Know all things to be like this:

A mirage, a cloud castle,

A dream, an apparitions,

Without essence, but with qualities

that can be seen

 

Know all things to be like this:

As the moon in a bright sky

In some clear lake reflected,

Though to that lake the moon 

has never moved.

 

Know all things to be like this:

As an echo that derives

From music, sounds, and weeping

Yet in that echo is no melody.

 

Know all things to be like this:

As a magician makes illusions

Of horses, oxen, carts, and other things,

Nothing is as it appears.

 

 

 

The Buddha