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Once upon a time the story
went like this: once upon a time in 6th century China a novice monk (it has
to be a novice monk otherwise the punchline doesn't work) was taking a walk
out in the foothills surrounding the monastery he had been slaving in order
to get enlightened. It was a beautiful day and the young monk's thoughts
were trapped deep
in what the Master had been talking about the whole morning. "There has
never been anything but the present," he had said. "The future is an
illusion and the past is only a dream. When you realise this no further
questions need to be asked or answered."
Unmindful as he was to his
surroundings, his amble apparently took him to the edge of a cliff over
which he conveniently fell. It was hundred foot drop to the ground but the
face of the cliff was luckily littered all over with hardy shrubs
which grew out in stocky and sturdy branches, one of which we are supposed
to believe broke his fall when he clamped down on it between his teeth. So
that was how he dangled then over the sheer precipice --- his jaw muscles
straining to keep him alive, his fingers inches away from the top so that he
couldn't even pull himself up to safety.
Now comes the really unbelievable part. It turns
out that the shrub that broke his fall was a sweet berry one and its fruit
were absolutely ripe and juicy for the picking. Of course he picked one,
then two and later three, four and five more. Wouldn't ? you ? What did he
have to lose ? It was only when he tried to put them in his mouth that a
truly existential problem surfaced. And to top it all, that was when another
wandering novice monk happened to peer over the cliff edge and ask: "How
sweet are the berries, brother ?"
The first monk's response is not on record
because he died a few seconds later. But the real story goes like this: Once
upon a time a novice monk fell off a cliff and grabbed a protruding branch
with his one hand (not teeth). Again, as he dangled there another novice
monk peered over the cliff edge and asked: "How sweet are the berries,
brother ?" In this story the first monk's response is known. "The berries are
very sweet you fool as I have been eating them all afternoon. However, why
don't you ask me what is the sound of one hand clapping instead ?" One novice
monk then got instantly enlightened. |
