髮長尋刀削 Long Hair And A Thin Robe
髮長尋刀削，衣單破衲縫。早晨起來洗著臉，叉手躬身皈依大道；夜來收拾燒著香，虔心叩齒念的彌陀。发长寻刀削，衣单破衲缝。早晨起来洗着脸，叉手躬身皈依大道；夜来收拾烧着香，虔心叩齿念的弥陀。
逐句解 Line by line
"When the hair is long we look for a knife to shave it; when the robe is thin we sew up the torn patchwork.
Two matched clauses, each a thing plus the state it is in. 長 is cháng, long, standing parallel to 單, thin — the parallel is what settles the reading against the growing sense. 削 is xuē here, to pare or shave, not the xiāo of peeling fruit.
In the morning we rise and wash our faces, fold our hands and bow, and take refuge in the great Way;
著 is the sustained zhe, the washing held open as a habitual act. 皈依 is the technical term for taking refuge in the Buddha, the Law and the community — the formal act that makes someone a Buddhist.
at night we put things away and burn incense, and with sincere hearts we click our teeth and recite Amitabha."
著 is zhe again. 叩齒, clicking the teeth, is a Daoist devotional gesture that Chinese Buddhist practice absorbed — a small physical punctuation before prayer, rather like crossing oneself.
The rhythm changes completely and the chapter becomes, briefly, a poem about ordinary religious life. Hair grows and is shaved. Robes wear thin and are mended. Morning washing, evening incense.
Everything in it is maintenance. Nothing here is heroic or even interesting, and that is the argument: this is what a hundred lifetimes of monastic routine actually consists of, and none of it prepares a man for something that eats him in a garden.
The teeth-clicking is the detail that gives it away as lived rather than invented. It is a small Daoist habit absorbed into Buddhist practice, the sort of thing a real community does without thinking about where it came from.