Attractive as an image,
therein lies the secret.
Defined by the mouth as form,
empty as the void,
and home to the hidden,
not knowing within them,
therefore, their creator,
luminous and evanescent,
filtered to obscurity,
worthy of burial.
other readings further drafts from the same generation
deeper strata where the meaning thins
the original
1. Men come forth and live; they enter (again) and die.
2. Of every ten three are ministers of life (to themselves); and three
are ministers of death.
3. There are also three in every ten whose aim is to live, but whose
movements tend to the land (or place) of death. And for what reason?
Because of their excessive endeavours to perpetuate life.
4. But I have heard that he who is skilful in managing the life
entrusted to him for a time travels on the land without having to shun
rhinoceros or tiger, and enters a host without having to avoid buff
coat or sharp weapon. The rhinoceros finds no place in him into which
to thrust its horn, nor the tiger a place in which to fix its claws,
nor the weapon a place to admit its point. And for what reason?
Because there is in him no place of death.