Tag: parable

“But you’re still carrying her” – Alan Watts

Monks River
Recently heard this great parable as told by Alan Watts:

—

It’s like the story of the two Zen monks who were crossing the river, and the ford was very deep because of the flood.

And there was a girl trying to get across, and one of the monks immediately picked her up, and carried her across.

Put her down on the other side, and then the monks went one way and she went another.

And the other monk, who had been in a kind of embarrassed silence and which he finally broke, he said, “You realize that you broke a monastic rule by touching and picking up a woman like that?”

And he replied, “Oh, but I left her on the other side of the river, and you’re still carrying her!”

—

Transcript: https://alanwatts.org/transcripts/the-veil-of-thoughts
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYXn8CClPmc

Which type are you?

Found this interesting short story (almost a parable but not quite) in Haruki Murakami’s new essay collection.

I remember reading a book when I was a boy about two men who travel to learn what there is to know about Mount Fuji. Neither of them has ever seen Fuji before. The smarter of the two men sizes up the mountain from several vantage points at the foot of its slopes. Then he says, “So this is the famous Fuji-san. Now I see what makes it so special,” and heads back home, satisfied. His way is efficient. And fast. The less intelligent man can’t figure it out like that, so he stays behind to climb the mountain all the way to its summit. This takes a lot of time and effort. By the end he has used up all his strength and is completely pooped. “So that’s Mount Fuji, huh?” he thinks. Finally, he has understood it, or perhaps grasped its essence at a less conscious level.

It got me thinking — in most areas of my life I’m definitely the first guy — whatever is easiest, fastest, most efficient, most superficial. But there are some crucial and specific areas where I’m closer to the second guy. Areas like writing, and perhaps crypto, and maybe podcasts. And I think that’s worth paying attention to.

Perhaps for some people, it’s the reverse. Where they are inclined to do-to-understand, instead of think-to-understand. Something like this.