Corpse-Spotting

Posted 08:13 GMT
Mangala looked down at the scattering of corpses littering the Mesopotamian landscape, and his heart was disturbed. Seeking solace amid the small carnage done and the large carnage to come, Mangala nipped quickly up to one of the Buddhist heavens where he encountered the venerable Sariputra, who of course really wasn't, but to an unenlightened mind, possessed an illusory is.

"O Sariputra," said Mangala. "A few corpses now. Many corpses to come."

"Friend," said Sariputra. "What is a corpse but a body that has ceased to function? What is a body but a corpse that functions still?"

Scratching his head in puzzlement, as he often did when visiting the Buddhist heavens, Mangala nodded respectfully to the venerable Sariputra, and returned to corpse-spotting in the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates.