As random as it comes

I was happily dipping into "Galileo's Error" by Philip Goff when along came Jennifer who told me that it was not up to much ( ), and so I swiched instantly to another tome, this time on Yogacara, which I must say opened more brightly with an ancient Chinese poem by Tao Yuanming, “Drinking Wine”. That's the thing about books on "Conciousness", you never know quite what's coming next.

Maybe I have erred in giving the title of my new book. Will Jennifer look up a few Amazon reviews and thus destroy its credibility? Anyway, Drinking Wine was a good start, and believe me, it just gets better.

Well, maybe I have far too much time on my hands. I'm back in Costa's with a Cheddar and Tomato Toastie and a Cappuccino, before doing a stint at Oxfam. All this made me think of a Chuang Tzu story, "Three in the Morning" which involves monkeys. I'm not really sure if the story HAS got anything to do with the rather ridiculous preamble given above, but what makes me actually think of something seems to have no clear definition.

Here is "Three in the Morning" by Chuang Tzu:-


A monkey trainer went to his monkeys and told them: “As regards your chestnuts: you are going to have three measures in the morning and four in the afternoon.” At this they all became angry. So he said: “All right, in that case I will give you four in the morning and three in the afternoon.” This time they were satisfied.



The translation is by Thomas Merton, who mentions this particular story in his "Study of Chuang Tzu"


Here is what Merton has to say:-

One of the most famous of all Chuang Tzu’s “principles” is that called “three in the morning,” from the story of the monkeys whose keeper planned to give them three measures of chestnuts in the morning and four in the evening but, when they complained, changed his plan and gave them four in the morning and three in the evening. What does this story mean? Simply that the monkeys were foolish and that the keeper cynically outsmarted them? Quite the contrary. The point is rather that the keeper had enough sense to recognize that the monkeys had irrational reasons of their own for wanting four measures of chestnuts in the morning, and did not stubbornly insist on his original arrangement. He was not totally indifferent, and yet he saw that an accidental difference did not affect the substance of his arrangement. Nor did he waste time demanding that the monkeys try to be “more reasonable” about it when monkeys are not expected to be reasonable in the first place. It is when we insist most firmly on everyone else being “reasonable” that we become, ourselves, unreasonable. Chuang Tzu, firmly centered on Tao, could see these things in perspective. His teaching follows the principle of “three in the morning,” and it is at home on two levels: that of the divine and invisible Tao that has no name, and that of ordinary, simple, everyday existence.

Well, that's it. Make of it what you will.

I genuinely look forward to Darkman's unique take on the irrational monkeys.

Three in the morning ...

Choose your battles

Yes. A good take. Something to ponder upon.....

i take the challenge:

curious george vs a barrel of monkeys

One of the most famous of all Chuang Tzu’s “principles” is that called “three in the morning,” from the story of the monkeys whose keeper planned to give them three measures of chestnuts in the morning and four in the evening but, when they complained, changed his plan and gave them four in the morning and three in the evening. What does this story mean? Simply that the monkeys were foolish and that the keeper cynically outsmarted them? Quite the contrary. The point is rather that the keeper had enough sense to recognize that the monkeys had irrational reasons of their own for wanting four measures of chestnuts in the morning, and did not stubbornly insist on his original arrangement. He was not totally indifferent, and yet he saw that an accidental difference did not affect the substance of his arrangement. Nor did he waste time demanding that the monkeys try to be “more reasonable” about it when monkeys are not expected to be reasonable in the first place. It is when we insist most firmly on everyone else being “reasonable” that we become, ourselves, unreasonable. Chuang Tzu, firmly centered on Tao, could see these things in perspective. His teaching follows the principle of “three in the morning,” and it is at home on two levels: that of the divine and invisible Tao that has no name, and that of ordinary, simple, everyday existence.


this story about forest ranger rick and his long time friendship with yogi bear and boo boo.

Ah! I did wonder where Chuang Tzu got the idea from.