• dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
    67·
    5 days ago

    In the Second Scroll of Wen the Eternally Surprised, a story is written concerning one day when the apprentice Clodpool, in a rebellious mood, approached Wen and spake thusly:

    “Master, what is the difference between a humanistic, monastic system of belief in which wisdom in sought by means of an apparently nonsensical system of questions and answers, and a lot of mystic gibberish made up on the spur of the moment?”

    Wen considered this for some time, and at last said: “A fish!”

    And Clodpool went away, satisfied.

    • Godric@lemmy.worldOP
      471·
      5 days ago

      I love how, even never having read this before, I know it’s Terry Pratchett

      • RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
        351·
        5 days ago

        Here’s a legit Zen koan that fits the bill:

        Mumonkan number 14: Nansen kills the cat

        Once the monks of the Western and Eastern Halls were arguing about a cat. Nansen, holding up the cat, said, “You monks! If you can say a word of Zen, I will spare the cat. Otherwise I will kill it.” No one could answer, so Nansen cut the cat in two. That evening, when Joshu returned, Nansen told him of the incident. Joshu thereupon took off his sandal, put it on his head, and walked off. Nansen said, “If you had been there, the cat would have been saved!”

  • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
    4·
    3 days ago

    I was gifted a book called “Pointing at the Moon” that was filled with these things. Stuff like "A student was asked by a master, “what was you’re face before you were born? The student walked to a river, saw his face reflected in the water, and was enlightened.” Like wtf is that supposed to mean? Lol.

    I didn’t even understand the title of the book until I saw this meme.

  • MutantTailThing@lemmy.world
    16·
    5 days ago

    Buddha did say you could put whatever you want on your pizza, even if he himself didn’t like it, which is pretty fucking based as far as religions go.

  • Bluewing@lemmy.world
    41·
    4 days ago

    I just have 2 verses in my personal book of Philosophy and Words to Live By.

    Verse 1: If you think you understand what’s going on, you haven’t been paying attention.

    Verse 2: There is no situation that is so bad that it can’t get worse. And it’s about to get worse.

      • Bluewing@lemmy.world
        4·
        3 days ago

        My verse 2 stems from when I was a medic back in the day, and we got paged for a “don’t feel so good” call. We got there and the patient was visually not in the best shape. I decided we were upgrading the call to a “swoop and scoop” to hit the road to the hospital with little delay.

        We were lifting that patient out of her recliner and turning her enough to sit her down on the cot when she literally died right then and there. Which of course got the patient another upgrade from the “swoop and scoop” to “Oh shit! Oh shit! We gotta go! We gotta go now!” which also adds the “Inject ALL the diesel!” upgrade for the driver.

        A quick check found no pulse or respirations. So I started CPR and my partner grabbed the 12 lead to get the big pads if we needed to shock and placed the pads. I did 2 rounds of CPR and we hit the analyze button. Which said no shock. And a quick check of the patient’s vitals showed everything was working again. If in a bit of a sketchy fashion.

        We got loaded and roared off in a cloud of diesel smoke and made the 20 mile trip to the hospital with little delay and no worsening of the patient’s condition. After radioing in to the hospital with a patient report, the patient was met with all hands on deck at the door when we arrived.

        I heard the patient died about 2 months later in a nursing home. One of the perks of working rural EMS where you work on family and friends.

        And thus, rule #2 was born.