1,000 knives of thought - answers
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| knife 244 |
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| Give me an answer to 2 + 5 by not focusing on the problem. |
| 1/Apr/99 |
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7. I didn't focus on the problem which specified not to focus on the problem so that I could give the straight answer.
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| knife 245 |
| Explain why forgetfulness is a strength to solve problems. |
| 2/Apr/99 |
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If not focusing on problems is effective for solving them, as the previous knife suggests, the first thing a problem-solver needs to do to apply this is to identify the problem, and then to turn his or her attention away from it. But this is difficult once the problem is identified, because no one can really follow the following sort of instructions: "never think of a pink elephant." They would need the power of forgetfulness.
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| knife 246 |
| Give me an example of a struggle to hold on to something made the something go away. |
| 3/Apr/99 |
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This is something I witnessed in a business meeting. A manager was monopolizing the meeting although he made it clear that he wanted everyone on his side should assert their opinions. At the same time, I think he wanted to prove that he was powerful and rightful enough to be in his position. When someone on his side tried to help him understand the matter at hand, he blamed that someoen for making a clever remark that didn't really contribute to the meeting. It was obvious for all of us that he wanted to hold on to his authority, which inevitably was lost from the eyes of the attendants. His side except the manager became dead silent through the rest of the meeting.
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| knife 247 |
| A problem is not a problem. True or false? |
| 4/Apr/99 |
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True at least in the sense that an obstacle is not a problem to solve. It is something to remove.
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| knife 248 |
| Tell me what you think about helping strangers in trouble. |
| 5/Apr/99 |
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It's a tradeoff between being helpful and protective. I tend to be more helpful than protective, but my physical safety is always the priority.
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| knife 249 |
| Tell me what you have learned from your experiences of helping others. |
| 6/Apr/99 |
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It's not worth helping people who don't want to be helped.
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| knife 250 |
| Give me an example where being irrational helped solving a problem. |
| 7/Apr/99 |
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This is not my own experience, but I know of a shogi (Japanese chess) player who won a difficult game by making an irrational move. The opponent tried to see the reasoning behind the move, although there wasn't any, lost his sense and made a bad move himself.
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| knife 251 |
| Tell me only good things about vulgarness. |
| 8/Apr/99 |
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By exposing myself to vulgarness I can have an accurate view of where I am standing compared with where majority of people are. It would help me to make an appropriate entrance to my world and a path to what I would like to communicate.
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| knife 252 |
| Tell me what NO ANIMAL WAS HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS FILM means. |
| 9/Apr/99 |
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In this statement, perhaps the word animal does not include human beings as it is rather common that some people are hurt, often severely, doing stunts while making a film. The word animal perhaps does not include many insects or other small animals either as people constantly accidentally kill them and it is unavoidable even for believers of Jainism. Also, I am sure that animals that are killed and eaten by the makers and/or the casts of the film do not count. Therefore the statement cannot be true, and is true only for a very limited class of animals.
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| knife 253 |
| Zen is about forgetting. True or false? |
| 10/Apr/99 |
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It is not all about forgetting, but certainly forgetting is one of its themes. In an episode of zen, the teacher notices a bird flying, and says to his student, "Hey, look at that, a bird is flying." The student wonders because he thought a good zen practitioner should not be excited at all by such an event. So he says to the teacher a while later, "Teacher, I lost my faith in you. You got so excited about even a tiny thing like a flying bird." Then the teacher says, "It looks as though the bird is still flying in your head."
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| knife 254 |
| Tell me the price of truth. |
| 11/Apr/99 |
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Truth is free. It is absolutely, so free that you have to abandon every effort to conform to the common sense of your society. There will be conflicts and may even be physical dangers associated with it. But truth is free.
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| knife 255 |
| Tell me why we are never short of fear. |
| 12/Apr/99 |
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Because it is a driving force of life.
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| knife 256 |
| Paying attention is about forgetting. True or false? |
| 13/Apr/99 |
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True. It is about forgetting everything you are not paying attention to.
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| knife 257 |
| Tell me 3 activities in which the power of forgetting is most useful. |
| 14/Apr/99 |
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| knife 258 |
| Is the Earth worth loving if it does not love you back? |
| 15/Apr/99 |
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Yes. Loving is not expecting something in return. Loving itself is a rewarding experience. Ask your brain about it.
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| knife 259 |
| If you cannot accomplish everything, what would be your strategy? |
| 16/Apr/99 |
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Do as much as possible. But I have to be careful when I apply the technique of doing easy things first which I acquired through Japanese educational system. I mean, when we take exams we are supposed to answer easy questions first to maximize our points. But points may not be the priority of my life. I'd do easy things first if doing many things is important to me. If not, my strategy is to do important things first and them only.
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| knife 260 |
| Tell me how you would improve the design of a human body. |
| 17/Apr/99 |
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Please read this (although it's in Japanse).
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| knife 261 |
| Tell me who owns your body. |
| 18/Apr/99 |
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No one does. Not even the body itself. It is like asking who owns the Internet.
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| knife 262 |
| Tell me in what ways a human body is like the Earth. |
| 19/Apr/99 |
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Both are where everyone you have ever known has or had resided.
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| knife 263 |
| What is creativity? |
| 20/Apr/99 |
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A skill of combining.
The Earth is a psychological phenomenon.
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