“The last instruction to the disciple is, “Observe / the jasmine lightness / of the
moon.” This instruction embodies all the instructions. The word “observe” has two
meanings: “to look at” and “to conform to,” as in a ritual. It is at once an instruc-
tion for looking at the church, an instruction for understanding the true nature of
religion, and, most important, an instruction for practicing that understanding.
“Jasmine” and “moon” recall the image of the flower superimposed on the
moon—metaphorically the essence of the divine which is above the institution of
the church. A color mapping reinforces the superimposition of the flower on the
moon: the “lightness” of the moon is the color of the jasmine flower. “Lightness”
is also buoyancy; it suggests an upward motion like the scent of jasmine rising
from the ground, in opposition to the oppressive weight of the institutional church.
The lightness recalls the upward force of the lines escaping.
The ultimate instruction to the disciple is to transcend, to rise above, the insti-
tution. This is conveyed metaphorically in the central image of the poem in which
the lines rise above the steeple that is ordinarily seen as “containing” them. Tran-
scendence, motion beyond the ordinary limits, is also conveyed in the very struc-
ture of the sentence that describes the image of transcendence.”