Cold Mountain is a renowned hermit poet. The lecture introduces Cold Mountain, also known as Hanshan.
The plan to play a video about his life has been delayed but will hopefully be available online soon.
Hanshan's life illustrates a unique response to trauma.
Life of Hanshan
Very little is known about Hanshan; he's a legendary figure.
He started as an official with a young family.
During the An Lushan rebellion, which caused significant trauma in Tang Dynasty China, Hanshan may have been caught by rebels and forced to work for them.
After the rebels were defeated, there was no amnesty for collaborators.
Hanshan, whose real name is unknown, became a hermit, leaving everything behind to protect his family.
He lived on Cold Mountain (Hanshan), adopting the mountain as his name.
From age 30 until his death (between 100 and 120 years old), he lived in a cave in the woods.
He occasionally visited a monastery and had close friends there.
He completely detached himself from society.
Understanding "Cold Mountain"
Hanshan represents:
A man whose real name is unknown.
A place: Cold Mountain in China.
A Taoist, Chan Buddhist state of mind connected to nature.
Red Pine's Translation
Hanshan is significant in Red Pine's work, being one of the first poets he translated from Chinese.
Red Pine translated Hanshan's entire extant collection of about 305 poems.
Poem 4 (Page 29)
"Looking for a refuge, Cold Mountain will keep you safe. A faint wind stirs dark pines. Come closer. The sound gets better. Below them sits a gray haired man chanting Taoist texts. Ten years unable to return. He forgot the way he came."
This poem depicts Cold Mountain at around age 40, living on the mountain.
He devotes his life to living according to the Tao, chanting Taoist texts, and being disconnected from the route back to society.
Poem 5 (Page 29)
"My mind is like the autumn moon, clear and bright in a pool of jade. Nothing can compare. What more can I say?"
The term "absolute" reflects the seemingly absolute state described.
The last line echoes Lao Tzu's idea of speechlessness, similar to the Tao Te Ching's opening lines: "The way that can be explained is not the eternal way."
Also similar to: "I would explain if I could have the words."
Enlightenment can be understood but not expressed in words.
In Taoism, the full moon symbolizes the decay and absence.
In Chan Buddhism, the full moon represents the mirror mind, reflecting the cosmos.
The poem confronts the ineffable, that which cannot be explained but can be understood.
This mindset may seem distant from everyday concerns.
Ethical Implications: The Ineffable
The Ineffable: That which cannot be explained, but can be understood.
The mindset can seem far removed from everyday life.
Poem 16 (Page 30)
"Anyway, people ask the way to Cold Mountain."
People are asking the way to Cold Mountain.
Cold Mountain is:
A place
A person
A state of mind: enlightenment, peace, freedom from vexations.
People seek this state of mind to escape daily disturbances.
Challenges to Peace
In the 21st century, constant notifications and news disrupt peace.
Example: A LinkedIn notification about the Trump administration garnishing wages for defaulted student loans.
People seek peace actively through Taoism, Sufism, Sikhism, and other enlightenment traditions.
Cold Mountain has achieved this peace.
"Roads don't reach Cold Mountain. Even in summer, the ice doesn't melt. Sunny days, the fog is too dense."
There is a path to it, but not a road as in one that could take horses.
This alludes to the difficulty of attaining the state of mind.
"How did something like me arrive?"
Hanshan has forgotten how he got there, unable to describe or remember the way.
"Our minds are not the same. If they were the same, you would be here."
Hanshan has gone off the grid, abandoning societal norms and systems of valuation.
He suggests that if others were like him, they would also be in his state of mind.
Cold Mountain's hermit mindset emphasizes the rarity of escaping worldly concerns.
Writing Style and Context
Hanshan's poems were written on leaves and rocks, later collected by others.
Hanshan's mindset involves not being attached to worldly things.
Poem on Fate
"Since I came to Cold Mountain, how many thousand years has it been? Accepting fate, I fled to the woods. I passed the time contemplating what I will. No one visits the cliffs, forever obscured by clouds. Soft grass serves as a mattress. My quilt is the dark blue sky. Happy with a rock for a pillow. I don't care if heaven and earth change."
Hanshan is outside the system, which alters his perception of time.
Interpretation and Scholarly Debate
There are scholars who believe that three people wrote under the name Hanshan.
The poems range from Taoist to Buddhist themes.
Hanshan writes in a language that ordinary people understand, defying poetic conventions.
Social Critique and Personal Choice
The Hanshan mindset is acknowledged as both weird and attractive in that it is a rejection of systems in favor of personal harmony.
The social critique may turn on itself, as not everyone can or should live this way.
Radical Perspective: Balancing integration into society versus complete integration of a radical world view.
Unlike Thoreau, who remained connected to society, Hanshan's lifestyle is far more disconnected.
Poem 40
"An old lady who lives in the East got rich a few years ago. Before, poorer than me. She mocks my poverty now. She laughs that I'm behind. I laugh that she's ahead. Neither of us can stop laughing from East and from the West."
Hanshan would say she is ahead in the wrong way.
He laughs at her metrics of success because he is interested in something entirely different.
Social Context and Progress
The metaphor of progress can lead to a trap of comparative logic.
It's easy to fall into this trap, especially near graduation when comparing job offers.
It's important to question this trap. To what is one ahead?
Comparative logic and competition are far from the way.
Read poems 40 and Shuang Tzu to counteract this.
Poem 53
"Once I reached Cold Mountain, I stayed for thirty years, recently visiting family and friends. Most had left for the Yellow Springs, slowly dying like a sputtering candle or surging on like a passing stream. Today, facing my solitary shadow, suddenly, both eyes filled with tears."
Hanshan expresses sadness over the loss of loved ones.
Emotions and Acceptance
Emotions are a part of who you are.
The disposition toward emotions in a Cold Mountain mindset is that you let them pass through you.
Emotions are like weather; they change. You must accept them.
Reflection on Past
Born thirty years ago, I've traveled countless miles. Along rivers where the green rushes sway to the frontier where the red dust swirl, I've made elixirs and tried to become immortal. I've read the classics and written odes, and now I've retired to Cold Mountain to lie in a stream and wash out my ears."
He washes out his ears to rid himself of negative thoughts.
Washing Away the World
He washes out the sounds.
Washing out his ears of the world of the red dust.
Red dust = The civilized world expectations, schedules, responsibility and planned lives.
*. Getting rid of all the filtering, returning to something more essential.
Cold Mountain
It is a mindset and a place that can lead one back to pure spring water from an emerald stream.
Poem 82 (Page 36)
"Spring water is pure in an emerald stream, moonlight white on Cold mountain. Still your thoughts and your spirit becomes clear. Focus on emptiness, and the world calms down."
This describes the direct experience of meditation.
People feel a slowing down, gaining insight that thoughts are not you.
Ocean's water is boundless. It fishes and dragons by the billion, and everyone eating someone else, busy, stupid, lumps of flesh. As long as the mind doesn't stop, delusions rise like mist."
The moon of our nature is clear and bright in the open and shines without limit.
This poem also discusses meditation.
Poems 304 & 307
"Deep in the mountains, there's always a breeze. No need for a fan. The cool air comes through, lit by the moon, surrounded by clouds. I sit here alone, a white haired old man."
Whoever has cold mountains poems is better off than someone with Sutras. Write a few on your screen and read them from time to time. Cold mountain advice poems."
He ends with the image of an old man at one with his surroundings.
He suggests jotting down these computer screen reminders from time to time.
Put the one about rinsing ears by the place you work at.