“Above, not a tile over his head;

Below, nowhere to stand.”

There is a stone water basin near the Zorokuan tearoom at Ryoan-ji Temple in Kyoto. The water basin (chōzubachi, ⼿⽔鉢) is “provided so that in the roji [露地, garden] the person [host] who calls and the person called [guest] can together wash off the stains of worldly dust.” The center of the basin which holds the water is square, and the square is surrounded by four Chinese characters to which the square lends the character-root or radical for “mouth.” The four in clockwise sequence from north to west are 吾唯⾜知 (ware tada taru shiru) or “I alone know contentment.” […]

Just now I threw away everything into West Lake.

With whom can I share this clean feeling of release?”