Pour une poignée de haricots
Si vous voulez en savoir plus sur ce livre de Watzlawick, lisez le billet d'Olivier Beaunay.
Sur son lit de mort, une jeune femme arrache à son mari la promesse de ne plus jamais aimer d'autre femme sinon son fantôme viendra le persécuter. Il promet.
Les mois passent, il finit par tomber amoureux d'une femme. Peu après un fantôme féminin commence de lui apparaitre chaque nuit pour l'accuser d'avoir rompu son serment. Le spectre non seulement connait tous les détails de sa vie mais est aussi au fait de ses pensées, des espoirs, et des sentiments les + secrets du malheureux. La situation devenant vite intolérable, le jeune homme s'en va consulter un maitre zen et lui demander de l'aide.
Le maitre sait qu'il serait inutile d'essayer de convaincre le jeune homme de l'inexistence des fantômes, inutile de lui expliquer que tout se passe dans sa tête, etc. Non. Il y a mieux à faire.
"Quand le spectre reviendra, conseille-t-il, que l'homme loue son intelligence, puis, saisissant une poignée de haricots, qu'il lui demande, puisqu'il semble tout savoir, combien de haricots se trouvent dans sa main. Si l'apparition est incapable de répondre, l'homme saura qu'elle n'était que le produit de son imagination, et ainsi, il en sera délivré.
La nuit suivante, le fantôme apparait comme à l'accoutumée et l'homme entreprend aussitôt de le flatter.
"C'est vrai, dit le fantôme, je sais vraiment tout - je sais même que tu es allé consulter ce moine zen."
"Ma foi, puisque tu es si savante, lui dit l'homme, dis moi combien de haricots se trouvent dans ma main."
Le fantôme disparut et ne reparut plus jamais...
La même en anglais pour les amateurs.
A young wife fell sick and was about to die. "I love you so much," she told her husband, "I do not want to leave you. Do not go from me to any other woman. If you do, I will return as a ghost and cause you endless trouble."
Soon the wife passed away. The husband respected her last wish for the first three months, but then he met another woman and fell in love with her. They became engaged to be married.
Immediately after the engagement a ghost appeared every night to the man, blaming him for not keeping his promise. The ghost was clever too. She told him exactly what had transpired between himself and his new sweetheart. Whenever he gave his fiancee a present, the ghost would describe it in detail. She would even repeat conversations, and it so annoyed the amn that he could not sleep. Someone advised him to take his problem to a Zen master who lived close to the village. At length, in despair, the poor man went to him for help.
"Your former wife became a ghost and knows everything you do, " commented the master. "Whatever you do or say, whatever you give your beloved, she knows. She must be a very wise ghost. Really you should admire such a ghost. The next time she appears, bargain with her. Tell her that she knows so much you can hide nothing from her, and that if she will answer you one question, you promise to break your engagement and remain single."
"What is the question I must ask her?" inquired the man.
The master replied: "Take a large handful of soy beans and ask her exactly how many beans you hold in your hand. If she cannot tell you, you will know that she is only a figment of your imagination and will trouble you no longer."
The next night, when the ghost appeared the man flattered her and told her that she knew everything.
"Indeed," replied the ghost, "and I know you went to see that Zen master today."
"And since you know so much," demanded the man, "tell me how many beans I hold in this hand!"
There was no longer any ghost to answer the question.
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