The idea is that those are supposed to make you understand something that does not fit in your existing thinking habits. So they’re puzzling all right, and the idea is you reflect on them over and over, for as long as it takes, until epiphany strikes, and you get it in a way that would be hard to achieve with words alone, and unlocks thinking about things in new ways.
So for instance, in this case, the words “What was your face before you were born?” would not be the titular moon, but the finger pointing at the moon. Reading them and responding to that with “WTF, it’s not the moon, it’s just a fucking finger” is a natural immediate reaction, I suppose, especially if you were taught highly materialist thinking habits, though I’ve found there’s value in unlearning that reaction.
The idea is that those are supposed to make you understand something that does not fit in your existing thinking habits. So they’re puzzling all right, and the idea is you reflect on them over and over, for as long as it takes, until epiphany strikes, and you get it in a way that would be hard to achieve with words alone, and unlocks thinking about things in new ways.
So for instance, in this case, the words “What was your face before you were born?” would not be the titular moon, but the finger pointing at the moon. Reading them and responding to that with “WTF, it’s not the moon, it’s just a fucking finger” is a natural immediate reaction, I suppose, especially if you were taught highly materialist thinking habits, though I’ve found there’s value in unlearning that reaction.