sapere aude!: junij 2013

Once upon a time, there were two countries, each reigned by a king. Both countries were deeply religious and they had strong ideas about how to behave towards God. Unfortunately their opinions were quite different, not to say fundamentally different.

In one of the two countries, for instance, they would say, "If you utter God's name you have to look up to the heavens, because that's where God is." The other country would strongly deny this. "When you talk about God, you should look down, otherwise you are not being humble."

Another example of basic differences between their beliefs was about how to honour God. "If you want to do something for God, you have to pray constantly and burn incense." "No, outrageous! You have to chant His name, and put fresh flowers on every altar."

And then there was the issue about how many angels would fit on the point of a needle, and that was a serious problem because the two countries wouldn't agree about the size of the needle.

In short, they differed so much on cardinal points of their beliefs that it was increasingly impossible for them to quietly exist next to each other, pretending that there was no herd of heathens living just over the border.

In the end the kings of the two countries agreed about only one thing: there had to be a war to prove who was right. So the religious leaders in the first country assured its army that it had nothing to fear because God was on their side, and the priests in the second country proclaimed solemnly that God wanted their soldiers to win so all could fight and die in peace.

Fighting and dying was done on a big scale in the following years, but in spite of the optimistic propaganda on both sides of the border, it was not really clear to the kings of the two countries whom God was supporting. When the war entered its tenth year the two kings decided that something had to be done about the impasse.

They planned to personally preside a top conference about a peace treaty, with hundreds of lawyers and ministers and the best small print-specialists of both countries, but somehow the negotiations got stuck in the preliminary phase. The experts couldn't come to an agreement about the number of people involved and the form of the table they would use during the top conference.

Finally, one night the two kings met secretly with only the company of two platoons of security personnel. They came to a quick decision. "We need advice from somebody." they said to each other. "Somebody who doesn't belong to either of our countries and who knows all about God."

Then they remembered that exactly on the border, in the forests there, an old and respected saint was living. He was said to know everything about God. So they went there and each of the kings explained that he himself was completely right about his approach to God and that if you talk about God you have to look up -no down!- and they almost started fighting in their kingly robes.

The saint looked dismayed and disappeared for a while. When he came back he had a banana in his hands, and bananas were quite rare in those countries. They didn't grow there and they were not imported. (Nobody ever found out where the saint got it from.) The saint asked the two kings: "Have you ever eaten this fruit?" and the kings said they hadn't.

"Do you know what it's called?" the saint asked. One king said proudly that he had read about it and therefore he knew that it was called a banana. The other king looked at him in contempt and declared that he himself had had a great-grandfather who according to the glorious annals of his country had visited a place where they grew these fruits, and the people there had told him personally that the name of it was pisang.

"Nonsense." the first king said. "How dare you doubt the wisdom accumulated in my royal library? The name is banana!" "Such impudence! You are challenging the wisdom of my great-grandfather! The name is pisang!"
"It's a banana!"
"A pisang!"
"A banana!"
"A pisang!"
Then the saint interfered. "A sword. " he said calmly. "Give me a sword."

When one of the kings had given him his sword, he cut the banana in two pieces. "To know it, you have to taste it." he declared. Both kings started chewing on their piece of banana, and the first one said after a short time: "This is very tasty." The second king hated to agree with his collegue but he had to admit it -it tasted very good. After some silence and pondering the first king said: "Actually, I don't mind so much how you call it -the taste is more important." The other king thought deeply and said: "Yes, I agree. It's not the name. The essence is the taste."

The saint said: "Exactly. I hope that you understand why I gave you this banana. You're talking about God, but have you actually experienced God?" The kings bowBed their heads and mumbled 'no...'. The saint said: "Go home and learn to experience God. And stop this silly war of yours."

In shame the two kings went back to their countries. They ended the war and tried to experience God through daily meditation. When they finally succeeded, they understood how ridiculous they had been. They never quarreled about God anymore...

(This story was taken from the book "Wishes, wishes" by Joost Boekhoven)