Xuan reached enlightenment in his last monastic lifetime, but he seems to have reincarnated anyway.

Despite all the doctrine repudiating such a possibility, he’s come back as a sparrow.

Focusing his thoughts—GLINT! WAFT!—is more than difficult. FLICKER! WISP! It is excruciating.

To battle distractions—LIFT! SWOOP! LAND!—Xuan sets his bird brain the task of reciting sutras—

REACH! FLUTTER!

—that he cannot for the life of him recall. Instead the seed—SEED! TASTE!—of some primordial chant fills his hollow bones and Xuan dissolves into…

SONG!