I was watching a documentary ( I forget what it was about) and a student asked a master how he would know if he had achieved zen.

The old master asked if the student could hear the mountain stream in the distance.

The pupil said he did, and asked how that proved anything.

I totally thought that the big surprise twist was that there was no mountain stream and that the pupil was so ‘zen’ that he heard tranquil things like babbling brooks.

I was really disappointed when he said something like, “Wow, that’s pretty far away and you can hear it? Niiiiiiicceee…”

I like my version better.

John Vogel