Mornings roll past, putting shadows
in motion. Darkness caresses each
object; each object caresses light.
The old woman's eyes adjust
One
of her children, long grown, has left behind a celebratory birth quilt;
she spreads it as an altar cloth. In a shallow raku dish she places
maple seeds. Moving them from one dish to another, she offers them as
"incense;" a mouse accepts the offering. Shadows of ash and cottonwood
chase one another as yet another day, amazingly, for no reason she can
discern, brightens.
Absolute truth is emptiness of all dharmas,
Hence there is no reason to be obsessed with things.
-- Collected Sayings of Preceptor Baegun (1299–1375) tr. Whitfield and Park
