THREE BROTHERS
Three brothers approach a travelling Zen monk, requesting to bless them with happiness and prosperity. The monk shows them a tent, where he stayed the night, and says to the brothers, “There are two bags in the tent, a white bag and a black one, each filled with small stones. Choose among either of the bags and pick only one pebble from it. If you choose the white bag, then the size of the stone doesn’t matter. As long as you all have it, you will be happy and prosperous.”
“But,” continued the monk, “if you choose the black bag, then the size of the stone matters, the larger you have than the others, so will be your rewards.” The brothers thanked the monk, and went one by one to the tent to make their choices. After they left one of the disciple was curious as to the choice the brothers made. With the elder monk’s permission he went to check the bags in the tent. He came out disappointed.
“I am surprised by their behaviour. They all choose from the black bag. Why would they choose to admit inequality among themselves?” “They choose wisely” replied the Zen monk.
The disciple was even more troubled hearing this. The Zen monk answered, " The blessing they requested, happiness and prosperity, have no meaning in themselves and is only derived in comparison."
Disciple thought about it for a second and then replied smiling, "If every one is happy, then no one is happy. If every one has it, then no one has it." "Yes, the curse of the common denominator" smiled the Zen monk.
TOTALLY USELESS
A brother of the monastery was milking a cow and another was churning it to butter. “Wow!”, said the first one, “what an amazing thing a cow is, to turn grass into milk.” “Wow!,” said the other, “what an amazing thing milk is, we could get butter and cheese from it.” “Wow!,” said a third one, who overheard their conversation, “what an amazing thing humans are. We could milk a cow and figure out a way to get butter and cheese from it.” Soon this friendly banter turned into a raging debate, with more brothers joining
their preferred side and strengthening it with their own views and opinions on the subject. Finally, they decide to settle this by seeking the intervention of the chief of the monastery.
The Zen monk heard each side of the argument calmly and then said, “If you want me to arbitrate in this issue, then I need you to bring me an idea or concept or object, that is totally useless for anything or anybody.”
After some days of frantic deliberation amongst themselves, the brothers could not settle on any thing as being totally useless. Their quest led them into a new understanding and with this new found enlightenment , they approached the Zen monk, “We understood the wisdom in your words, as long as things are useful, they are all equal; milk is no better than dung, and so is language, wisdom or knowledge for that matter.” The Zen monk nodded in agreement.
“But, Sir”, continued one brother, “is there any such thing, as you said?” “Yes, there is.”
The brothers were astounded, as to what could it be?