Page:Three Years in Tibet.djvu/127

Rh go dung-gathering. Apparently there were some hours of night yet left, so I went into the 'meditation exercise,' sitting upon a piece of sheep's hide and wrapped up in the tuk-tuk, a sort of native bed-quilt weighing about twenty-five pounds, and made of thick sail-cloth lined with sheep's wool. Sleep was no more possible. As 1 looked up and around, I saw the bright moon high above me, the uncertain shapes of distant lofty peaks forming a most weird back-ground against the vast sea of undulating plain. Alone upon one of the highest places in the world, surrounded by mysterious uncertainty, made doubly so by the paleness of the moonlight, both the scene and the situation would have furnished me with enough matter for my soul's musings, but, alas! for my bodily pains. Yet the wild weirdness of the view was not altogether lost on me, and I was gradually entering into the state of spiritual conquest over bodily ailment, when I recalled the celebrated uta of that ancient divine of Japan, Daito Kokushi: On Shijyo Gojyo Bridge, a thoroughfare, I sit in silence holy undisturbed, The passing crowds of men and damsels fair, I look npon as waving sylvan trees. In reply to this I composed the following*: On grass among those lofty plains on earth, I enter meditation deep and wide, I choose, nor such secluded mountain-trees, Nor passing crowds of men and damsels fair. I was almost in an extatic state, forgetful of all my pain, when another uta rose to my mind: O Mind! By Dharma's genial light and warmth The pain-inflicting snows are melted fast, And flow in rushing streams that sweep away Delusive Ego and Non-Ego both. Thus in meditation I sat out the night, and when the morning came I breakfasted on some dried grapes. I felt much refreshed both in mind and body, and made good progress on my journey that morning.