Of parables and koans...

Just as the Christian tradition has its teaching devices (for example, of Jesus’ parables or his penetrating one-liners), one school of Buddhism makes special use of the “koan,” a kind of story which usually revolves around a puzzling question or paradox. The pondering of koans is a form of spiritual practice intended to push the ponderer beyond ordinary reliance on reason into a deeper, intuitive grasp of reality--and of Reality.