Yuan Mei : Motto

For more about this 18th c. CE Chinese poet and painter, see this earlier post.

When I meet a monk,
          I bow politely.
When I see a Buddha,
          I don’t.

If I bow to a Buddha,
          the Buddha won’t know.
But I honor a monk:
          he’s here now, apparently,
          or, at least, he seems to be.

Translation J.P. Seaton

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