Twenty old monks speaking





Monks seldom prattle              Somewhere in Cochonfucius' garden, twenty old monks took turns speaking.

The first monk said: Every day is a good day.

The second one: We shall have some tea.

The third one: My dear follower, Cochonfucius, I did not ask you as to whether you attained wisdom.


The fourth one: De profundis, ad te clamavi, hoc est porcus, latinam linguam non intellego.

The fifth one: May I do something useful?

The sixth one: Eternity must be very long.

The seventh one: It is the worst thing I heard.

The eighth one: This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

The ninth one: We can change our own minds instantly.

The tenth one: My dear brethren, look with all your eyes.

The eleventh one: We should discuss certain secrets with the bears.

The twelfth one: Yes, and try to seduce the populace.

The thirteenth one: I have been thinking of that for a long time.

The fourteenth one: I see a frog that flies, chased by three angels.

The fifteenth one: This ordinary mind isn't expressed by words.

The sixteenth one: If I cannot become like the drifter, maybe like Yake Lakang.

The seventeenth one: Long time ago, those two came to visit me.

The eighteenth one: At that time, did they know the meaning of the principle ?

The nineteenth one: Maybe just a bit.

The twentieth: Their journey is just beginning.

So they drank in silence, thinking of marvelous perambulations of yesterday and tomorrow.