One carpenter carved an altar

To be placed in the temple

Of Grand Ancestor; and when

It was completed, all who saw it

Were astonished as if it were

The true work of gods and spirits.

I also went to see it and asked

By what art the master of wood

Had so succeeded in producing it.

'I am just a poor carpenter,' he replied,

'Who has only his father's skill with chisel;

Nevertheless, there is one thing

Which I would mention in passing.

'When I, your humble servant,

Had undertaken to make the object,

I did not venture to waste any sort

Of the internal strength of mine

And felt it necessary to fast

In order to regulate my thoughts

'After fasting for three days,

I did not presume to think of any reward,

Rank or emolument which I might obtain

By the execution of my job.

After fasting five days,

I did not presume to think

Of the condemnation or commendation

Which it would produce, or of the skill

Or want of skill which it might display.

'At the end of the seven days of fasting,

I had forgotten all about myself --

My four limbs and my whole person.

By that time all thoughts of the temple,

For which I was to make the workmanship,

Had passed away; everything

That could divert my mind

From exclusive devotion to the exercise

Of my skill had disappeared in the void.

'Then I went into the forest and looked

At the natural forms of the trees.

When I saw one of a perfect shape,

The figure of the altar rose up to my view

And I applied my hand to the work to do.

Had I not met with such a tree,

I must have abandoned the object's pursuing,

But since my Heaven-given faculty

And the Heaven-given qualities of the tree

Were concentrated on it, the altar came out.

'It was that my released spirit was thus engaged

In the production of this piece in the ancestral temple.'