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My Godfather lived as a monk in a monastery in Switzerland for a number of years, and aside from chanting and prayer, the monks otherwise took a vow of silence.

My Godfather lived as a monk in a monastery in Switzerland for a number of years, and aside from chanting and prayer, the monks otherwise took a vow of silence. However, once a year the monks were allowed to utter a single word to the "head monk"...my Godfather chose the following year 1: "Bed", year 2: "is" and year 3: "Hard". At which the "head monk" replied "you complain to much". After time my Godfather did leave the monastery and one of his sons became a VP/General Counsel of Yahoo (retired).

dmd 13y ago
(You do know that that's an old, old joke, right, and that it didn't actually happen to him?)
- bch 13y ago
  Oh no. This reminds me of a girlfriend who thought her parents really did take their old dog to a farm...
- will_brown 13y ago
  To be clear he was a monk for a number of years in a Monastery in Switzerland, and he did tell the story (as I am sure many former monks tell the same when reflecting on their experience); however, many people in the thread are drawing similarities between themselves and the unknown scribes, thinking the scribe's work sounds similar to their own as a coder, or that the both put hidden messages in their work. Simply the biggest similarity is human nature, humor and complaining are good examples. In other words I did not see to many people making the point that they too know what it is like to be cold like some scribes mentioned. Although you make a great point it would be great if one of these margin notes had a second note underneath saying, "its really not that cold in here" or "given a few hundred years the paper softened up quite nicely" a la HN. Edit: Sorry it must not have come thru, I know this is not my Godfather's actual experience...what made it great is that it was told to me by a former monk in the first person
  - nether 13y ago
    Unless you were there with him, you have no way of confirming the veracity of the story. Even if he's your dad's good friend.
    - eruditely 13y ago
      Welcome to uncertainty.
    - will_brown 13y ago
      You make my point all that much more clear, that some HN'er would come along and write under a scribe's note challenging the "veracity" of the scribe's comment. The only way you could have made me laugh any more is if you tied in the word "pedantic".
    - crygin 13y ago
      Unless you were there with him and his dad's friend, you'd have no way of confirming that he wasn't lying. Or that he hadn't hallucinated. Or that you hadn't imagined or dreamed being there with him. Or that the universe wasn't created moments ago, and all of these memories are false.
tasuki 13y ago
Source: http://users.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/twowords.html http://users.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/twowords.html

dmd 13y ago

(You do know that that's an old, old joke, right, and that it didn't actually happen to him?)

bch 13y ago
Oh no. This reminds me of a girlfriend who thought her parents really did take their old dog to a farm...
will_brown 13y ago
To be clear he was a monk for a number of years in a Monastery in Switzerland, and he did tell the story (as I am sure many former monks tell the same when reflecting on their experience); however, many people in the thread are drawing similarities between themselves and the unknown scribes, thinking the scribe's work sounds similar to their own as a coder, or that the both put hidden messages in their work. Simply the biggest similarity is human nature, humor and complaining are good examples. In other words I did not see to many people making the point that they too know what it is like to be cold like some scribes mentioned. Although you make a great point it would be great if one of these margin notes had a second note underneath saying, "its really not that cold in here" or "given a few hundred years the paper softened up quite nicely" a la HN. Edit: Sorry it must not have come thru, I know this is not my Godfather's actual experience...what made it great is that it was told to me by a former monk in the first person
- nether 13y ago
  Unless you were there with him, you have no way of confirming the veracity of the story. Even if he's your dad's good friend.
  - eruditely 13y ago
    Welcome to uncertainty.
  - will_brown 13y ago
    You make my point all that much more clear, that some HN'er would come along and write under a scribe's note challenging the "veracity" of the scribe's comment. The only way you could have made me laugh any more is if you tied in the word "pedantic".
  - crygin 13y ago
    Unless you were there with him and his dad's friend, you'd have no way of confirming that he wasn't lying. Or that he hadn't hallucinated. Or that you hadn't imagined or dreamed being there with him. Or that the universe wasn't created moments ago, and all of these memories are false.

tasuki 13y ago

Source: http://users.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/twowords.html http://users.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/twowords.html