Oct
18th
2014
TD writes a Koan · 1:47pm Oct 18th, 2014
One semi-tradition in the Writeoff Association is to do silly little "story remixes", where someone combines the title of two stories in the contest and posits some silly story which is a combination of the two stories whose titles were combined.
As a result of this, I ended up writing a koan, which is a traditional story which is meant to have the student discard their illusions about reality as a result of hearing the tale, and thereby coming closer to enlightenment. It also happens to be a drabble, which is a story which is exactly 100 words long, though, alas, FIMFiction disagrees and claims it is 112.
I have added the story to my short story collection; it is called The Wrong Answer. I hope you enjoy it.
best koan:
Once Ma-tsu and Pai-chang were walking along and they saw some wild ducks fly by.
“What is that?” the Master asked.
“Wild ducks,” Pai-chang replied.
“Where have they gone?”
“They’ve flown away,” Pai-chang said.
The Master then twisted Pai-chang’s nose, and when Pai-chang cried out in pain, Ma-tsu said, “When have they ever flown away?”
Zen masters were ass holes. The number of stories about them slapping their students or hitting them with canes is incredible.