I see a cow with my mind's eye and no longer do my job with my eyes.

Zhuangzi

 

 

A cook cuts a cow. His movement and the sound his knife made are just like music. It is said that the cook only saw the appearance of a cow in the beginning, which eventually the appearance left his eyes, and he became able to cut open the space between the bone and flesh with the very his mind's eye along "Tenri" (the natural muscle line in the body of a cow). And also he said that there was no nick in his knife because he did not do it by force. From "Zhuangzi (inner Chapters)" (translated by Mikisaburo Mori).

 

"March 10  2019

from “Oriori no Kotoba” by Kiyokazu Washida, The Asahi Shimbun"