Whether English is native tongue has nothing to do with understanding the reply. What is needed is some level of deviousness. The sequence is this:
> It is very easy to pose as a zen master. There was another monk who > always raised one finger as the answer (one finger zen, but not that > practiced by shaolin monks). Three candidates for a public > examination went together and asked the master to predict how many of > then will get a pass. The master just raised one finger as usual. > And he did actually foretell the result. The reason will be leaved as > an exercise to readers. The question was, in what sense is raising one finger a correct foretelling of the result? The answer was, > number of candidate get pass, > 0 = not even one pass > 1 = one pass > 2 = one fail > 3 = all pass If you flex #3 slightly to say, 3 = not even one fail, then there is a "one" in each case, so raising one finger was a correct prediction. ----- Original Message ----- From: James C Field <[email protected]> Date: Friday, September 18, 2009 11:18 Subject: Re: [Jchat] finally, I've made tiny Smalltalk program for ChineseJ To: Chat forum <[email protected]> > bill lam wrote: > > On Thu, 17 Sep 2009, James C Field wrote: > > > >> bill lam wrote: > >> > >>> On Mon, 14 Sep 2009, emptist wrote: > >>> > >>> > >>>> A famous ancient master of Zen would always say the same > two words to every > >>>> visitors to him, 'drink tea', he would say. That > means much. One of them > >>>> may be 'taste it, the truth is within you'. > >>>> > >>>> > >>> It is very easy to pose as a zen master. There was > another monk who > >>> always raised one finger as the answer (one finger zen, but > not that > >>> practiced by shaolin monks). Three candidates for a public > >>> examination went together and asked the master to predict > how many of > >>> then will get a pass. The master just raised one > finger as usual. > >>> And he did actually foretell the result. The reason > will be leaved as > >>> an exercise to readers. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >> HUH? > >> > > > > number of candidate get pass, > > 0 = not even one pass > > 1 = one pass > > 2 = one fail > > 3 = all pass > > > > > Obviously English is not your first language. Sorry, I > UNDERSTAND > NOTHING OF YOUR REPLY. > > Best regards, > Jim. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
