MASTER PO AND THE 100 BLOSSOMS

Atop Wudan In the year 109, Master Po took me to the cliffs edge.

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“The first lesson in Zen, is about mortality,” he said.

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“When you reach my level of power, you know exactly when you will die.” He produced a handful of pink apple blossoms from his robe and threw them into the wind - they floated upon the breeze, scattering into the valley two miles below.

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“Retrieve every last blossom. And when you have picked up the very last one, you will know that I have passed to the next life.”

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I bowed and shed a tear. Then began my walk down the mountain. I found the first blossom two weeks later. Laying in a rock pool, bright pink contrasting violent blue.

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I lived in the wilderness, hunting wolves with handmade weapons, and spent every waking hour searching for the blossoms.

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I had no desire to hasten his passing, yet I understood to always obey. After 21 years, I had found 99 of the 100 blossoms. I had walked over 3000 miles through wilderness.

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The mountain winds had blown them far and wide. I spent a another 60 years, looking for the final piece. I would meditate at night to keep frustration at bay and spend my days shifting through dirt, climbing trees and swimming lakes - knowing the blossom could be anywhere.

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The final blossom eluded me. I dreamt of it. I hallucinated. I saw it permanently in my mind, but could never find it. And then... 81 years after first descending from the mountain, I came across a large flat rock.

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Upon it was the perfect imprint of an apple blossom. The piece must have landed here many years ago, and the blistering sun had all but obliterated it - leaving nothing but the perfect print on hard stone.

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I was furious.

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So many years wasted. Elements endured. And it’s now clear, I could never complete the task. I returned to Wudan with 99 blossoms to find Po meditating.

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I knelt before him and began to cry through frustration. “I have failed. I did not move quickly enough for the sun. I will never have all of the blossoms.”

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He smiled and replied. “Then I will never die.”

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Such is the way of Wudan.

-TATESHINKAI