The meditation chamber held no superfluous objects.
Only a hanging scroll and a three-legged beast-shaped incense burner.
Sinking clouds drifted over distant mountains in the painting; green smoke from the burner transformed into flying birds.
Two meditation cushions sat side by side.
Upon them, one to the left and one to the right, sat two nuns.
One had a body like yellow bronze, her face aglow with Buddhist radiance.
The other wore black robes and a monk's cap, yet neither could conceal her peerless beauty.
From the distant mountains in the painting came an ethereal voice, ringing like a bell—
"My Buddha is merciful."
The voice chimed by the ear, yet seemed to resound within the heart.
It opened the five senses wide and brought clarity to the Divine Soul.
The voice of the true Great Dao.
The two seated nuns both pressed their palms together and chanted, "My Buddha is merciful!"
"When causes and conditions unite, all dharmas arise. Without an empty self-nature, they cannot exist."
The voice continued to drift through the distant mountains of the painting. "Thus it is said: all dharmas arise from causes and conditions; all dharmas perish through causes and conditions."
"Thus it is said: true emptiness gives rise to wondrous being."
The nun whose body was like yellow bronze wore an expression of rapt absorption in divine radiance.
The peerlessly beautiful nun lowered her eyes and remained silent.
Dependent origination and the emptiness of self-nature were the Buddha's realization, scriptures unweathered through ten thousand ages. Yet few could truly grasp the meaning within and expound its Dao for themselves.
"The Great Dao is like a tree; people can each obtain no more than a single leaf."
"Everyone possesses a Dao; everyone can attain right awakening."
"They all rely on this leaf to contend