Art of Debate

COGNITION

Battle of Wits
A Teaching Story
By
VIKRAM KARVE

Some students asked me the meaning of the term COGNITION.

As I was in no mood to pontificate, I told them this story:

Once upon a time only two monks were permitted to stay in a Zen Temple. 

If any other wandering monk wanted to stay in the temple he had to engage in a battle of wits and defeat a resident monk in debate.

If the new monk won the argument he took the place of the defeated resident monk who then had to leave the temple and move on. 

If the resident monk won he continued to stay in the temple and the wandering monk had to go away.

In a temple in the northern part of Japan two brother monks were dwelling together.

The elder monk was learned and wise, but the younger monk was stupid and had just one eye.

A wandering monk came and asked for lodging, properly challenging them to a debate about spirituality.

The wise elder monk was fatigued and tired that day from too much studying so he told the younger one-eyed stupid monk to take up the challenge.

“I am tired and want to sleep,” the elder learned monk told the stupid one-eyed younger monk, “I don't want to hear any noise so you go and request the dialogue in silence.” 

So the young monk and the stranger went to the shrine and sat down to debate in silence.

Shortly afterwards the traveller rose and went in to the elder monk, bowed his head in reverence, and said: “Your young companion is a brilliant scholar. He thoroughly defeated me.”

The wise elder monk was sure that the younger stupid one-eyed monk would be defeated in the battle of wits, so, on hearing that result was the opposite than he had expected, the astonished elder monk said to the visitor, “Please relate the silent dialogue to me.”

“Well,” explained the traveller, “first I held up one finger, representing Buddha, the enlightened one. 

So he held up two fingers, signifying Buddha and his Teaching. 

I held up three fingers, representing Buddha, his Teaching, and his Followers, living the harmonious life. 

In reply he shook his clenched fist in my face, indicating that all three come from one realization. 

Thus he won and so I have no right to remain here.”

With this, the traveller bowed in reverence once again and left the Zen temple.

Suddenly the stupid one-eyed younger monk came storming into the room and asked the wise elder monk, “Where is that fellow...?”

“I understand you won the debate,” the older learned monk said.

“Debate...? What debate...? There was no debate and I won nothing. I am going to beat him up and thrash the hell out of him,” the young monk shouted in anger.

“Beat him up...? Trash him...?” the perplexed elder monk exclaimed, “tell me what happened...relate the silent dialogue to me...”

This is how the stupid one-eyed younger brother described his version of the silent debate:

“The minute he saw me he held up one finger, insulting me by insinuating that I have only one eye. 

Since he was a stranger I thought I would be polite to him, so I held up two fingers, congratulating him that he has two eyes.

Then the impolite scoundrel held up three fingers, suggesting that between us we only have three eyes.

So I got mad and started to punch him, but the coward ran out and that ended the debate...”

Dear Reader, I am sure you are now enlightened about the concept of cognition. 

Otherwise, I’ll have to tell you another story...!

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2010

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. 

VIKRAM KARVE educated at IIT Delhi, ITBHU and The Lawrence School Lovedale, is an Electronics and Communications Engineer by profession, a Human Resource Manager and Trainer by occupation, a Teacher by vocation, a Creative Writer by inclination and a Foodie by passion. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories and creative non-fiction articles in magazines and journals for many years before the advent of blogging. His delicious foodie blogs have been compiled in a book "Appetite for a Stroll". Vikram lives in Pune with his family and pet Doberman girl Sherry, with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

Vikram Karve Creative Writing Blog - http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com  

Academic Journal Vikram Karve – http://karvediat.blogspot.com

Professional Profile of Vikram Karve - http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve 

Email: vikramkarve@sify.com

Time to Move On in Life

TIME TO MOVE ON

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Here is an apocryphal funny teaching story I heard somewhere.

Dear Reader, please read it slowly, then have a good laugh, carry the story with you and let it perambulate in your mind, and suddenly you will understand its true meaning and feel enlightened.

A distinguished man bought a lovely bungalow at a scenic place in a nearby hill-station.

