There is a mountainous region south of my home in which I seclude myself for weeks at a time, with no food or clothes or material things. My body is sustained by the water of the sky and the moss of the earth and my mind is sustained by the songs of the universe.
The highest mountain is a great grey monolith, white with snow at the top and I hence name the Old Man.
I sleep at the bottom of the mountain on a smooth circular rock in the middle of a clear spring which water falls into from the mountain top. Each day before dawn I rise from the stone and swim across the spring to the mountain. I climb the mountain to its peak and wait for the sun to rise. The first rays paint my bare chest with gold, striking each and every tempered muscle as they awake under the Sun's shower.
I dance with the wind beneath the sky above the Earth.
I am the Tiger.
I am the Snake.
I am the Mantis.
I am the Crane.
As dusk falls I sit at the peak and meditate. The sun paints my back gold, then red, then it disappears.
I make my way down the mountain and take my bed once more in the circle in the spring.
Sleep.
When I emerge from my recluse I am born again as the Master you see before you today.
