Sunday, September 14, 2008
Pure and Free
Kenko, Tsurezure Gusa 17 (tr. G.B. Sansom):
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It is well for a man to be frugal, to abstain from luxury, to possess no treasure nor to covet this world's goods. Since olden times there has rarely been a sage who was wealthy.
In China there was once a man called Hsü Yü. He had not a single possession in the world, and even scooped up water with his hands, until a friend gave him a gourd. But one day, when he had hung it from a branch, it rattled in the wind; whereupon, disturbed by the noise, he threw it away and once more took to drinking from out of his clasped hands. How pure and free the heart of such a man.
