Ritual Humility Practice
“The Master said, ‘The leaving virtue without proper cultivation; the not thoroughly discussing what is learned; not being able to move towards righteousness of which a knowledge is gained; and not being able to change what is not good. These are the things which occasion me solicitude.’” Analects 6:3
Ritual Humility Practice
I turn to the mountains—their silence my teacher,
while temples hum with words no one deciphers.
The faithful chant, but who among them listens?
The rituals remain, yet meaning slips like water.
I find my grace in the sun’s slow surrender,
in dialogue with the moon’s unspoken answer.
My solace lives between the breath and sigh,
a quiet reckoning before the dark arrives.
O Master, your worries echo in my bones—
virtue untended, wisdom left unspoken,
truth half-grasped but never fully followed.
Each night, I shed what I failed to change,
and dawn asks again: Will you do better?
*James Legge, trans., The Chinese Classics Vol. 1: Confucian Analects (London: St. George Press, 2024), II: XXIV pg. 195