It happened once upon a time that four men were travelling through a region of very dense jungle. These men were philosophers, and had devoted themselves to solving extremely complicated problems by thinking very deeply. They were considered far and wide to be very wise, and after appropriate reflection they had come to agree with this opinion.

As they walked through the forest, debating such weighty matters as ‘is-ness’ and is-not-ness’, a hunter not far away in the bushes was searching for game to feed his family. Hearing movement and thinking that he spied an animal through the leaves, he quickly shot an arrow that unfortunately struck one of the wise men in the back.

When the hunter realised what he had done, he became afraid and hurriedly ran away. Meanwhile the three wise men gathered around their fallen companion, and asked him, “What has happened?”

“I do not know,” said the one with the arrow. “Something struck me, and I feel pain.”

“You feel the thought of pain,” said one wise man. “If you cast the thought away, you will be well.”

“But,” objected another, “there is the physical form of an arrow. Is that his thought also?”

“It could be a case of mutual delusion,” said a third wise man. “Perhaps we should all try to not see the arrow.”

The man on the ground groaned. “Pull the arrow out,” he pleaded.

One of the group said, “But – assuming it is real – if we pull it out, will we be interfering with nature? Surely this is the consequence of cause and effect, which is the divine will of the cosmos.”

“Ah, no,” said one of them, “for our actions are also part of the divine will. Therefore we can consider it permissible to remove the arrow.”

“But what about the question of destiny?” said another. “If it were his destiny to be struck in this way, for his ‘is-ness’ to encounter ‘arrow-ness’, then removing the arrow could create an imbalance in the trans-empyrean spheres.”

In this way they debated more on the subject, but at last, for such is wisdom, came to unanimous agreement that it was appropriate to remove the arrow.

Unfortunately, by then the poison which the hunter had applied to the arrowhead had done its work, and their fallen companion was no more.