# One Hand **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 6, 2008, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941 "2008-12-06T02:54:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941/21 "2008-12-15T11:53:19Z")
> [@Gnodab](#): > > B) You want an actual answer? let me confer with my teacher and see if I can give it, if I can I will post it here. Otherwise I still request that the answer given be taken down. Why wouldn’t he allow it, as Sunim has published his own answer to the koan on his website? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941/22 "2008-12-15T12:41:43Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > Why wouldn’t he allow it, as Sunim has published his own answer to the koan on his website? A link would be nice here. I found his org’s [webite](http://www.worldzen.org/index.php) but haven’t been able to locate the page you’re talking about. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941/23 "2008-12-15T12:53:47Z")
> [@Gnodab](#): > > B) You want an actual answer? let me confer with my teacher and see if I can give it, if I can I will post it here. Independently of whatever QED might have found, I predict your teacher will tell you you shouldn’t be bothered by the publication of written answers to the koan. I’m sure all students go through many false starts when trying to learn how to respond to a koan. Reading an answer in a book is just one more kind of false start–I’d imagine it’s no better or worse than any other false start. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941/24 "2008-12-15T13:05:12Z")
Though I guess you’re not complaining that no one should write down answers to koans, but rather, that the answer given in the article is incorrect. Extending the metaphor of pointing at the moon, I’d respond to you by observing that every act of pointing would point to the moon if the pointer were shifted to the right spot in space. And so, while the answer in the article may not point to the moon from your own viewpoint, it very well could point to the moon for countless other viewpoints. You don’t know if its the right answer or not until you’re the student offering the answer. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941/25 "2008-12-15T17:24:32Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > A link would be nice here. I found his org’s [webite](http://www.worldzen.org/index.php) but haven’t been able to locate the page you’re talking about. [Here](http://www.worldzen.org/dharmaex.php). About 2/3 the way down the page. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941/26 "2008-12-15T18:22:40Z")
I can make a clapping sound by striking the fingertips of my left hand against the heel of my left hand. It sounds just striking the fingertips of my right hand against the heel of my left hand, which counts as clapping in my book. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941/27 "2008-12-15T20:01:52Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > I can make a clapping sound by striking the fingertips of my left hand against the heel of my left hand. It sounds just striking the fingertips of my right hand against the heel of my left hand, which counts as clapping in my book. I believe that’s been copyrighted as The Palin Wave. Please cease and desist in its use. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941/28 "2008-12-15T22:51:06Z")
"Attaching to hands is chasing mudballs. " Boy, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that phrase… ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941/29 "2008-12-15T23:10:06Z")
[QUOTE=Gnodab] B)Cecil provided an answer, and he provided the source for his answer. If you disagree with his answer, you are welcome to share your reasoning. If you disagree but are unwilling to share your reasoning, then you have failed to prove his answer is incorrect. If your answer is that reasoning cannot answer the koan, it is an experiential thing rather than a reasoning thing, then the best you can say is that Hau Hoo had a different experiential answer than you. Who is right and who is wrong is the wrong kind of evaluation. Saying experience or not experience is not really the point. There are an infinite amount of answers to a koan, just like there are an infinite positions to point to the moon. But there is only one moon. And the answer given was not pointing to the moon, but to some distant star. [/QUOTE] Sorry, you have not addressed the question. Let me repeat: So what is your reasoning that Cecil’s answer is wrong? Saying Cecil is wrong without explaining **why** Cecil is wrong is failing to answer the question. > [@](#): > > And no offense, Gnodab, but our mission here is fighting ignorance. Around here, if someone is seeking enlightenment, we give it to them, as Cecil in this column enlightened us on the nature of koans. That is not enlightenment which cannot enlighten, and he who cannot enlighten does not have enlightenment. > > You already have an enlightened mind. I don’t follow the rest of what you said. What he said is that Cecil’s job is to answer questions, not leave them unanswered. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941/30 "2008-12-16T16:07:15Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I believe that’s been copyrighted as The Palin Wave. Please cease and desist in its use. Yikes! I’d better cut it off, just to be sure. Thank Og it’s the left one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand/475941.md?page=1)