At night, on Cold Mountain
At night, on Cold Mountain
Sitting by a stream, moonlight shadows of blue.
Thoughts silent, emptiness welcomed
And the universe beckons.
- Han Shan (aka Cold Mountain), 9th Century T’ang Dynasty, Heron Dance interpretation with acknowledgment to the interpretation by Red Pine in The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain.
Han-shan (Cold Mountain) was a 9th-century T'ang Dynasty poet and Taoist hermit whose work survives in the tradition of the Zhongnan Mountain recluses. His verses are among the earliest to carry both Taoist and early Zen Buddhist sensibility into poetry.
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Reflection
Han Shan does not say the universe arrived. He says it beckons. The stream had not changed, nor the blue shadows. What was already there became visible when the noise inside him went still.
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Question to Consider
What becomes visible when the noise inside you goes still?
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Zen Buddhism resulted from the encounter between Buddhism from India and Taoism from northern China. Poetry was an important part of the tradition of the Taoist hermit monks of the Zhongnan Mountains. The Tao Te Ching is the best known of those poems but there were thousands of others written over two thousand years ago. Many are as beautiful and mysterious as the Tao.
Zen Mountain Journal also draws from the poetry of the Zen Buddhist monks of old Japan.
Zen Mountain Journal offers a Taoist journaling practice for those who seek to connect with inner worlds, with the deep silence and peace within. The poems and paintings in these posts are part of a journal now being created by Heron Dance Press. It will be available for preorder shortly.
