As the extreme damage is repaired from the most recent storm that hit where I live, I’ve been listening to the pronouncements about return of electricity and such from PECO, my local electric company. It has been a mastery of nice sounding words devoid of information about what people asked: when will my power be restored?
It got me thinking about the years I spent working quite a bit in Japan. I was intrigued by how non-Japanese so often misunderstood what was being said and what was going on. The language was English, generally quite good English, but the way the words were used by the Japanese was so culturally based that they were often devoid of meaning to Americans. Worse, the Americans gave meaning based on their cultural background and thus often greatly misinterpreted. My Japanese partner and I used to talk about this, he laughing at the silly Americans, me being embarrassed for the oblivious Americans.
Then, one day he shared an old Japanese story.
There was a town drunk who claimed to be enlightened. A group of people at the bar decided to find out how enlightened he really was by inviting a famous Zen monk to test him. The monk comes to the bar and initiates a conversation with the drunk with a large gesture of both arms. No words are spoken. The drunk, using two fingers, responds with a tiny gesture. They continue in this way, a silent conversation of gestures.
After a time the drunk retires to attend to a pressing need. As soon as he’s gone, the group asks the monk if the drunk passed the test. To their amazement, the monk proclaims the drunk to be enlightened indeed. The monk starts by explaining how he began with a gesture meaning all the world is one. The drunk perfectly responded with a gesture meaning everything is contained in a microcosm of the smallest object.
The Zen monk goes on to explain each of his gestures and the drunk’s responses in terms of his theology, then leaves shaking his head in amazement.
The drunk staggers back into the bar. The group asks what he thought of the monk and he responds how great a guy the monk is. Explaining further, the drunk shares how the monk started the conversation with a gesture meaning that sake comes in very large barrels…to which he pointed out that we drink it in tiny cups.