Some Favorite Quotes From the Work of Bill Porter (Red Pine)

Spring water is pure in an emerald stream

moonlight is white on Cold Mountain

silence thoughts and the spirit becomes clear

focus on emptiness and the world grows still

- Han Shan (aka Cold Mountain), 9th Century T’ang Dynasty, as interpreted by Red Pine, The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

. . . .

Silence thoughts, invite emptiness

The universe beckons.

- journal reflection

Bill Porter interviewed Master Hsieh, a Taoist monk, living on China’s Huashan Mountain. 

Hsieh: Lao-tzu said to cultivate tranquility and detachment. To be natural. To be natural means not to force things. When you act natural, you get what you need. But to know what’s natural, you have to cultivate tranquility. Huashan has long been famous as a center of Taoism because it’s quiet. There used to be a lot of hermits here. But now the mountain has been developed for tourism. The tranquility is gone, and so are the hermits.

Porter: Aren’t they interested in teaching others?

Hsieh: Yes. But before you can teach others, you have to cultivate yourself. You have to know something before you can teach something. You can’t explain inner cultivation just because you know words in books. You have to discover what they mean first.

Porter: If people can’t learn Taoism from hermits, can they learn from monks in temples?

Hsieh: You can’t learn just by visiting a temple. You have to live there for at least three years and help with the daily work. If you can stand the hardship and privation, after three years you can ask one of the monks to be your teacher. It’s not easy. You have to have a clear head and a quiet mind. As I said before, it takes at least three years of physical training before your mind is quiet enough to understand the Tao. 

- from the book Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits, by Bill Porter

One Tiny Hut

The shade of noble trees spreads in all directions

below the trees a tiny hut is perfectly secluded

beyond the sound of cart or horse or sign of human tracks

all day behind my door I sit alone cross-legged 

Clouds release the hillsides and wake the scenes of spring

where is the plum tree that wafts that subtle scent

I grab my staff intending to search secluded valleys

then find a single branch against my eastern wall 

I follow my impulsive feet wherever they might go

my body is a pine tree surrounded by the snow

sometimes I simply stand beside a flowing stream

sometimes I chase a drifting cloud past another peak 

Deep among ten thousand peaks I sit alone cross-legged

a solitary thought fills my empty mind

my body is the moon that lights the winter sky

in rivers and in lakes are only its reflections

- Han-shan Te-ch’ing (1546-1623), as interpreted by Red Pine, The Clouds Should Know Me By Now, Buddhist Poet Monks of China

Spring Travel

Keeping on and on,

a traveler gets farther, farther away;

dust without cease

follows a horse through the world.

A traveler’s feelings

after the sun’s rays slant --

colors of spring

in the morning mist.

The river’s flow heard

at the empty inn --

flowers just blooming

at the old palace.

I think of home

a thousand li away;

green-willow wind

stirs on the pond.

- Han-shan Te-ch’ing (1546-1623), as interpreted by Red Pine, The Clouds Should Know Me By Now, Buddhist Poet Monks of China

. . .

I think of home

A thousand miles away

A horse, a river’s flow, an empty inn

Flowers bloom

I go on, but still think of home.
- journal reflection

. . .

The great masters of ancient times

Focused on the indiscernible

and penetrated the dark

you would never know them

and because you wouldn’t know them

I describe them with reluctance

they were careful as if crossing a river in winter

cautious as if worried about neighbors

reserved like a guest

ephemeral like melting ice

simple like uncarved wood

open like a valley

and murky like a puddle

but those who can be like a puddle

become clear when they’re still

and those who can be at rest

become alive when they’re roused

those who treasure this Way

don’t try to be seen

not trying to be seen

they can hide and stay hidden

Ts’ao Tao-Ch’ung (Taoist nun, Sung Dynasty, 960-1278) comments:

Although the ancient masters lived in the world, no one thought they were special. 

- Chapter 15 from Lao-tsu’s Taoteching, Red Pine translation

Nothing in the world is weaker than water 

but against the hard and the strong 

nothing outdoes it 

for nothing can change it 

the soft overcomes the hard 

the weak overcomes the strong 

this is something everyone knows 

but no one is able to practice 

thus do sages declare 

who accepts a country's disgrace 

we call the lord of soil and grain 

who accepts a country's misfortune 

we call the ruler of all under Heaven 

upright words sound upside down. 

- Lao-Tzu, The Tao Te Ching, Chapter 78, as interpreted by Red Pine 

Hsuan-Tsung (685-762, Chinese emperor, poet and calligrapher, Taoist and Zen scholar) comments:

The nature of water is to stay low, to not struggle, and to take on the shape of its container. Thus, nothing is weaker. Yet despite such weakness it can bore through rocks. Rocks, however, cannot wear down water. 

Chu Ti-Huang (1885-1941, Ch'ing Dynasty official and early revolutionary, student of Buddhism and philosophy) comments:

We can alter the course and shape of water, but we can't alter its basic nature to descend, by means of which it overcomes the hardest and strongest things.