The Way of the Temple

October 14, 2007 on 1:22 pm | In Shanghai | No Comments

The Way to the Temple

Searching for the Gathered Fragrance Temple:
miles of mountains rise into clouds,
ancient trees darken the narrow trail.
Where is that mountain bell?
Snowmelt crashes down on boulders,
the sun grows cold in the pine before
it drowns in the lake. Keep your karma
in good working order: many dragons lie in wait.
Wang Wei (701-761)

Shanghai Mountains

China continues to be my teacher. Their poetry, our loving Chinese neighbors, our young students, the museums. I have opened my inner door wider each day here. I have begun to study the Chinese master painters, that were totally left out of all my art studies. The aesthetics of their art requires me to meditate deeper, to slow way way down, before I open my eyes, and to see the silence. I am in process of a shifting in my creativity, I can feel it move.

We have found an older Tai Chi teacher, we meet Sunday morning at 9, at the stone gate near by. The local Chinese Culture Center has art classes, and it is two blocks away. This week is national holiday, everything is closed, even the banks, which are usually open 7 days a week from 8am to 5pm. Its their fourth of July, 58 years of being a republic. This doesn’t all make sense since China is centuries old, but trying to understand China through logic and reason is not the way to go.

Shanhai Worker

Everyday I take a new street and follow it on my bike, past the food stalls and smells, and open air markets, and small shops, and people selling fish and eels out of tubs on bicycles. I saw a young beautiful women in high heels, buy an eel, put it in a plastic bag, get back on her scooter and take off, with this eel twisting and turning in the bag.

We were invited to neighbors last week, the first time they have ever had foreigners over and served rabbit and, well, that was the only thing I could identify. On cafe menus we see Sheep eyes, Drunken Horse Bowel, Jelly fish soup.

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