Enlightenment through poetry
The rock scribblings of Han Shan
Ratnavyuha will be introducing everyone to Cold Mountain (Han Shan) over this weekend together at the centre. We’ll be reading his very straightforward and evocative poetry, exploring the Buddhist insights they contain, seeing the common Dharma practice & reflections that Triratna shares with him, and soaking in his thoughtful words and vivid imagery.
My true home is on Cold Mountain
perched among cliffs beyond the reach of trouble
images leave no trace when they vanish
I roam the whole universe from here
lights and shadows flash across my mind
not one charm appears before me
since I found the magic pearl
I can go anywhere
everywhere is perfect
Cold Mountain was a Chinese Buddhist hermit who left the world behind to practice the Dharma. He would visit his friends PickUp and Big Stick on ‘weekends’, and wrote his poems on the faces of cliffs and large rocks. Scholars are not sure, but they believe he lived during the Tang Dynasty of the 7th or 8th century at a time when poetry was a significant part of Chinese artistic, intellectual and aristocratic life.
However, his poetry broke with popular values and the poetic rules and style of his times. Plus, being a poor Buddhist hermit, he would have been unknown to his fellow poets within what was an important part of Chinese ‘high’ culture at the time. His poems are based in natural imagery and fit well with a contemporary ideal of going forth into the mountains and forest to lead a simple Dharma life. They also get straight to the point. They come in three basic groupings: autobiographical poems about his life before he arrived at his hermitage, those which comment on the spiritual delusion and misplaced worldly ambition of ‘the many-folk”, and his ‘transcendental’ poems which describe his spiritual achievements and our potential.
We find these non-residential weekends to be a really helpful way for people to explore a Dharma theme more deeply together over a weekend, while still having time for 'life admin'.
We come together Friday night, Saturday morning and Sunday morning.
When
Cost
$85 (low) / $130
Caring for each other's health
Before attending, please read our current Covid Guidelines. This is part of how we practice together.
Led by
Ratnavyuha
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