From the story archive · Fictional encounter
Visiting a 500-year-old monastery in Tibet. Invited to join morning meditation with monks who've maintained silence for years. Sitting cross-legged on ancient stones when—BRAAAP—a barking spider echoes through the sacred hall.
The eldest monk slowly opens one eye, looks directly at me, and says in perfect English, "In forty years of meditation, that is the most honest sound I have heard from a westerner." First laughter in that hall in centuries.