Epokhe functions almost like one of those puzzling koans in Zen Buddhism: brief, enigmatic notions or unanswerable questions such as ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’ At first, these utterances cause nothing but perplexity. Later, they open a path to all-encompassing wisdom. This family resemblance between Pyrrhonism and Zen may be no accident: Pyrrho travelled to Persia and India with Alexander the Great, and dabbled in Eastern philosophy – not Zen Buddhism, which did not yet exist, but some of its precursors.
