Hogen, a Chinese teacher, lived alone in a small temple in the country. One day three traveling monks appeared and asked if they might make a fire in his yard to warm themselves.
While they were building the fire, Hogen heard them arguing about subjectivity and objectivity. He joined them and said, "There is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?"
One of the monks replied, "From the Buddhist viewpoint, everything is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind."
"Your head must feel very heavy," observed Hogen, "if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind."
Upon hearing this rebuke, the second monk replied, "Then I would say the stone is outside my mind."
"There is no stone," observed Hogen.
The third monk, silent up to this point, said, "Using Blender I have created a sculpted replica of the stone which is indistinguishable from the original. This I have uploaded into Second Life. Everyone there believes it is a very good stone. The stone is inside my computer."
"Mu," replied Hogen.
No comments:
Post a Comment