Yeah, it's for laughs with a funky "but..." The non-attachment of "Buddhist" becomes dogma/idolatry itself, and he keeps to the premiss "I know, I am stupid and doomed..." but on rare occasions, something about lateral thinking perhaps to untangle seemingly impossible knots, in one swift clear nuanced stroke, especially against some greedy bandit posing as guru of non-attachment. :-)
And the moment you grab or try to frame this faculty -> whack on the head and you loose what you took, compensation. It asserts and mocks non-attachment + it's brutally funny, like forbidden delicious freedom of thought. Prose can still go, keep fingers crossed of course, where nobody in real worlds can, can be as harsh as the real, and nobody is harmed; all in good taste, if finely crafted. It qualifies perhaps as agnostic tale after all nonetheless, I speculate without over thinking it. This gets across the kind of thing I remember from the book Bruno mentioned recently mentioned, Watts' "Wisdom of Insecurity", with a laugh and some edge, which is a nice variation. As in Telmo's example, the question "why do we have to take the dark news of the world so heavily by default, and give it all that seriousness and worry?" is quietly implied, as I don't think it was Thompson's goal to encourage eardrum bursting. PGC On Sun, Apr 13, 2014 at 2:36 AM, Kim Jones <[email protected]> wrote: > Excellent! I would have delivered the arrogant bastard a knee to the groin > as well. That, however, would have been an irrelevant side issue, though > and not germane to the question, in the manner of Lateral Thinking. > > > Kim > > > On 12 Apr 2014, at 9:31 pm, Platonist Guitar Cowboy < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Thompson's take on a Buddhist he knew, which you'll take with a huge grain > of salt, as with everything he writes. Just a small theological anecdote, > if you will. :-) PGC: > > *"I knew a Buddhist once, and I've hated myself ever since. The whole > thing was a failure. He was a priest of some kind, and he was also > extremely rich. They called him a monk and he wore the saffron robes and I > hated him because of his arrogance. He thought he knew everything.* > > *One day I was trying to rent a large downtown property from him, and he > mocked me. 'You are dumb' he said. 'You are doomed if you stay in this > business. The stupid are gobbled up quickly.' 'I understand' I said. 'I am > stupid. I am doomed but I think I know something you don't.' He laughed. > 'Nonsense' he said. 'You are a fool. You know nothing.' I nodded > respectfully and leaned closer to him, as if to whisper a secret. 'I know > the answer to the greatest riddle of all,' I said. He chuckled. 'And what > is that?' he said. 'And you'd better be right, or I'll kill you.'* > > *'I know the sound of one hand clapping,' I said. 'I have finally > discovered the answer.' Several other Buddhists in the room laughed out > loud, at this point. I know they wanted to humiliate me, and now they had > me trapped - because there is no answer to that question. These saffron > bastards have been teasing us with it forever. They are amused at our > failure to grasp it.* > > *Ho ho, I went into a drastic crouch and hung my left hand low, behind my > knee. 'Lean closer,' I said to him. 'I want to answer your high and > unanswerable question.' As he leaned his bright bald head a little closer > into my orbit, I suddenly leaped up and bashed him flat on the ear with the > palm of my left hand. It was slightly cupped, so as to deliver maximum > energy on impact. An isolated package of air is suddenly driven through the > Eustachian tube and into the middle brain at quantum speed, causing pain, > fear and extreme insult to the tissue.* > > *The monk staggered sideways and screamed, grasping his head in agony. > Then he fell to the floor and cursed me. 'You swine!' he croaked. 'Why did > you hit me and burst my eardrum?' 'Because that,' I said, 'is the sound of > one hand clapping. That is the answer to your question. I have the answer > now, and you are deaf.' 'Indeed' he said. 'I am deaf, but I am smarter. I > am wise in a different way.' He grinned vacantly and reached out to shake > my hand. 'You are welcome,' I said. 'I am after all a doctor.' 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