If you lead your life as if you could die at any moment, you are on the path to freedom.

If you lead your life as if you are already dead, you have found freedom.

"Points to any readers who can use the Comments section to explain some of the layers of meaning in this story"

Sorry, Joe. The only one that I can come up with draws nothing from philosophy and everything from D&D.

Moe,

Now I'm really curious.

To be run through, the General would need a sword plus-3 or better to hit, and the Zen Master would still need some sort of -5 on his Saving Throw against Wisdom to be unaware that the blow was coming, whereas the General would need some deus ex machina working on him to keep HIM from being non-plussed at the Master's pronouncement, and keep him from going into a dys-phasic state.

Rudimentary D&D, Dewd...

Hey, Charlie...

"I'm spending the year DEAD, for tax purposes..."

This what you mean?

Kind of a digression, but if we are talking feudal japanese
history quite possibly the general would have been a Buddhist
monk also. There was a span of centuries where training as
a monk was the usual prerequisite to power.

There are a number of different sects of buddhism, Zen is
one of them, and they, I'm pretty certain, are one of the
sects that contested for power, and if not, trained those
that did.

Not bad, sharpshooter... I was thinking more along the lines that a master monk with a high enough CON to make his/her System shock roll and levels to be running a monastery would be able to get away with grabbing the sword hilt, pushing said general away (the general's off balance and not expecting the attack), using the momentum to perform a simultaneous 'unsheathing' and called shot to the neck* and hope that he/she could get to a brazier before the GM remembered the bleeding rules. His/her acolytes can handle the general's guards.

But that's obviously the wrong answer.

(pause)

Hey, Joe did ask.

Moe

*Presuming that familiarity with common melee weapons was one of the master's permitted weapon proficencies; if not, he/she'd substitute unarmed strike to neck (with aforementioned advantage of surprise) and hope that the GM will forget that he/she had a sword through the gut until after the healer's come and gone.

Principle and truth are of infinitely greater value than any individual's life. The death of any one man has absolutely no impact on the Universe. To offer one's life for principle is the highest expression of life itself.

To run through a man who can be so easily run through is no challenge. Therefore, the master was safe in that the general would never besmirch his honor with such an act. Something that the master had only to remind the general.

OTOH, I like Charlie's better.

The general is a fool: does he not realize he is incapable of running this man through without blinking an eye?

Moe - don't monks become immune to non-magical weapons at level 20? I assumed you meant that the General is using only an ordinary sword, and that the monk was therefore saying that he was ready to go apesh*t on him.

"Moe - don't monks become immune to non-magical weapons at level 20?"

Actually, I'm not entirely sure: my girlfriend/GM won't let me play one in the first place, let alone one that high-level. Something about how a certain 33 year old male already has enough trouble with acting more than 1/3 his age at the gaming table without adding kung-fu action. But you should always assume the magic items. I mean, the guy's a general, right? That's got to mean at least 11th level. Easy meat against a specialist class, especially since the monk's obviously got mad bonuses in the exact thing that the general's trying to bluster about*, but still pretty good...

(pause)

Joe, I'm really, really sorry about this. I'll shut up now.

Moe

*Waitasecond, in the right light that could be seen as a faintly relevant comment.

Moe:

The general failed his saving throw against getting mad and blustering; surely that counts as a blink.

Props to Mark, Charlie, and Crionna. Good stuff... and the zen philosophy of death would be worthwhile exploration for a future post. Maybe I'll run one of the haiku that Zen masters have composed just before expiring, it's something of a classic ritual and yields some excellent poetry.

Moe, consider it a lesson in excellent roleplaying. All the bonuses and magic weapons in the world will not avail you against an opponent who can defeat the mind that wields them. The monk was definitely "speaking the general's language," as it were, and because of that shared worldview he was able to win the confrontation decisively without ever lifting a blade.

Is that where the story ends?

How do we know that the General didn't run the monk through just to prove that while his statement could be true, it could also be fatal.

Marcel: Masters and Generals know Life is, not could be, fatal. The story ends short of that since that is where enlightenment, choice, and learning is possible.

I trust in the wisdom of the Master; afterall, he is a Zen Master.

I don't place the same faith in the General; afterall, he is a soldier.

I'd be interested to know what the source of that story is.

My sense is that it's not so much Zen humor per se as it is an instructive piece of Zen wisdom itself; much as koans are integral to the transmission of Zen. They are not merely diversions, but part of the liturgy and training.

I think Annonymous Coward #8 is on the right track in suggesting that enlightenment (or the potential for it) begins where the text ends. To wonder about what would happen next or how the story really ends is to have already missed the point. That's the maddening beauty of Zen...to me anyway. It manages the incredibly deft feat of defeating the world as defined by words with words themselves. The words of Zen koans and parables often seem confoundingly illogical; answers to questions appear as baffling non sequiturs, tying up the receiver in a mental knot. Ultimately, the knot can only be untied with intuition, or spirit or enlightenment; logic and words fail.

Thanks for sharing that. Wonderful!

pk, Annonymous Coward #8:

Unfortunately, no one really lives in the isolated sanctity of Zen Buddhism, except the priest practitioner. The General's reality is also ours as proven by the state of the world today. The pursuit of Zen-like wisdom is an academic one and beyond the comprehension or interest of 99.99% of the world's population.

I only wish that higher enlightenment could be the guiding light through our journey of life. For me and most everyone else, we will continue to depend on the reality of a good flashlight.

Marcel: "The death of any one man has absolutely no impact on the Universe."

What if everything had an impact on the Universe? Even the wilting of a leaf?

Maybe I'm missing something (one always does, one way or another) but the repetition of the "blinking eye" reference is the key here. The general wishes to intimidate by a threat for the future; the Zen master replies by refusing to be intimidated for the future. Therefore the force of the threat, which is the only coercion the general is shown as acting out, is blunted.

Another way round this: the general expects fear; the Zen master declares fearlessness. The first response--living as if on were already dead (and therefore fearless of death)--is I think the true meaning here.

The General is the Monk. "I'm looking at the man in the mirror; I'm asking him to change his ways." I think the General/Monk wrote this story then the General died. The Monk became the Master.