1. I confess I sometimes like to play around with koans like a naughty little
boy. Two of my favorites are Gutei's (?) One-finger Zen and the one about the
dried shit stick.
It seems to me like a lot (but of course not all) of the "puzzlement" with
koans comes from their being so bare bones and lacking in context and setting.
For instance,does anyone know which finger it was that old Gutei or Wutei or
whatever his name was would hold up in answer to the question? I just can't
stop HOPING that it was the middle finger and that Chinese culture has much the
same associations with it as most of us westerners do.
I laugh myself sick imaging him flippin the bird to that poor guy whose
finger he just whacked off or doing the same to some hot shot monk asking him
some convoluted intellectual question REEKING of Zen.
2. Apropos the dearth of context in koans relates to the one about the dried
shit stick. I can't place it anywhere but the Monastery toilets. Knowing how
hard it is for old people sometimes just to be REGULAR, here's some poor old
Zen master who finally gets away from all the business of running the place and
seems to at last be able to just take a nice long dump in peace when in walks
some hot shot know-it-all monk who just HAS TO importune the poor guy with some
ridiculously obvious question like "What is Buddha?"
Actually, I like to think how kind the old guy was for pointing out to
hot-shot the importance of caring and helpfulness by giving him the last dried
shit stick. Taking care of business is so much more important than deep
meaningtful intellectual discussions.
mike brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Middle finger
points to the moon,
This farty xmas nite.
Happy Xmas
Al <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: "Bill Smart" <What stinks? My finger!>
Fingered thoughts in mind
stinky odors permeate zen forum
sniff the cushion again
---------------------------------
Sent from Yahoo! - a smarter inbox.
test'; ">
---------------------------------
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
