I wanted to share a story I heard about a few years ago. I thought it was fun. I don’t remember if I ever told this story here before??

In times long ago, it was normal for a traveling monk, who sought lodging at a Zen monastery, to engage in dharma combat with the abbot or a disciple. If the monk won the debate, he could stay. If the monk loss, then he had to go elsewhere.

The Abbot asked his disciple to engage with a traveling monk, who challenged him to a silent debate. It so happened that this disciple had an unfortunate accident as a child and had only one eye.

The travelling monk returned to the abbot, saying, “Your man is too good for me. I must go journey on. I held up one finger to symbolize the Buddha. But he held up two fingers for the Buddha and the Dharma. So, I held up three fingers for the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. But, then he held up a clenched fist to indicate they were all one – so I ran to show I am no match for him.” After the monk who spoke these words, he left.

The disciple arrived and was very angry. “Where is that monk?” he demanded. “He insulted me by holding up one finger to indicate I had only one eye. Determined to be polite, I held up two fingers to indicate that, he was blessed with two eyes. But, he held up three fingers to indicate that all together there were only three eyes among us. So I wanted to hit him with my fist but he ran off.”