The use of mondo in Zen Buddhism

”Not all the mondo are confined to one question and its “ reply” . Some are a rapid fire of question-answer like a  fencing-match of words, in which the pupil strives (for his own enlightenment) to pierce the smooth and smiling armor of the Master’s serenity, and the Master parries and strikes back, as the pupil’s efforts to free himself require.

“What is the one word?”
“What do you say?”
“What is the one word?”
“ You make it two.”

("Zen Buddhism", C. Humfreys, William Heinemann LTD)

The Zen Patriarch

The Zen Patriarch is a program to discover your flexibility to hear, to learn listen to the Voice of Truth through a different vocabulary than you might be used to. In that sense it is refreshing.

Mondo often involves seemingly illogical or paradoxical questions and answers. These exchanges are designed to push the student beyond the limitations of rational thought and conceptual understanding.