There are moments when people should be so relaxed, so wildly relaxed that they don’t have any formalities to follow..
Once it happened that a great Chinese emperor went to see a great Zen master. The Zen master was rolling on the floor and laughing, and his disciples were laughing too – he must have told a joke or something. The emperor was embarrassed. He could not believe his eyes, because the behavior was so unmannerly, he could not prevent himself from saying so.
He told the master, ‘The is unmannerly! It is not expected of a master like you; some etiquette has to be observed. You are rolling on the floor, laughing like a madman.’
The master looked at the emperor, who had a bow; in those old days they used to carry bows and arrows. He said, “tell me one thing: do you keep this bow always strained, stretched, tense, or do you allow it to relax too?”
The emperor said, “if we keep it stretched continuously it will lose elasticity, it will not be of any use then. It has to be left relaxed so that whenever we need it, it has elasticity.”
And the master said – that’s what I’m doing..
