The silent, still, emptiness of Cold Mountain

Streams of water flow down Cold Mountain
The clear night sky, moon white  
In the silent still emptiness
When thoughts are abandoned
The universe offers itself.
    - Han Shan (aka Cold Mountain), 9th Century T’ang Dynasty

Han Shan — Cold Mountain — lived as a hermit in the T'ang Dynasty mountains of China, writing poems on stone and wood. His verses return again and again to the same clearing: silence, emptiness, the mind released from its own noise. This is one of those poems.

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