Member-only story
— At some point life is a course of minus not plus.
Untying
A man is in distress. He travels around looking for the means to drive it away.
One day he comes to the feet of a mountain. A little cowboy rides on a cow blowing a bamboo flute. The hill is green, the river blue, the melody tender, the boy free and happy. The man can’t help but come up and ask, “You are so happy, my little boy. Can you teach me how to get rid of the distress?”
“Hop on my cow and blow my flute.” says the cowboy.
The man does what the boy says. Quickly he feels the peace. But it’s a short time before the evil feeling comes back to haunt him. He keeps on blowing the flute, but the distress persists. He leaves the boy and continues to search. He climbs a mountain after another, before finding him step into a cave. There sits an old man with a smiling face. He looks happy and satisfied.
He bows to the old man, tells him what he’s looking for. The old man says, “So you feel tied up and are looking to untie yourself?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Who’s tied you up?”
“Hmmm~nobody.”
“Since nobody’s tied you up, what do you want to untie from?”
