The Deep Awe (Yuugen)

Lyrics

[Intro]
Kamo no Chōmei, in your hermitage of 1212,
that ten-foot square of bamboo and thatch,
I whisper to the wooden bowl on your low table.

[Verse 1]
Bowl, worn smooth from rice grains in Toyama's chill,
autumn evening at ten degrees, pine scent lingering.
You held the plain meals, herbs boiled over fire,
while shadows lengthened at twilight.
Address you now, vessel of impermanence,
as neurons fire in quiet awe, synapses bridging voids.
Like bubbles in the river, vanishing, reforming,
your curve echoes the brain's deep folds.

[Chorus]
Yuugen, the profound mystery in your grain,
Kamo's zither silent beside you, reminder of court ghosts.
Feel the damp air brush skin, bite of wind through walls,
a neural hush where thoughts dissolve into vastness.
Deep awe, like gamma waves syncing in meditation,
Buddhist anicca meeting Greek apatheia in your hollow.

[Verse 2]
Bamboo ladle nearby, splintered handle drawing stream water,
on that mountain path crushed with needles underfoot.
Chōmei, aged sixty-one by 1216, reflected here,
on flows ceaseless, water never the same.
Bowl, you witnessed his solitude, unspoken losses,
family shadows implied in the fading light.
In neuroscience terms, your stillness gates the senses,
pratyahara withdrawing, equanimity blooming.

[Bridge]
What unrecorded paths led to this spot,
moss-damp and pine-sharp?
Bowl, you are the anchor in entropy's pull,
awe's improbable glow in the mind's citadel.

[Verse 3]
Twilight deepens, long shadows over hermitage,
your wood absorbing the chill, the mystery.
Address you as loved one, tool of insight,
where yuugen sparks the brain's resonant soul.
Kintsugi veins imagined in your cracks,
golden seams of beautiful decay.

[Outro]
Kamo no Chōmei, through you, bowl,
the deep awe sighs, a thousand perfect times.