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24284 |
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Date: February 27, 2017 at 17:13:09
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: An Ancient Parable of Heaven and Hell |
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There is an ancient Chinese parable about an old man who knew he would die soon. He wanted to know what Heaven and hell were like.
He visited a wise man in his village to ask, "Can you tell me what heaven and hell are like?" The wise man led him down a strange path, deep into the countryside. Finally they came upon a large house with many rooms and went inside. Inside they found lots of people and many enormous tables with an incredible array of food.
Then the old man noticed a strange thing: The people, all thin and hungry, were holding chopsticks 12 feet long. They tried to feed themselves, but of course could not get the food to their mouths with such long chopsticks.
The old man then said to the wise man, "Now I know what hell looks like, will you please show me what Heaven looks like?"
The wise man led him down the same path a little further until they came upon another large house similar to the first. They went inside and saw many people well-fed and happy. They too had chopsticks 12 feet long. This puzzled the old man and he asked, "I see all of these people have 12-foot-long chopsticks too, yet they are well fed and happy. Please explain this to me."
The wise man replied, "In Heaven, we feed each other"
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Responses:
[24287] [24288] [24286] [24285] |
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24287 |
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Date: February 28, 2017 at 13:40:58
From: Nevada, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Ancient Parables of Heaven and Hell |
URL: ...variations on food service in heaven and hell... |
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Chicago Tribune explored your parable in 2012... They
had a solution to my use your fingers approach:
"In the Chinese versions, however, the people are
eating with very long chopsticks that accomplished the
same purpose as the long spoons. My own personal view
is that my version with the locked elbows is the best
because ingenious hungry people could just throw away
their spoons or chopsticks and eat with their fingers
unless their arms were locked in an outstretched
position. That's what I would do!"
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Responses:
[24288] |
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24288 |
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Date: February 28, 2017 at 14:45:39
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Ancient Parables of Heaven and Hell |
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Yeah, Nevada, I've seen that...as well as some other remarks where I posted this on Nat'l...lol...
There's just this one inconvenient detail: The story isn't presented as Zen koan, or as a puzzle or mystery for which the point is to *speculate/extrapolate* upon variations and approaches to the predicament of having 12-foot-long chopsticks in your hands, that might be conceivable, realistic alternatives to the story's resolution, because in its own context there is no NEED for any of that...
The point of the story is to emphasize the crucial necessity of co-operative interdependence amongst human beings, for the most basic requirements of life on Earth to be met for everyone...end of.
Though I'm not surprised to see this happening. ;D
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24286 |
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Date: February 27, 2017 at 20:26:14
From: Terra11, [DNS_Address]
Subject: AWESOME---Re: An Ancient Parable of Heaven and Hell(NT) |
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24285 |
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Date: February 27, 2017 at 19:27:17
From: Raymond, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: An Ancient Parable of Heaven and Hell |
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