Maybe somebody can help me remember. I read awhile back about an old Asian carpenter, I think Confucian era Chinese. The story was he was commissioned by the king to carve a chair or something similar. After a month or so, they checked in to see about his progress, to find he hadn’t made a single cut yet. In defense of his “supposed lack of progress” he described his process of woodworking as needing to clear his mind completely by traveling into the woods to seek solace and forget himself. After one day, he forgot his fast, after a week he forgot his name, after a month he forgot about what chairs were, and only then could he start carving.

Does anybody know what I’m talking about or where this is from? It’s been driving me mad that I can’t recall.