Happy New Year!

Once there was a man of letters, a poet, who made the journey to visit a meditation master to see what wise thing he might have to say.

Arriving at the mountain where the master lived, he discovered him meditating in a tree.

‘It looks dangerous up there,’ said the man.

‘It looks far more dangerous where you are,’ said the master..

With this, the poet thought, This man must be enlightened. So he asked the master, ‘What is the essence of The Way?’

‘Avoid evil. Practice good. And purify your heart each day,’ answered the master.

‘But every three-year-old child knows that little rhyme,’ said the poet.

‘Maybe so,’ said the master. ‘But even a man of eighty cannot do it.’
               
~ from The Wooden Bowl by Clark Strand

To my Chinese friends and family, Gong Hei Fat Choi!

An especially Happy New Year to all born under the sign of The Horse!