When a monk passed through a marketplace, he heard a vegetable seller and a customer exchanging words. The customer, holding a bunch of lettuce, asked the vegetable seller, “How long can this last without going bad?” The vegetable seller answered, “It depends on how you keep it.” At the moment the monk attained enlightenment.
Student: “What is the lettuce like?”
Master: “It is rootless and shadowless.”
Student: “How should we keep it fresh?”
Master: “Keep it where there is neither night nor day.”
Commentary:
Leave it alone. If you try to keep it well, it will wither.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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