A humorous note on translating classics . . .

May 14, 2000

A new monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to help the other

monks in copying the old texts by hand. He notices, however, that they are

copying copies, and not the original books. So, the new monk goes to the

head monk to ask him about this. He points out that if there was an error

in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of the other copies.

The head monk says, " We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but

you make a good point, my son. " So, the senior monk goes down into the

cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original. Hours

later, nobody has seen him. One of the monks goes downstairs to look for

him. He hears sobbing coming from the back of the cellar and finds the old

monk leaning over one of the original books crying. He asks what's

wrong. " The word is celebrate, " says the old monk.

--

Paul Bergner

Editor, Medical Herbalism

Clinical Program Director, Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies

May 14, 2000

Paul,

Point well made. It's slightly less humorous, however,

when we recast the dramatis personae of the joke

as a doctor striving to deal with a patient's " deficiency "

that is rather an " emptiness. " Regardless of whether

or not we adopt the term choice of the Practical Dictionary

and refer to this term as " vacuity " we are forced to

recognize that the Chinese term, " xu " no more means

" deficiency " than " celibate " means " celebrate. "

Bucky Fuller once pointed out, in Operating Manual

for Spaceship Earth, that our metaphysical wealth, i.e.

our knowledge, can really only increase and never decrease.

Even if we were to learn today that everything we held

to be true and valid up until today was false and invalid,

we would still know more today than yesterday, having

freed ourselves of our mistaken ideas and beliefs.

Therefore the only real challenge implied by your joke

is whether or not we have the committment and courage

to take that trip into the cellar, like your old monk, and

open our eyes to whatever we might find.

Ken

-

Paul Bergner <bergner

Sunday, May 14, 2000 11:52 AM