What blocks spiritual growth is not pleasurable things and experiences themselves, but selfish attachment to them (211). In a Zen story, two monks approaching a river see a young woman who has no means of getting across. One of the monks carries her over and gently puts her down on the other side. On the way to the monastery, the other monk is so obsessed by what his friend has done that he can talk of nothing else. “A monk is not even supposed to touch a woman,” he keeps saying, “let alone carry her around in his arms. What have you done?” Finally his friend puts an end to it. “I left that
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