“This is how I first became interested in Oriental philosophy and all that kind of thing. I had an absolute fascination for Chinese and Japanese painting, the landscapes, the treatment of flowers and grasses and bamboos. There was something about it that struck me as astonishing, even though the subject matter was extremely ordinary. And I just, as a child, practically, had to find out what was this strange element in those bamboos and those grasses. I was being, of course, taught by those painters to see grass. But there was something in there that one could never pin down, never put your finger on. And that was this thing that I will call the religion of no religion: the supreme attainment of being a Buddha who can’t be detected, who, in this sense, then, leaves no trace.”

— Alan Watts