Anybody who transcends the everyday life of the chicken coop must have reached a higher spiritual plane. Harriet has, as evidenced by her ponderings such as "We are what we think we are. Hen or Chicken, the choice is yours." And, contemplating an egg, "Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can tell us which came first." This fowl understands the Zen world and is willing to share it with the rest of us. Consider her pithy koan tale:
A nesting hen, wanting to impress her Zen master, said, "There is only nothing. The nature of phenomena is emptiness."
The master sat still and said nothing. Suddenly, he pushed the hen off her nest and stole the eggs she had just laid. This made the young hen angry.
"Give me back my eggs!" she cried.
"What eggs?" inquired the master.
Harriet will have you clucking-and thinking-all the way to enlightenment.
