Wednesday, December 07, 2005

A Zen Story

A brash young man watched a sage drawing water from the village well. Slowly, hand over hand, the old man pulled up the wooden bucket of water. After some time the young man left and returned with a pulley, and excitedly explained how to use it, and how easy it would be to draw water by cranking the handle. The old man refused:
“Were I to use a device like this, my mind would congratulate itself on being so clever, and then I would quit putting my heart into what I was doing. . . . If I don’t put my heart and whole body into my work, my work will become joyless. And how, then, do you think the water would taste?”
-- Zen Calendar Workman Publishing

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So throw out your computers and get back to writing long hand!!

Brainwise said...

Isn't she as gem, folks? See why I keep her around?

But seriously...

I think computers actually make writing more difficult at times. But they sure make saving, recalling, re-writing, and re-using my work much easier.