From time to time he would take a break from his work and escape from the hectic life of the city and go to his bungalow in the hills to enjoy relaxed solitude.

He would always tell everyone that he was going away for a month but invariably he used to always return much earlier - sometimes within ten days and sometimes even earlier - within a week itself.

When asked the reason for his erratic behaviour, the distinguished man explained:

"I have kept a caretaker woman there to look after my house in the hills. She is very ugly, probably the ugliest and most repugnant woman in the world – she looks absolutely hideous and is so terribly revolting that just one look at her and you will feel like vomiting.

Whenever I go to live there, at first the ugly woman looks terribly repulsive and dreadfully ghastly.

But slowly, after three, four days, she doesn’t seem so horrible.

Then, as time passes, maybe after six, seven days, I start seeing some beauty in her.

The day I start seeing beauty in her is the day I flee from the hill-station and come back to the city – because that means enough is enough – I have lived away from the world too long - now even this utterly ugly and horrible woman has started looking beautiful – I may even fall in love with this horrendous woman – that is dangerous warning signal and I know that it is time to move on. So I pack up my bags and rush back to the city."

Please tell me, Dear Reader, what is the moral of this story?

VIKRAM KARVE

vikramkarve@sify.com

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

TIT FOR TAT



Art of Cooking



A Teaching Story



By



VIKRAM KARVE





On a freezing cold snowy winter day Mulla Nasrudin was having a chat with some of his friends in the local coffee house.



Mulla Nasrudin said that cold weather did not bother him, and in fact, he could stay, if necessary, all right without any heat.



“We’ll take you up on that, Mulla Nasrudin,” his friends said. “If you stand all night in the village square without warming yourself by any external means each of us will treat you to sumptuous meal. But if you fail to do so, you will treat all of us to dinner.”



“All right, it’s a bet,” Mulla Nasrudin said and that very night Mulla Nasrudin stood shivering all night in the village square till the morning despite the bitter cold.



In the morning he ran triumphantly to his friends and told them he had won the bet and that they should be ready to fulfil their promise of treating him to a sumptuous meal.



“As a matter of fact you lost the bet, Mulla Nasrudin,” said his friends.



“Lost the bet? How is that possible? I stood in the freezing cold all night,” Nasrudin asked perplexed.



“At about midnight, just before we went to sleep, we saw a candle burning in a window about three hundred yards away from where you were standing. That certainly means that you warmed yourself by it,” the friends said.



“That’s ridiculous, “Mulla Nasrudin argued. “How can a candle so far away behind a window warm a person standing outside in the freezing cold more than three hundred yards away?”



All his protestations were to no avail and it was decided that Mulla Nasrudin had lost the bet.



Mulla Nasrudin accepted gracefully the verdict and invited all of them to dinner that night at his home.



All his friends arrived on time, laughing and joking; they had built up a ravenous appetite in eager anticipation of the delicious meal Mulla Nasrudin was going to serve them.



But dinner was not ready.



Mulla Nasrudin told them that it would be ready in a short time and left the room to prepare the meal.



Hours passed and still no dinner was served. Neither did Nasrudin emerge even once from his kitchen.



Finally, getting impatient and very hungry his friends went into the kitchen to see if there was any food cooking at all.



They looked in disbelief at what they saw.



Mulla Nasrudin was standing by a huge cooking pot suspended from the ceiling and there was a small lighted candle under the large cooking pot.



“Be patient my friends,” Mulla Nasrudin assured his friends, “Dinner will be ready soon. You see it is cooking in front of you in this pot.”



“Are you out of your mind, Mulla Nasrudin?” they shouted in exasperation, “How could such a tiny flame boil such a large pot?”



“Your ignorance of such matters amuses me,” Mulla Nasrudin said nonchalantly, “If the flame of a candle behind a window three hundred yards away can warm a person, surely the same flame will boil this pot which is only three inches away.”



Dear Reader, any comments?



VIKRAM KARVE


http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com


vikramkarve@sify.com