The Master said: "Can you take Time as or for an example ?"

The ZEN-KOAN as Poem - The Same Question - Part Five

The Master said: "Can you take Time as or for an example ?"

Said Monk-Disciple 1: "I cannot take your question, Sir, for an example of high-mindedness, but only as an example among many others, even if I deserve a smack in my lowliness."

Said M-D 2: "Can an example of a cap keep the sun from staring into my eyes or the rain from splattering on my scalp ?"

Said M-D 3: "If, for example, your question is meant to extract from me an exemplary response, I am more or less conscious my response will not serve to exemplify the kind of response needed to clarify and expose the futility of posing such a question in the first place as Time is already on the wing, not as an example..."

Said M-D 4: "An example presupposes the existence of an original and unique irreproducible Form: Could there then be two dopplegänger forms for Time like two-timing timers ?"

Said M-D- 5: "What is the difference between 'Time-as' and 'Time-for' ? Might the former only be an act at foregrounding the tenor in the metaphor ?"

Said M-D 6: "Time-for-a-Tiger does not taste the same as Time-for-a-Lager: yet both inebriate, for example."

Said M-D 7: "You cannot say as an example: 'Time-as-a-Tiger' and 'Time-as-a-Lager' for you'll remain sober in either case. Peine perdue !"

Said M-D 8: "If I took time for 'Time for a Tiger' but also 'Time as a Lager', which beer will me or Time inebriate?

Said M-D 9: "Time as Time cannot mime Time; otherwise It'll undermine Itself as an example of a grievous crime."

Said M-D 10: "If Time is exemplary as is Eternity, Life is merely a sample."

Said M-D 11: "An example of the risks both 'Time-as' or 'Time-for' run as examples is the smack of the staff the disciple is about to receive on his temples !"

And the Master said: "Has Time any beginning or an end ?"

(c) T. Wignesan - Paris, September 29, 2022.