Chapter 7 & 8

My response to chapters 7 & 8 is best descibed by the woodcarver - for those who have sat in a training session and experienced "The Woodcarver"  we only ask the simple question......"What jumpes out at you?"

The Woodcarver

Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand Of precious wood. 

When it was finished, all who saw it were astonished.

They said it must be the work of the spirits.

The Prince of Lu said to the master carver: "What is your secret?"

 

Khing replied: "I am only a workman: I have no secret.  There is only this:

When I began to think about the work you commanded

I guarded my spirit, did not expend it on trifles, that were not to the point.

I fasted in order to set my heart at rest.

 

After three days fasting, I had forgotten gain and success.

After five days  I had forgotten praise or criticism.

After seven days I had forgotten my body with all its limbs

 

"By this time all thought of your Highness and of the court had faded away.

All that might distract me from the work had vanished.

I was collected in the single thought of the bell stand.

 

"Then I went to the forest to see the trees in their own natural state.

When the right tree appeared before my eyes,

the bell stand also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt.

All I had to do was put forth my hand and begin.

 

"If I had not met this particular tree there would have been no bell stand at all.

 

"What happened?

My own collected thought encountered the hidden potential in the wood;

From this live encounter came the work which you ascribe to the spirits."

 

("The Woodcarver" by Thomas Merton, from The Way of Chuang Tzu, 1965 by The Abbey of Gethsemani.)