One night I dreamed of Zen Master Seo-ing Singsun again.

Last time I had attempted to make an interview but the outcome of my dream was difficult to understand.

Zen spirituality is not easy to grasp at all and trapped inside a dream it’s even harder to fathom.

This time I decided to ask fewer questions and to let Zen Master Seo-ing Singsun speak more freely.

In spite of my international fame as a blogger I still did some conventional client work in Germany.

It’s old school SEO like link building e.g. with all it’s local difficulties (no real social media for German language sites).

When Singsun appeared again in my dream. I decided to ask him a question:

how I can build links when there is no real social media around for getting links like in Germany the case?

Interviewing Seo-ing Singsun in my dream

Tad Chef: Dear Seo-ing Singsun, why is link building so tedious and ineffective?

How can I get links in Germany where there are no social media sites able to generate links?

Zen master Seo-ing Singsun: Let me tell you a story about a beggar and a monk.

In Asia many monks are dependent on the good will of the people.

They go from door to door and receive food from villagers. Also there are many other beggars.

These beggars are just plain beggars, they are not practicing Zen.

One day such a beggar joined a young monk called Wep Lo Ging. Wep did not say anything and let the beggar walk with him.

At the first door the beggar snatched away the food from Wep and swallowed it as quickly as he could.

Wep did not get angry and proceeded to the next door.

At the second door Wep took the food and gave it to the beggar and smiled.

At the third door the beggar was already less hungry so he waited what happened.

Here Wep asked the beggar if he is still hungry and then gave him the food.

The beggar was already full so he could not eat everything. Wep smiled and ate the leftovers. Then Wep went to the next house.

It was bigger than the houses they visited before. Here the food was better and there was more of it.

Again Wep smiled at the beggar and asked him if he wanted some but the beggar could not take anymore.

Wep ate all the better food alone. The beggar was angry though.

He shouted at Wep: “You knew it! You tricked me! You knew that the best food is served at the fourth house!”

On the next day Wep went to the big house first and the beggar ate all of the better food.

As Wep stood up and wanted to go to the next house the beggar said “you can’t trick me again”.

He added “I will follow you anyways even if I’m not hungry anymore”. Then he followed Wep.

Of course the villagers noticed that there is another guy walking along the monk and taking most of his food.

Some even assumed that he was his disciple.

Others were wary of the beggar.

Yet Wep was always quick to acknowledge that the beggar is free to follow him and there is enough food for both of them.

People started admiring Wep for being that generous and the word spread beyond the village.

Beggars from the nearby villages wanted to see the monk “who feeds the beggar”.

More and more of them came. Soon Wep had a whole group of people following him and the villagers became quite uneasy.

They wondered “how can we feed all of them?”.

At the same time the owner of the big house was about to die. He invited Wep and his followers to his house.

Sadly the dream stopped here. I have to go to sleep so you can find out what happened next.

17 years later the dream returned. Singsun told me the end of the story.

The owner of the house asked the monk to pray for him.

Wep asked his followers to help around the house, clean it and even cook some healthy food as long as he prays.

So the owner was glad to have so many young, healthy and motivated men to help around the house.

When he finally died surrounded by his supporters the house owner let them inherit it to make it a monastery.

What does this Zen story mean for SEO?

So what is the meaning of this Zen story for SEO?

I am not sure what Singsun wanted me to know.

It seems he meant that not the guy who eats the food gets the links and the exposure but the monk who is giving it away.