How a Buddhist Story Ended Up on a Pickleball Website

I found this paragraph on the internet when I searched for "finger pointing to the moon."

There is a story told among Zen Buddhists about a nun who one day approached a great patriarch to ask if he had any insight into the Nirvana sutra she had been reading. “I am illiterate,” the man replied, “but perhaps if you could read the words to me, I could understand the truth that lies behind them.” Incredulous, the nun responded, “If you do not know even the characters as they are written in the text, then how can you expect to know the truth to which they point?” Patiently the patriarch offered his answer, which has become a spiritual maxim for the ages: “Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?”

It is a nice story with deep meaning but how does it belong here on a pickleball website, you ask? Well, last week a friend told me about a game he had in which his partner complained every time he hit a 3rd shot drive instead of a drop. For his partner, there was only one way to play the 3rd shot, a soft shot that drops the ball in the kitchen. The ironic thing is that this same player would play out most rallies in the transition zone. 

Many players, when they progress past the banging stage, learn to play the 3rd shot drop as a way to move up to the net. For some, somehow the part about moving up to the net is lost. They become fixated with the shot and forget about the purpose of the shot, getting you to the NVZ line to neutralize the receiving team's positional advantage and ultimately win the point. They think the finger is the moon.

There are other ways to play the 3rd shot. Just like there are other fingers that can point to the same moon. You can play a drop, hit a hard drive, or even a defensive lob. Whatever shot is appropriate for the moment.  You can follow a different finger and still can see the same moon at the end of it. A hard 3rd shot drive may win the point outright for you, or it can get you a weak response from your opponent that you can put away or hit a good drop shot.

Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all the heavenly glory.