"To know. To stand in supreme confidence of knowing. Ahh."
"Knowing what?"
"That I know!"
"I don't...um...know."
"And that is the beginning of wisdom, fat man!"
"Ooooh!"
"You don't get it do you."
"Mmbmble."
"Chew your food, pig-man."
"(gulp) Nope, don't get it. (munch-munch)"
"Then you got it!"
"Huh?"
"The Wise Seek and the Fool Knows."
"Well, I tend to be a fool, but I don't know."
"Ahh...Nirvana."
"I think I'm gonna throw up..."
"I'll be over here."
-----------------------------------
"False alarm."
"Okay, try to breathe in between chickens, man."
"Good tip. (munch-munch)"
"Try this one..."
"K. (munch-mummble)"
"We all stand wet in the rain...but to be the rain means you are no longer wet."
"Um but my socks are still squishy, monster."
"Not if you are your socks too. And it's Shi-Shi If You Please."
"Great, I'm a wet sock, now."
"And now everything is bliss. Pass me a dumpling, ChiChe."
"It's, fat man."
"Wet-squishy-fat-man."
"Riiight. Huge-babbling-blue-eyed-monster."
-----------------------------------
"So, a giant clam was gulping its sustenance when it swallowed a fish too big to go down."
"(muble-chomp-munch)"
"Try as it might it couldn't make the fish go down. But it also wouldn't let go."
"(mm-mumble-munch-munch)"
"And so the giant clam became a tiny helmet for a whale."
"(gulp) O-kay...o-kay. Wait just one minute."
"What?"
"That was (chomp) just silly."
"What (munch-munch)?"
"Silly---with the giant (munch-chomp) hat and cat thing."
"Um (gulp) giant clam and tiny helmet."
"That too. (slurp-crunch)"
"Well?"
"Well (chomple) what?"
"So, you get it?"
"No, it's (munch) stupid."
"Don't bite off more than you..."
"Yeah, yeah. ...Or you'll be a helmet...(gulp)"
"Yeah is right. (gulp)"
"Oh yeah? You better get a helmet cause I'm gonna--Whoa!"
"(Chomp!)"
"Ow. This is embarrassing...and gross...can you let go?"
This series of kōan conversations (which came to be known as: The Three Conversations in the Rain While Eating a Tremendous Amount of Dumplings) was not from one of Shu-Shu's scrolls but was actually from a book of their transcriptions that the pair's followers took down. Yes, somehow this gruesome twosome would be seen traveling with anywhere from 5 to 500 followers at any given time in their height. So odd how most of their writings and even their fame was lost to time. A story for another day perhaps.
