Short Story: The sarcastic Zen master became, only witty
By emptychair
@innertalks (23742)
Australia
March 28, 2022 12:49am CST
The Zen master, Thertu Zerploski, was prone to making slips of the tongue, and often these would come out as cutting remarks, containing some wit, but often sarcasm was attached to them too.
The head monk, of his monastery, told him that these slips showed him that he was not yet in control of his subconscious thoughts, that were still ruling him in this way, and discolouring his heart for him too.
He had to rid himself of this slight imperfection of character, if he was ever to progress up in the ranks of Zen masters, in this monastery.
This is subconscious negativity, and it must be replaced with the positivity of loving awareness.
This Zen master was clever in his way, and he would always respond with a rejoinder, such as this:
"Find your Zen, before I loose mine onto you."
or this:
"Let me add salt to your humour, as it has no flavour of its own."
The attraction to his making witty sarcastic remarks was hard to break, but this Zen master was able to achieve this, over the next few months, after his head monk had had that chat to him.
His humour then became more sparkling, without the sharp barbs attached to it. It built people up, and didn't cut them down.
The head monk, pleased with his progress, then gave him this kona to solve:
"If a man falls over in the woods, do the trees make any sound?"
This was, of course, a variation on the usual question, which is this one:
"If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it falling, does it make a sound?"
The Zen master contemplated the question, and this was the answer that he gave to his head monk, a week later.
"No, they are not falling for the man's fall too."
"When trees fall, they fall without a sound, unless a man is around to hear them."
"Ah, splendid!"
the Head monk said, and then he added:
"A sound is not a sound until it is heard, and yet what is heard is sometimes not a sound."
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
A fallen tree is not necessarily a fallen tree, unless we agree that it is so, or is it?
5 people like this
5 responses
@ihasaquestion (8273)
•
28 Mar 22
A happy sarcasm without hurting anyone's feelings is the best form of wit.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
28 Mar 22
Yes, l like it too, if it hurts no one, as it is rather clever.
If we use wit sarcastically using somebody's name, though, it usually upsets that person.
At work once, there was a electricity, or power, outage, and the boss's name was Mr. Power.
I said to him,
"Your name is power, why don't you do something about it?"
He got very upset with me.
@ihasaquestion (8273)
•
28 Mar 22
@innertalks Ahhh.. So you have to be more wittier than that then.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
28 Mar 22
@ihasaquestion l got into real trouble in a job too, once, where they gave a role, called the work in progress (known as WIP, for short) manager, to a lady, who to everybody there was always a bit of a dragon, and a feminist too.
I wrote her appointment up in the Company newsletter.
I said that,
"I couldn't think of a better person to be holding the wip."
She forced me to make an apology, or she would report me to the equal rights commission.
I apologised, but l, and all the others, did think that it was very funny, my comment about her.
@NatsuYeung (264)
•
28 Mar 22
Nice story,
reminds me of a saying though: "Sarcasm is the highest form of wit!"
2 people like this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
28 Mar 22
Thanks.
It is usually a rather clever form of wit, with its double meanings too.
It is also funny that another great man said this about sarcasm.
"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence."
Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet, (1854 to 1900)
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
28 Mar 22
@NatsuYeung Yes, you are right there, but sometimes there can be truth in opposite sounding quotes too.
I like to reverse quotes, and see if they still have meaning too.
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
28 Mar 22
Well, a sound can be felt at times too, and they say that an instrument can be used to record sound too.
But, I agree with you, to us, a sound is only a sound because we hear it.
Otherwise, it is just some other phenomenon, that we would not call sound, because we do not hear it.
What about a deaf man, though?
He hears no sound, but we would have to say that there is sound all around him, he just does not know that, unless he can conclude from observation, that that is happening.
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
28 Mar 22
Yes, I like to try to come up with those double-sided lines, of which Taoism is full of too.
"Colours blind the eye
Sounds deafen the ear.
Flavours numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires wither the heart."
Tao Te Ching
@Shiva49 (28387)
• Singapore
28 Mar 22
Sarcasm can enliven a conversation though it can be easily misunderstood.
Riddles do that job better and make people think too and make way for a repartee even.
I have found sarcasm has become politically incorrect nowadays with people taking offense. Better to play it safe and say it with riddles.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
28 Mar 22
Yes, especially so, are any sarcastic remarks, or even just passing comments, about coloured people.
My brother has gotten into trouble at work, for some of his remarks, only innocently made.
He said to one man who works with him, that he looks like that he might be an Aboriginal.
The man said,
"How do you surmise that?"
My brother said,
"Because of your colour."
"Oh," the man said, "So you are a racist, and have something against Aboriginals", and my brother got reported for making discriminatory remarks.
Even me, if I quote something from Taoism, such as this line:
"Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles, and the water is clear?"
can be taken the wrong way, as it might imply to a black person, that they are full of more mud, than what I am.
Taoism has much wisdom in it, but much of it is sarcasm, and witty double meaning stuff too.
@innertalks (23742)
• Australia
29 Mar 22
@Shiva49 Yes, most of the boomerangs sold in the tourist shops here in Australia, are now made in Bali, or overseas somewhere, rather than by genuine aboriginals.
We used to exchange many an Irish joke when I was at school, but these days, we need to be a lot more circumspect.
Some of the jokes have been changed to be more non-descript though, like this old one:
"How many Zen masters does it take to change a light bulb?"
"None, they carry their own light bulb within, and they never need to change it. It never goes out."
@Shiva49 (28387)
• Singapore
29 Mar 22
@innertalks I recall we used to make jokes about our beliefs when we were younger and then end up with a good laugh. It is mostly highlighting some practices that looked funny in the eyes of others.
Now I find people are very thin-skinned taking offense and making sure they are amid people of the same belief or color before indulging in innocent banter. We are definitely poorer by such self- censorship.
I recall walking into an Aborigine art shop in Australia and thought the person there looked caucasian.
1 person likes this
