The verse

Press the one string upon its fret each dawning day,Not when a whim should idly bid you play;The patient drop in time will pierce the stone—So let the lute's heart, daily kept, find its own way.

Reading

This lot bids you tune by constant habit, not by passing mood. Touch the strings daily without cease and the tone ripens of itself; ask only whether you hold the lute each day, never what sound it must yield.

The temple keeper adds

The middle path. No drama from the god today — only a road you can still walk.

[ Draw another at the temple ][ Keep a traffic omamori ]