Life is but a day;
A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way
From a tree’s summit.

Stop and consider! life is but a day;
A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way
From a tree's summit.

YOU are the big drop of dew under the lotus leaf,
I am the smaller one on its upper side,'
said the dewdrop to the lake.

Your body is like a dew-drop on the morning grass, your life is as brief as a flash of lightning. Momentary and vain, it is lost in a moment. (From 'Fukan zazengi')

…you must be always as a drop of dew hidden in the heart of this beautiful Lily of the valley
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One must be so little to draw near to Jesus, and few are the souls that aspire to be little and unknown.
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Our Beloved needs neither our brilliant deeds nor our beautiful thoughts.
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The Lily of the valley asks but a single dewdrop, which for one night shall rest in its cup, hidden from all human eyes.

Stop and consider! life is but a day;
A fragile dewdrop on its perilous way
From a tree's summit; a poor Indian's sleep
While his boat hastens to the monstrous steep
Of Montmorenci. Why so sad a moan?
Life is the rose's hope while yet unblown;
The reading of an ever-changing tale;
The light uplifting of a maiden's veil;
A pigeon tumbling in clear summer air;
A laughing schoolboy, without grief or care,
Riding the springy branches of an elm.

"Does not the Wise Man tell us — "Life is like a ship that passeth through the waves: when it is gone by, the trace thereof cannot be found"?"

He had long since discovered that peaceful sleep could provide the answer to most puzzles, and if not, what did it really matter? Wasn’t life just a dewdrop within a dewdrop?

The leaves of life are falling one by one

Humanity is a dewdrop on the great tree of the universe. During its brief life span, it absolutely cannot perceive the maturing of the great tree.

Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest. But what does he do if there is no forest? He grows a forest to hide it in.

I am afraid because I can so clearly foresee my own life rotting away of itself, like a leaf that rots without falling, while I pursue my round of existence from day to day.

The wise man reads both books and life itself.

Life hangs from so slender a thread. Life is but a sigh...