This is a enlighten Zen story about Zen master who was a great gardener; the emperor used to learn from him.The emperor was creating a big garden so that one day the master could be invited to see. If he approved, that meant that the king had learned the art – that was going to be the king’s examination.The master came. The king had really prepared hard; thousands of people were involved in the garden. Everything was so clean, so perfect, that the king was absolutely certain that the master would not be able to find any fault. But when the master came, the king became afraid, scared. The master wouldn’t smile; he looked at the whole garden and he was very serious.
Finally he said ’I don’t see any dead leaves in the garden. Where are the dead leaves?’ The king said ’We have thrown them out, just to keep everything clean.’
The master went out, brought back many dead leaves and threw them in the garden. The wind started taking those dead leaves all over the place… and the rustling sounds of the dead leaves.
The master smiled, and he said ’Now it looks like something divine! Without these leaves it was so dead, it had no sound. And how can a garden be without dead leaves? How can life be without death? They are partners together. If green leaves are there, then dead leaves are to be there on the ground. To remove them is artificial.
