Sunday, July 19, 2009

100% Correct and 100% Useless

If someone were to ask me, "Sir, what can I do to get 100 marks for maths?" and I replied, "Answer all questions correctly", I would be cursed for giving a useless answer. When Buddha spoke of the eight-fold path (Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration), everyone venerated him for his great wisdom. Why is this so? What is the difference between my answer and his? (Except that his answer is eight times more detail and equally useless?) Do the right things and it will be right, right?

It reminds me of a Microsoft joke. A man lost his way in a city and ask a bystander, "Where am I?" The bystander replied, "You are here." The lost man asked, "Do you work in Microsoft?" The bystander replied, "Yes, how do you know?" The lost man said, "Because your answer is 100% correct and 100% useless."

No comments: