism would be correct. However, it has very little to do with Buddhism. In general, Zen is a philosophy and logic of the absurd. The goal is to go beyond familiar frameworks and start thinking outside the box. Questions like "what does the sound of one hand clapping" and "what color are the hair of a child of an unmarried woman" best characterize this teaching.

Chan is purely Chinese Buddhism, while Zen is Japanese.
In ancient Japan, Zen was also studied by ninjas (whose art also interests me very much).
Since verbal thinking is flawed, they studied Zen
to overcome limiting views, habits, and all stereotypes (motor, intellectual, and others), which allows one to look at the world completely differently, using figurative rather than verbal thinking.

When a Zen master and a fencing master are combined in one, a great warrior is born. A warrior who knows neither good nor evil. For him, there is only a goal and a path leading to the goal. A path that he walks with a sword in his hand. Without stopping, because he cannot be stopped. Without doubting, because he has rejected reason and found wisdom.

In general, a ninja is a person with vivid figurative thinking, not suppressed by kinesthetic (who even came up with that word?) sensations and not having restrictive, energy-draining, and giving the illusion of a "strong personality" verbal thinking that appears after training in educational institutions.

Added after 29 minutes

Well, probably, the hair color of an unbegotten man? :rolleyes:

Such questions should be answered without resorting to logic (which is powerless here anyway), but a little differently. They need to be reacted to instantly, that is, the very first thought, which has not yet been poisoned by knowledge (other people's delusions), is correct.

There was such a case:
Once, a new student came to a Zen monastery, and the abbot decided to test him by asking him just such a question:
- Show me your true face that you had even before the birth of your parents.
The student, what do you think, calmly takes off a sandal from his foot and hits the abbot on the face with that sandal.
- You are accepted, - the teacher replied.

That's how it is, quick and simple.

Added after 17 hours 39 minutes
I still don't understand the meaning of this story.
Is that so?
The Zen teacher Hakuin was considered by his neighbors to be a man living an impeccable life. A beautiful girl lived next to him, whose parents owned a grocery store.
Suddenly, the parents discovered that she was going to have a child. They were furious. The girl refused to name the father of the child, but after much persuasion, she named Hakuin. In great anger, the parents came to the teacher.
"Is that so?" - that was all he said.
After the child was born, he was brought to Hakuin. By this time, he had lost all respect from those around him, which did not bother him at all. He surrounded the child with care and warmth, took milk for the child from his neighbors, and everything he needed.
A year later, the mother still could not stand it and told her parents the truth: that the father of the child was a young man who worked at the fish market.
The girl's father and mother immediately went to Hakuin, asked him for forgiveness, apologized to him for a long time, and asked him to return the child. Hakuin readily forgave them. Giving the child back, he said only: "Is that so?"