I had a feeling this story would smoke you out of your manure field. Ha!
Consider if you were pinned beneath a tractor and suffering greatly. You probably would not be able to perceive, for example, the sweet smell of the air.
In Italy of all places, I was on a business trip at dinner and I failed to heed the warning to coat the bread with olive oil. I nearly choked to death when I laughed at a joke and a piece of bread go lodged in my throat. It was 45 seconds of hell until the guy next to me whacked my back enough times to disload the bread.
Never the forget the first breath after it dislodged. The breath tasted like a perfect sip of wine. That was my second Enlightenment!
We mistake the tool for the object of the tool. The tool of course can not 'know' it's object.
Also, the object has no knowledge of the programmer who created the object. It works both ways.
The Koan might as well be 'what color is 2 + 2 = 5?.'
Yes, and perhaps the skill of the Zen Master was that he chose the kind of manure pattie what would work for me. He succeeded in pushing me to meditate hard enough to break through the veil for a few seconds.
I like the raft story. It's a classic Buddhist story and it's powerful.
I think treating your "self" less seriously can be liberating. We are such stuff as dreams are made on...
Question for you. I think you mentioned Atlas Shrugged was one of your favorite books. But are there any shorter books you recommend reading?
I'm doing quite well, thanks...
This is important.
One of the fundamental principles in Buddhism is the doctrine of Anatta. It is a very simple doctrine. There is no such thing as self. Many religions and thought systems encourage people to humble them'selves', reduce focus on 'self', think of 'others'.
But they still all re-inforce the notion that there IS a self to reduce, humble, correct, take less seriously. Maybe the Buddha laughs because he understands the great universal joke: There is no self. No one to take seriously in the first place. The self is an object of thinking. It's as fake as a CNN news story. No Self. Nada. No self was born, no self will die. Nothing happens to self. "No eyes no ears no tongue no body no mind no suffering no origination no stopping no path no cognition no attainment and nothing to attain."
That's why the Buddha laughs. he REALizes that.
Ok onto Ayn Rand - anything shorter? Fountainhead is my favorite book. (Also happens to be Trump's). From Ayn, Anthem, Fountainhead and Atlas shrugged can be seen as I think as a development of a theme. Atlas Shrugged is a REAL slog at time, and I think while it's perfect for what it is, The Fountainhead is the jewel of the Three. It addresses the Individual as Hero. Atlas Shrugged does too ... but it's also packed with societal and government stuff, man acting in groups. It's also shorter and less of a slog than Atlas Shrugged, the stage is smaller, the plot is beautiful and smaller. Anthem is more of a sketch, and as I recall, doesn't really reflect a mature writer. It's more of a meditation on Self (not to be confused with 'no self!.'
Ayn is funny - Ann Barnhardt says "even though Ayn Rand was atheist, she was SO CLOSE to fully getting God." And ... she was ... I remember watching the video when Ann B said that and thinking 'Oh yeah, that's exactly right.'
So ... maybe check out the Fountainhead, which is my favorite. If not MAYBE Anthem, but I have a hard time recommending Anthem because ... it's just not fully formed. I THINK the Any saying "The most evil word in the English language is "WE"." comes from that. And she's right. If anything defines the left, it's identification with 'the group' and using the group as a means to bully others for people too weak to be bullies themselves.
Also Charles Murray 'What it Means to be a Libertarian' is I think one of the best conservative books ever written (it's rational small 'l' liberatarian -> not crazy Liberarian Party Libertarian.)
The most important thing is to understand Roarke's 'Self' in The Fountainhead, and then realize that 'Self' is not real, but it's a handy tool so long as we live in 'this world' or 'this fallen world' or 'The World' as Jesus called it. THAT self is the closest thing to 'no self' as any self.
It's an interesting juxtaposition ... as if often the case with the highest principles - they seem totally contradictory ... Ayn Rand's conception of self and Buddhist doctrine of No Self (exists.) If you can dance between the two AT WILL ... then surely you can not help but be a free man! Ayn's heroic man is a diamond made from manure. (No mud, no lotus)
As Ann Barnhardt said "Ayn was SOOOOOOOOOOOO close, SO close" to getting it.
Note also that Ayn Rand pointed out the most people think of 'Altrusim' as meaning Selfless, and Ayn agrees, but notes how disgusting that is.
It's because altruism's 'selfless' is not the same as Buddhism's 'no self'. One declares that one should reduce oneself to nothing and elevate all others above one self. (Of course, when they get in power, they are really saying 'elevate ME above yourself) ... so it's still playing in the realm of 'selves exist' and it's a hierarchy of selves when they speak of altruism.
"No Self" means ... it's a declaration of truth -> that all selves are illusions. (So another good Koan is "who experiences the self?" or "what am I."
If you can answer all these things, then you will laugh with the Buddha. Even if you are choking on food and suffering, you will note 'there is suffering, but no one is suffering."
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST. Note that the Buddha died ... choking on a piece of meat ... (some say food poisoning, but we will pick the former since it fits the conversation :-))
So if you can choke like the Buddha, then you can laugh like him too.
Don't mistake a feeling of freedom or transcendence as Enlightenment, unless you can repeat it at will. But it is a clue, and if you can understand the actual conditions (I don't mean sitting, or being away from a computer) as the conditions -> but the mental conditions -> what was there, what disappeared as a result of sitting ... ... ... then you can start to reproduce it.