Slow play in a game of chess rots the axe handle; while your eyes revolve and you head is lost, the dipper handle is taken away. If, while being in a ghost cave, you can hold a deadly snake still, do you still have the capacity to transform a leopard?
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Slow play in a game of chess rots the axe handle;
Axe handles are made of wood. Taking your time strategizing about what answers to give when people ask you whether you want to stop or go, eat out or stay in, might win you a game it misses conversation. There's also the injunction of to not 'speak randomly'. Foyan says of this sort, "There is also a type who talks wildly and speaks at random, questioning this and that. Again, just step back and look; what is it that talks wildly and speaks randomly? Just turn your attention around and reflect."
How do you meet people without questioning this and that?
My friend asks me what I want to do about dinner, how my energy levels are feeling. I get mixed up at times as to what these questions refer to and I haven't understood how to proceed when such a question is asked. There is a concern in that if I hesitate for too long in answering a question like "Do you want a carrot?" or "Can you pass me the fork?" or "Would it be offensive to tell a stranger having a meltdown where to find the phone number?" the time where it was relevant has passed entirely but blurting out whatever isn't sincere.
while your eyes revolve and you head is lost, the dipper handle is taken away.
What is the significance of this?
If, while being in a ghost cave, you can hold a deadly snake still, do you still have the capacity to transform a leopard?
Hmm...I think that ghosts are the only one's in ghost caves and that ghosts are not-quite-dead; not-quite-alive so a snake deadly to a ghost would be even more strange, it might not even be what ordinary people call snakes. Is the question about transformation something we can never possibly understand?
There's a case from Yunmen which reads:
When a monk came for instruction, the Master lifted his robe and said, "If you can put it in words, you fall into the trap of my robe. If you cannot, then you're sitting in a demon's cave. What do you do?"
He answered on behalf of the monk, "I'm exhausted."
What does it mean to answer on anothers behalf?
How long do you wait before you answer a question someone else doesn't answer?
Isn't there the danger that they come looking to you for answers instead of going to figure it out on their own and then thinking of you as 'the guy I go to for the answers'?
Submitted August 08, 2022 at 12:58AM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/9x6I0z7
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