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K'ang 13
As told by Jerry M. Pickard
When K’ang joined him, the boy was just finishing crafting a bowl out of the small bed of clay near the spring.
K’ang watched, and said, “There is a lesson, if you attend, boy,”
“Teacher?"
“Finish the bowl, I will return,” K’ang said.
When K’ang came back the bowl was done, and laid in the sun, drying with the others the boy had made. K’ang admired the work, and said to the boy, “I will be back, start a fire to dry them.”
Shortly, K’ang came back, and told the boy to sit. When he did, K’ang told the boy to make a bowl by putting his hands together.
“Look in your hands, What do you see?”
“There is nothing there, Teacher!” K’ang sat silently.
“What do you see?” K’ang asked again.
“Still nothing.”
K’ang told the boy, “There is the lesson. Look now! If there is nothing, there is room for everything! You are not seeing the most valuable part, and that is what you must look for. The void is always the most useful part!”
The boy blinked, then smiled. K’ang told him, “Where there is nothing, there is room for the universe.” K’ang took some soil from the ground and put it in the boy’s cupped fingers.
“There is some of the world, right in your hands, and look.” K’ang reached into his shoulder bag, and put a seed into the boy’s hands, pressing it into the dirt.
“Now there is the base for life, No?” He took a little water and sprinkled it over the seed, and covered it with his hat. After a moment he took it away, and there was a young sprout growing where the seed had been.
The boy blinked in awe. Again, K’ang covered the young tendril with his hat, and muttered a chant that the boy could not hear, and again raised the hat. Growing in the boy’s hands was a small bush. Once more he covered the hands with his hat, chanted again, and uncovered his work. Growing there was a fruited bush, and K’ang plucked a fruit and ate it!
“Isva,” the boy asked, wide eyed, “How did you do that?”
K’ang’s face crinkled like an old brown paper bag.
“Phaugghh! Just a silly trick! Now go garden ...
[ Introduction ] [ K'ang 1 ] [ K'ang 2 ] [ K'ang 3 ] [ K'ang 4 ] [ K'ang 5 ] [ K'ang 6 ] [ K'ang 7 ][ K'ang 8 ] [ K'ang 9 ]
[ K'ang 10 ] [ K'ang 11 ] [ K'ang 12 ] [ K'ang 13 ] [ K'ang 14 ]