What Is One Plus Two?
One day Seung Sahn Soen-sa asked his students, "What is one plus two?"
One student answered, "Three."
Soen-sa said, "Wrong. One plus two is zero."
"Why? If you add one apple to two apples, you have three apples."
"If I eat one apple and two apples, then there are no apples."
"That's not right."
"You say one plus two equals three. I say one plus two equals zero. Who is right?"
The student couldn't answer.
Soen-sa hit him and said, "The lion claws people; the dog runs after the bone."
The next day, Soen-sa again asked his students, "What is one plus two?"
One student shouted "KATZ!!!"
"Is this the truth?"
"No."
"Then what is the truth?"
"One plus two equals three."
Soen-sa said, "I thought you were a blind dog, but now I see you are a keen-eyed lion."