The Zen Guy (3)

The Skinny Guy's teacher taught him to unravel in zen parables.

One of them was the story of a book smart student who wasn't very smart.

This student sought to impress the zen master with his erudition.

The zen master was not impressed and challenged the student with the following question:

"Show me your original face before your parents were born"

The book smart student was unable to do this

and the master would not provide any clues as to the answer

because you can't taste another person's food.

So eventually out of frustration the book smart student went down to the local apothecary

and sold off all of his books

because of course they were useless

and all those years he had spent reading them was a waste of time.

The book smart student also left his teacher

and from then on led a simple life tending to the tomb of a famous monk

Many years later

so the story goes

while the student was sweeping around the tomb

his broom hit a rock

and in hearing that sound

became enlightened

which was a bunch of crap

according to the skinny guy.