of
planes bound for the
west. When the wea-
ther was good, the
windows were o-
pen: a plane
passing above drowned
out Dr. Dai-
setz Teitaro
Suzuki. Nev-
ertheless, he
never raised his
voice, never paused,
and never in-
formed his listen-
ers of what they
missed of the lec-
ture, and no one
ever asked him
what he had said
while the airplanes
passed above. Any-
way, he was
explaining one
day the meaning
of a Chinese
character—Yu,
I believe it
was—spending the
whole time explain-
ing it and yet
its meaning as
close as he could
get to it in
English was “un-
explainable.”
Finally he
laughed and then said,
“Isn’t it strange
that having come
all the way from
Japan I spend
my time explain-
ing to you that
which is not to
be explained?” ¶That
was not the stor-
y I was go-
ing to tell when
I first thought I
would tell one, but
it reminds me
of another.
Years ago when
I was study-
ing with Arnold
Schoenberg someone
asked him to ex-
plain his technique
of twelve-tone com-
position. His
reply was im-
mediate: “That
is none of your
business.” ¶Now
I remember
the story I
was going to
tell when I first
got the ide-
a to tell one.
I hope I can
tell it well. Sev-
eral men, three
as a matter of
fact, were out
walking one day,
and as they were
walking along
and talking one
of them noticed
another man
standing on a
hill ahead of
them. He turned to
his friends and said,
“Why do you think
that man is stand-
ing up there on
that hill?” One said,
“He must be up
there because it’s
cooler there and
he’s enjoying
the breeze.” He turned
to another
and repeated
his question, “Why
do you think that
man’s standing up
there on that hill?”
The second said,
“Since the hill is
elevated
above the rest
of the land, he
must be up there
in order to
see something in
the distance.” And
the third said, “He
must have lost his
friend and that is
why he is stand-
ing there alone
on that hill.” Af-
ter some time walk-
ing along, the
men came up the
hill and the one
who had been stand-
ing there was still
there: standing there.
They asked him to
say which one was
right concerning
his reason for
standing where he
was standing. ¶“What
reasons do you
have for my stand-
ing here?” he asked.
“We have three,” they
answered. “First, you
are standing up
here because it’s
cooler here and
you are enjoy-
ing the breeze. Second,
since the hill
is eleva-
ted above the
rest of the land,
you are up here
in order to
see something in
the distance. Third,
you have lost your
friend and that is
why you are stand-
ing here alone
on this hill. We
have walked this way;
we never meant
to climb this hill;
now we want an
answer: Which one
of us is right?”
¶The man answered,
“I just stand.” ¶When
I was studying
with Schoenberg
one day as he was
writing some
counterpoint to
show the way to
do it, he used
an eraser.
And