no dust

Lyrics

The Bodhi tree—a monument of bone
A gilded cage for the seeds we’ve sown
The elder monk scrubs the silver plate
Polishing the glass to escape his fate
He fears the speck, he fears the stain
A prisoner of the holy grain
Wiping the mirror with a bleeding hand
To find a soul in a desert of sand!
​
SCRUB THE SURFACE!
HIDE THE FILTH!
BUILD THE TEMPLE!
SOW THE TILTH!
The more you clean, the more you see
The phantom of the "Self" in the Bodhi tree!
​
THERE IS NO TREE!
THERE IS NO STAND!
The mirror shatters in a hollow hand!
ORIGINALLY...
NOT A SINGLE THING!
Where can the dust alight
When the void has no wing?
​
The boy stands in the threshing room
Pounding the rice in the gathering gloom
He sees the monks in their saffron robes
Clinging to shadows on spinning globes
"You polish the air," the kitchen hand cries
"You’re painting the sun in a blind man’s eyes"
The mind is a ghost, the heart is a spark
There is no light, and there is no dark!
​
(Whispered, rasping vocals over a heavy, dissonant drone)
Bodhi originally has no tree.
The mirror-stand is not a stand.
Since originally there is not a single thing...
Where can the dust alight?
​
NOT.
ONE.
THING.
NO ATTACHMENT!
NO FOUNDATION!
SMASH THE IMAGE!
END THE CREATION!
If the mirror is empty, the dust is a lie!
LET THE ILLUSION WITHER AND DIE!

Nothing to hold.
Nothing to lose.
The void is the path.
The void is the muse.
Originally... not a single thing.
Originally... not a single thing.
​(Sudden, absolute silence)