"why certain ideas are communicated only indirectly for good reasons" by Pre.

Rather than use an obscure example like Zen, we'll use a fairly simple idea: Learning how to catch a ball.

Now I can directly explain to you how a ball is caught. I can describe the simultaneous ballistic equations that govern the flight of the ball, instruct you on how to alter your idea of where the ball will land based on Bayesian reasoning given certain priors and measured weather conditions.

These things are almost certainly needed if you're gonna program a computer to catch a ball.

If you're gonna teach a human to catch a ball though, you're just going to have to throw a lot of balls at them and tell 'em to keep theirs eyes on it.

I suspect most Zen koans are just poor jokes, but if there's a point to 'em it's the same as the point of throwing those balls at a student catcher.

Just to get you to practice thinking in that way. Because you, as a human, will become better at the things you practice.

If the thing you are practising is spouting existential bullshit this may or may not be a good idea. ;)