Aug 02 2019
Hsu Yun – Searching for the Dharma
Searching for the Dharma
by Hsu Yun
You’ve traveled up ten thousand steps in search of the Dharma.
So many long days in the archives, copying, copying.
The gravity of the Tang and the profundity of the Sung
make heavy baggage.
Here! I’ve picked you a bunch of wildflowers.
Their meaning is the same
but they’re much easier to carry.
/ Image by Riki-Tiki-Myu /
Something I wrote a few years back, in the springtime…
Walking yesterday, the trees are shyly showing their green buds, returning color to the world. I turned a corner and was bathed in the honey scent of new plum blossoms. These are the true books of the Dharma.
The great masters don’t wear an academic scowl; a silly grin sits easy on their faces. Must be from so much study on such a Spring day…
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Hsu Yun
China (1839 – 1959) Timeline |
The Venerable Master Hsu Yun was born in 1839 or 1840 in the Guanzhou region of China.
When he was 13, he declared that he wanted to join a Buddhist monastery, but his father refused to allow it. He eventually went against his father’s wishes and became an ordained monk at age 20, in 1859.
He had a naturally ascetic temperament and often refused even the minimal food of a monk. He later went on a three year solitary retreat into the forest where he sustained himself primarily on wild greens and pure stream water.
Hsu Yun traveled quite a bit in his life, teaching in many parts of China and Southeast Asia. He is credited by many with revitalizing Buddhist practice throughout much of the region, which was showing signs of degeneration and decline in the period leading up to and following the communist revolution.
Although he attained immense respect, Hsu Yun remained supremely humble and simple in his lifestyle. He chose to live the final years of his long life quietly in his monastery’s cow shed.
Hi Ivan
With a silly grin on my face,
just came in the “Tea House”
to say simply ‘Hi’ and to thanks
for the beautiful bunch of
wildflowers…
Rest easy in the warm of
a sunny summer weekend…
Anna
everything that we see with the eyes,
how beautiful it may be, is perishable,
only God remains ever the most awesome and
Godly knowledge is the simplest and the sweetest,
it’s only remembering God as God really is,
while staying in the soul consciousness.
Beware the grin not preceded by a scowl.
Yes! Keep it simple.
Spirituality, I have heard, is not a difficult process for simple people.
It is a simple process for difficult people.
Why must I be so difficult?
Would you believe I started to study up on the Song and Tang dynasties to try to figure out the poem!
I’ve been contemplating that statement — Spirituality is a difficult process for simple people and a simple process for difficult people. I feel like I keep turning it over in my head. From some perspectives, I really like it, and from others, I find myself confused by it. Does that make me a simple person or a difficult one?
And what a deep dive to begin to explore the Song and Tang dynasties. Poetry, philosophy, history… I hope you find some rich material that draws your attention.