Sengai was a Zen monk, and an accomplished artist and calligrapher. Once it happened that a wealthy man came to him and asked him to write something for the continued prosperity of his family, that would bless them for generations to come.

Sengai took a large sheet of paper, and with brush and ink wrote : Father dies, son dies, grandson dies.

The wealthy man became angry. “Are you making a joke? What kind of blessing is this?”

Sengai replied, “It is a great blessing. Think – if the son dies before the father, or the grandson dies before the grandfather, would it not be a great sadness? A shadow would be on the family, and how could they then prosper? But if your family, generation after generation, passes away in the order I have named, it will be the natural course of life, and that is real prosperity.”