We Don’t Know: A Koan
“We Don’t Know”. Intriguing name for a restaurant. “What don’t you know?” I asked the waiter.
He smiled in what I think was supposed to be an enigmatic manner. “We don’t know anything, Sir.”
“Ok,” I said. I was starving. “Can I get the menu please?”
He gave me a large leather bound menu. Except there was no menu. Just a piece of paper with numbers from 1 to 10, arranged vertically.
“Excuse me, what are these numbers? Can you get me the regular menu?”
“This is the regular menu, Sir.”
“How do I order the food? What do these numbers mean?”
“This is how it works, Sir. You pick a number, I enter it into the system and the computer tells me what to get you.”
“So you don’t know what I am going to get until you put the number into the system?”
“Right, it’s completely random.”
“Huh.” I looked at the menu again. $20 each, 10 numbers. What was I going to get? I looked to my left - a man enjoying a platter of sushi.
On my right, a couple sharing what looked like chargrilled prawns on a bed of rice. This could be interesting, the surprise element. Not exactly my thing, but I could do it.
“Get me a…hmmm…let me see…Get me a 4.” Ten minutes later, he brought me my order.
“Are you serious?”
“Sorry sir, that’s what you got for 4. You want to try again?”
I stared at the diet coke. “What the hell. Get me a number 2 and a number 6.”
August 4th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I could interpret this metaphorically and say choice is a a relative concept in any case and karma and dharma are tenets to live by .Maybe you ,re being brahminical and accepting food given to and not chosen by you or
I could just be honest and say-Shit Shyam!You paid 20 dollars for a coke and you write a blog piece about that!!!
August 4th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
my life needs moderation never mind my comments.couls i have that service as well please:)