As fans of THE DAILY SHOW know, each show ends with a brief clip called “Your Moment of Zen.” Please explain the concept in terms a Catholic can understand.
The moment of Zen is something that you don’t try to understand; you just accept it and keep on living.
Like the question “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
It can be asked but it can’t be answered.
You’re asking for a religious explanation of something you saw on Comedy Central?
Well, actually, according to the master: it can.
Isn’t the answer redundant? The sound is “clap”. The question assumes that the single hand is clapping, don’t ask me how, so it is making a “clap, clap” noise.
I have a Zen moment nearly every single morning. Zen has quickly learned that when the alarm clock goes off it is his opportunity to visit with me and get his morning dose of strokes while I wake up. This is something he is typically richly deserving of since he rarely if ever misbehaves during the night. I have purposefully set my alarm early in order to allow for this reward session every weekday morning.
What, you mean this thread isn’t about my wolf hybrid?
Zen moment is a descriptive term for a brief flash of enlightenment, referring to the philosophic proposition that it is being, rather than understanding which gives rise to enlightenment. It is often associated with a period of sudden exhibition of great skill, or facility in a physical task previously never mastered.
Once in a rash moment, I accepted a friends assurance that if I simply ran down the steep and rocky side of a rather high hill upon which we stood, I could simply “become the mountain” instead of trying to walk on the mountain. He assured me that I would be able to easily keep my balance, and avoid missteps, or tripping over objects. I did it. I ran nearly sixty yards down a thirty-percent grade of one to three foot rocks with absolute abandon, leaning forward to gain speed the whole way. I was exhilarated, but absolutely unafraid. I barely broke into a sweat. Normally I am a clumsy person. I have been known to trip over cracks in the sidewalk. It was a Zen Moment.
I am not unwilling to believe that one who practices discipline of the mind and spirit and body, as a single expression of being can gain the ability to make his entire life a Zen Moment. Such a person might seem otherwise unremarkable, but would be competent in all he endeavored to do. Martial artists often aspire to such a state. More often, I think, it is the quiet introspection of monastic life, which opens those avenues of travel.
Contest against another, or even against physical challenges is inherently antithetical to such an act of becoming one with the matter at hand. Enfolding the universe within oneself is an outlook that requires sublime tranquillity. The challenge is in gaining mastery of self, not mastery of things, or people.
Tris
“He who knows many things is not wise.” Tao Teh Ching
For me it would have been a Zen Moment followed by an Intensive Care Month. The one does not preclude the other, grasshopper.
I think it’s one of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld characters that deduced that the sound of one hand clapping is ‘cl’.
I can clap with one hand by quickly bending my knuckles and striking my fingertips against the heel of my hand. It sounds like a quiet clap.
If I clap really hard with one hand, without bending my fingers, there is a slight “whoosh” sound.
Perhaps the ancients were too distracted by the sound of butterflies laughing to hear it.
For a Catholic (like the OP), “Moment of Zen” might be equated to “an Epiphany”; a sudden realization of a greater truth and/or meaning.
I beleive it was the Master himself (Cecil, of course) who said the sound of one hand clapping was a slap in the face.
The sound of one hand clapping is half the sound of two hands clapping.
C’mon, it’s easy to answer someone who asks you the sound of one hand clapping. Just raise one hand and slap 'em upside the head. 
I’ve always thought of the Daily Show MoZ as kind of a “We want to share this with you. We’re not sure why.” or a “Just reminding you this is one effed up world we’re in.”
It was, indeed. The other hand, of course, makes the “ap” sound.
It is worth noting that Zen masters would commonly strike their pupils rather hard about the head and shoulders if they witnessed a student having a Zen moment. This was supposed to implant memory of the experience via the traumatic shock of having your normally peaceful master give you an abrupt “what for”.
For a wonderful collection of Zen moments and the koans that are intended to precipitate them, please read “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” by Paul Reps. It contains the “One Hand Clapping” story plus many more hilarious and intrigueing anecdotes. I regard it as a sort of cosmic joke book.
A wolf hybrid? I thought you were talking about masturbation with that post! I was afraid to click the link, not knowing what that slideshow would be a picture of until I read that last line.