O Highest Wisdom,
who circles the great circle,
who envisions the whole world
as one living path,
you have three wings.
One soars above the sky,
another moistens the ground with sweat,
while a third flies
everywhere at once.
O Wisdom, we sing your praise.
Sometimes there would be a rush of noisy visitors and the Silence of the monastery would be shattered. This would upset the monks; not the master, however, who seemed just as content with the noise as with the Silence. To those protesting he said one day:
"Silence is not the absence of sound,
but the absence of self."