This is a zen/koan riddle that I am having trouble figuring out.
If you have an ostrich stuck in a vase how do you get it out without breaking the glass or harming the ostrich?
Any suggestions would help a lot.
Thank you
Namaste

You know, of all the annoying things on this planet, koans are one of the worst for me.

To me I think that the koan is not supposed to be "worked out". It is to distract the mind to calm the conscious.

Now to answer the question/koan, I think the answer would be, "you just carry the vase utside" that's how you would get it out without it breaking.

Teach the ostrige to be enlightened so he can rise up and see the four corners.
Namaste

Or grease the inside of the neck of the vase and turn a pride of hungry lions loose in it. The ostrich will find his way out quickly enough if properly motivated and given a little help.

No, I'm serious.

My point is that only in your imagination could an ostrich get stuck in a small-necked vase, so you are free to imagine lions or whatever you like. The imagination is the tip of the iceberg of creativity, which floats in the limitless ocean of the collective unconscious.

Blessings!

Put a lid on it

A blooming lotus flower.

Teach the ostrich that he is home and he will no longer be "stuck."

There is no ostrich. There is no glass.

Take a step back and you'll see the ostrich was never in the vase

Rofl I don't see what's so problematic about this, but I think it's obvious that you should just turn the vase upside down :S

, as above so below'' :P

Re-visiting here after two years (I just got an email there was a new answer), it's obvious most here do not know what a koan is. It is decidedly NOT a riddle, and even less is it some sort of logical conundrum that one "figures out".

For those interested, start with Google. Better you find out for yourself and not someone else's definition.