Indeterminacy 46

In the poetry contest in China by
which the Sixth Patriarch of Zen
Buddhism was chosen, there
were two poems. One
said: “The mind is like
a mirror. It collects
dust. The problem is
to remove the dust.”
The other and winning poem
was actually a reply to the
first. It said,
“Where is the mirror and where
is the dust?” ¶
Some centuries later in a Japanese
monastery, there was a
monk who was always taking
baths.
A younger monk came up to
him and said, “Why,
if there is no dust,
are you always taking
baths?” The
older monk replied, “Just
a dip. No why.”

- John Cage