The Zen teacher’s dog loved his evening romp with his master. The dog would bound ahead to fetch a stick, then run back, wag his tail, and wait for the next game. On this particular evening, the teacher invited one of his brightest students to join him – a boy so intelligent that he became troubled by the contradictions in Buddhist doctrine.
“You must understand,” said the teacher, “that words are only guideposts. Never let the words or symbols get in the way of truth. Here, I’ll show you.”
With that the teacher called his happy dog.
“Fetch me the moon,” he said to his dog and pointed to the full moon.
“Where is my dog looking?” asked the teacher of the bright pupil.
“He’s looking at your finger.”
“Exactly. Don’t be like my dog. Don’t confuse the pointing finger with the thing that is being pointed at. All our Buddhist words are only guideposts. Every man fights his way through other men’s words to find his own truth.”
One day a blind man was sitting on the steps of a building with a hat near his feet and a sign that read, ‘I am blind, please help.’
One man was walking by and stopped. He saw a disabled man who had only a few coins in his hat. He tossed him a few coins and wrote new words on the sign without his permission. He left it with the blind man and walked away.
Towards the end of the day he returned and saw that the hat was full of coins. The blind man recognised him by his footsteps and asked if he was the man who had rewritten the tablet. The blind man also wanted to know what exactly he had written. The man replied:
- Nothing that is not true. I just wrote it a little differently.
He smiled and walked away.
The new inscription on the sign was, ‘It's spring, but I can't see it’
Napoleon fled Elba and landed on the coast of France. One newspaper in the capital squealed:
- The Corsican monster has landed in the bay of Juan!
Napoleon, gathering his supporters, took the first town.
- The ogre is coming to Grasse! - warned the newspaper.
Napoleon continued to advance. The newspaper announced:
- The usurper has entered Grenoble!
Napoleon was approaching Paris, and thus the newspaper's editorial office:
- Bonaparte had occupied Lyon.....
Napoleon moved even closer to the newspaper:
- Napoleon was approaching Fontainebleau!
And finally, when the capital was within easy reach, the newspaper announced to its readers:
- His Imperial Majesty is expected today in his loyal Paris!
