Nothing More Than This

Moving mountains and filling seas, a grand undertaking; wielding sand and hauling stones, united wills form a fortress.
       Towering buildings, magnificent and spectacular; living and working in peace, the splendor of human life.
       Seen from heaven, it is like ants building nests; swarms of ants join forces, carrying sand and hauling earth;
       The nest completed, they dwell together, brooding their eggs; when disasters destroy it, they move and rebuild.
       Your greatness is matched by mine; through kalpas it has been so, cycling round and round;
       A toiling lifetime, in the end returning to extinction; looking back, only the boundless vault of sky.
       Sentient beings cling to this, utterly unaware; deluded, they strive for it—yet it is no more than dust and sand;
       The body arises and perishes, dust-like illusions and motes vanish; the only thing untransformed is not worth a clod of earth.