Posted by:
Human
(
)
Date: February 01, 2020 11:03PM
Submit a poem. The best poem will succeed me, and will receive the robe and begging bowl, handed down from the Buddha.
The favourite, Shen-hsiu, writes on the wall:
The body is the Bodhi Tree;
The mind like a bright mirror standing.
Take care to wipe it all the time,
And allow no dust to cling.
Hui-neng, a kitchen drudge, writes the next day, beside the first poem:
There never was a Bodhi Tree,
Nor bright mirror standing.
Fundamentally, not one thing exists,
So where is the dust to cling?
Hui-neng is deemed the successor, and receives the robe and begging bowl, handed down from the Buddha.
—Modified from Alan Watts—
Lesson: don’t fuck around with the people who make your food (and tip your server, damnit!).
Human