During my work for the magazine, I had the opportunity to come into contact with some Taoist hermits who were in the stage of practice known as pilgrimage. This practice involves returning to deep mountain temples to cultivate and comprehend the complex and obscure tenets of Taoism, known as “The way from what is beneath abstraction.” Finding true hermits is difficult because they refuse visits from the outside world. However, being a Taoist disciple myself, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit some of these secluded Taoists.

Through my depictions of their various states of mind in silent dialogue with nature and themselves, I attempt to describe a certain midway state of life—an existence characterized by being both lost and full of faith, and the act of meditating amidst the whisper of earthly noise.