Single Unison

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I clean my teeth in water
drawn from a cold well
And while I brush my clothes
I purify my mind

Then, slowly turning pages
in the Tree-Leaf Book,
I recite, along the path
to the eastern shelter

...The world has forgotten
the true fountain of this teaching
And people enslave themselves
to miracles and fables

Under the given words
I want the essential meaning
I look for the simplest way
to sow and reap my nature

Here in the quiet
of the priest's temple courtyard
Mosses add their climbing colour
to the thick bamboo

And now comes the sun
out of mist and fog
And pines that seem
to be new-bathed;

And everything is gone from me
speech goes, and reading
Leaving the single unison

Reading Buddhist Classics with Zhao at his Temple in the Early Morning

by Liu Zongyuan  773-819

Tang Dynasty writer

and master of free and simple prose

of the early Chinese philosophers

All artworks except the final image

are by Chen Jun

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