The Perfect Day [Mantra] by Murasaki Shikibu

From the Introduction:

For thousands of years, scholars have wondered how the The Perfect Day [mantra] came to the islands of Japan to be uttered by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, the poet famous for writing The Tale of Genji, (Genji monogatari) a seminal Japanese prose text that includes hundreds of tanka poems.

The Perfect Day consists of ten words--to be repeated over and over while reading aloud from any page of the three hundred and sixty plus page manuscript for as often as the pupil wishes. No more. No less. All the pages are identical.

Surely there must be more to it? No. There is not. Simple, yet profound, the text is the text. No more. No less.

For benefit, it must be recited daily.

Whether you find The Perfect Day of interest depends on your approach to it. If you are a skeptic you will only find ten words repeated ad infinitum, to mind-numbing and meaningless effect.

If however you believe in the power of words to strengthen the heart and recharge the mind, you may possibly come to find, as millions of others have, that The Perfect Day mantra, repeated over and over at random is a thought-provoking and valuable work of art, rich in emotion, color, and detail.

--Junichiro Kawahara