The carpenter who fasted before he began

The ruler of Lu had a bell stand carved, and it was so beautiful nobody could believe a human had done it. The carver, Qing, said it was because of one thing.

I'm a poor workman, he said. But there's one method. Before I begin, I must fast to still the mind. After three days of fasting, I've forgotten any reward or official rank I might get. After five days, I've forgotten the praise and the blame. After seven, I've forgotten my own four limbs and my body.

By the ninth day, there's no more me. Then I go into the forest and look at the nature of each tree. If the timber is ready, the image of the stand appears to me, and then I work. If it isn't, I let it go.

The stand is next to the grain of the wood, and nobody can tell whether the wood or the hand made it.

Nine days. Think about what that says about the other 364 days a year.

What Qing fasted away wasn't laziness. It was the reward, the rank, the verdict of strangers, and the manufactured need to be finished by Friday. Every one of those is still in the carvings most people make.

Whatever you're building this month, some of what makes it bad isn't skill. It's who's watching while you work.

MOJOWAY is a record of what you started before the audience arrived. That cleaner starting point is where real growth comes from.