clapping
Explanation
The comic plays on the famous Zen Buddhist koan, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" A student monk asks a master this question in a forest setting. The master tells the student that when he reaches a higher level of enlightenment, he will find the answer. After many years of meditation, the monk finally discovers the answer -- and it turns out to be a loud, obnoxious honking noise ("HONK HONK HONK HONK"). He exclaims, "Wow! I make a whole honking noise? I never would've guessed!" The final panel reveals that the Buddha himself "really liked geese," accompanied by a goose honking.
The humor operates on multiple levels. First, it subverts the expectation that the answer to a profound spiritual riddle would itself be profound -- instead, it is absurd and silly. The koan about one hand clapping is typically meant to illustrate that some questions transcend logical answers and are tools for meditation rather than puzzles to be solved. By giving the koan a literal, ridiculous answer, Weinersmith deflates the mystical gravity of Zen practice. Second, the punchline that the Buddha "really liked geese" adds another layer of absurdity, suggesting that the deepest truths of Buddhism are just the personal quirks of its founder. The comic satirizes the tendency to treat spiritual traditions with excessive reverence by imagining their origins as mundane and goofy.