3 ms·
There was once a wise and venerated fish who preached about water. Water, he would say, surrounds and supports us. We are all in and of the water, and where the
by rsaarelm 15y ago
There was once a wise and venerated fish who preached about water. Water, he would say, surrounds and supports us. We are all in and of the water, and where there is nothing else there is water.
Fish came from all over the ocean to hear him teach. 'I have nothing to teach,' he said, 'only enjoy the water,' but they came anyway, and some of them began to understand the water, and some of them came to understand it fully, and were called awakened.
One day a fish came and said 'Teach me of the water'. The teacher said 'I have nothing to teach. The water is all around us, above and below, and it fills the spaces where nothing else is.'
The fish frowned thoughtfully. 'You mean this stuff?' he asked, and flicked a fin so that a wave of water lightly struck the teacher's face.
'Yes,' said the teacher, bowing his head and smiling in acknowledgement 'that is the water; I see you have attainment.'
'Oh,' said the fish, surprised, 'that's it?'
'That's it.'
'Oh, okay,' said the fish, 'nice weather we're having, eh?'"
from http://www.davidchess.com/words/BrokenKoans.html http://www.davidchess.com/words/BrokenKoans.html
- JonnieCache 15y ago>from http://www.davidchess.com/words/BrokenKoans.html http://www.davidchess.com/words/BrokenKoans.html This has cheered me up immensely at the start of the week; I may not have to kill myself now, and may just affix some of these to my wall instead.
- mattdeboard 15y agoMaybe you're joking, maybe not. It's impossible for anyone to know on the Internet. Be that as it may, if you're really contemplating suicide, please talk to someone about your feelings -- or lack thereof -- before you do anything else. Even if it's just a stranger at a hotline.
- grannyg00se 15y agoI don't understand these. For example "Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger. Gutei heard about the boy's mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. " What is the purpose of this type of story? Is it supposed to be funny, shocking, insightful, or just a time killer? I find it to be mostly useless. I read a few of them and they seemed like boring short stories.
- noodle 15y agonormal zen koan: http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/zenindex.html http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/zenindex.html to understand the humor in some of these broken koans, you kind of have to understand the purpose/structure of the regular koans.