There was
once a student who attempted to remain pure and unattached to anything. He was
quite a good musician growing up and enjoyed playing. He played a beautiful
flute, and made the sweetest of music on the shamisen. He was praised by all
for his musical talent. He was distressed by his enjoyment of music however,and
vowed never to play again as he felt this would compromise his ability to remain
pure. As the years passed, he found himself with time between his meditation
periods and he began to draw and then paint. This helped pass the time and he
liked being creative. The other students and his master marveled at his artwork
and he received many compliments. He once again became concerned and gave up
painting. Years later, while walking through the forest, he was struck with the
urge to write about its beauty, so he wrote a poem. In fact, he began writing
several poems and people enjoyed reading them and he liked writing them.
However, once again this troubled him and he stopped writing his poetry. When
he told the master about how he had stopped writing poetry, painting, and
playing music because he did not want to become attached to them, the master
said “Perhaps you are attached to being non-attached” and walked away.
