Koans

The Jedi Desolous showed his wisdom even as an apprentice. Once he broke
the precious heirloom teacup of his teacher, and was greatly
upset. While he was wondering what to do, he heard Akkarin
coming. Quickly he hid the pieces of the cup under his iPad.

"Akkarin," he said, "why do things die?"

"It is perfectly natural for things to die and for the matter
gathered in them to separate and disintegrate," said Akkarin.
"When its time has come every person and every thing must go.

"Akkarin," said Desolous, showing the pieces, "it was time for
your cup to go."

(How's that for a 'modern' version ?)

Inch Time Foot Gem

A lord asked Takuan, a Zen teacher, to suggest how he might pass the time. He felt his days very long attending his office and sitting stiffly to receive the homage of others.

Takuan wrote eight Chinese characters and gave them to the man:

Not twice this day
Inch time foot gem.
This day will not come again.
Each minute is worth a priceless gem.

Jestor and Desolous were talking in the TOTJO library....

And discussing the relavance of the older bits of wisdom...

As they were walking past Ren the prankster, Ren tripped Desolous, causing him to fall and shatter his wristwatch...

"Now," said Senior Knight Akkarin, "You and the old words, are equal"...

THE MASTER Jestor drew the words "The First Principle" which are
carved over the gate of the Temple of the Jedi Order. He drew them
with his brush on a sheet of paper later they were carved in wood.

Viskhard had mixed the ink for him, and stood by,
watching the master's calligraphy. Viskhard said, "Not so good!"
Jestor tried again. Viskhard said: "That's worse than the first
one!" and Jestor tried again.

After the sixty-fourth try, the ink was running low, and Viskhard
went out to mix some more. Left alone, undistracted by any
critical eye watching him, Jestor made one more quick drawing with
the last of the ink. When Viskhard returned, he took a good look
at this latest effort.

"A masterpiece!" he said.


(modernised again, but in reflecting on it, a bit of personalisation may do us some good ... What does anyone else feel about that ?)

Well...I don't know a whole lot about Koans, (thought they were something you ate for breakfast, hmmm), but I love the characters being replaced by members of the TOTJO, they make me laugh, and we need all the laughter we can get (at least I do)...

The principle of koans is quite simple, Zenchi. They are phrases or short situational stories that cannot be comprehended by Reason. In order to experience the wisdom in a koan, one must - as Watts points out "go out of one's mind".

We, even through our teachings and meditations, live in a world dominated by unbalanced Reason ; not that Reason in and of itself is harmful, but it has limits, and thus Reason alone blinds us to Reality. And laughter is part of it : paradox, irony ... and certainly to laugh at ourselves. Yet, (probably) we tend to read them with our Western educated minds.

What began as sort of a joke in response to Desolous, I feel may be good for us. It makes the stories about 'us' rather than to just be understood as old oriental wisdom from ages past ... So, therein lies the question : How do the rest of you feel about these 'modernisations', to make them a bit more personal to us ? Could this help us access the wisdom in them more easily ? How do you feel about that ?

I think it's great Alexandre.

And I'd like to see more of it! :woohoo:

Wescli was asked,
"When a man comes to you with nothing,
what would you say to him ?"
Wescli replied, "Throw it away!"

One afternoon, Wescli was visiting V-tog. “Where is your wooden staff, the one I carved for you?” asked Wescli. V-tog said, “It broke when I hit a student over the head with it.”

Wescli then said, “And where is that candleholder I brought you from Texas ?” V-tog responded, “It broke when I threw it at a lazy student.” Wescli shook his head and said, “There seems to be a problem here with your anger”.

V-tog said, “No, the problem is you keep giving me things that break.”

Now I'm interested in this thread. I've already seen most of the koans presented in here, but the ones that Alex is "modernizing" are kinda new to me...and I enjoy the personalization aspect as much, I think, as everyone else.