Amongst White Clouds: What practice entails

 

 While we in the West are hesitant to admit it, the recordings of the heart of Buddhism still lie hidden within its texts.  These texts are essentially thousands of different maps and fingers pointing to the Buddha's recondite Dharma that he realized under the Bodhi-tree.  If we truly intend to practice Buddhism we will need these maps and fingers because the territory where the Bodhi-tree grows is not in our all-too-human world.  It lies quite beyond it.

 

 

I just finished watching Edward A. Burger’s documentary film, Amongst White Clouds, who, by the way, is himself a serious Buddhist practitioner.  In the film, the last Buddhist hermit monk Burger meets and interviews provides us with the essence of what real Buddhist practice entails.

 

“The text [Sutras] contain the true path to buddhahood.  With a little ability ... wherever your mind arrives ... you say, hey! this text talks about that place.  Your mind is there, and the text talks about it, so you have arrived there, right?  Now if you don't have this ability ... even if you read something in a text ... if your mind isn’t there, then you won’t understand, so you practice more.  It’s easy to read a text, difficult to understand it.”

 

The hermit monk who said this, along with the other Buddhist hermits in the film, including a hermit nun, live in China's Zhongnan Mountain range where supposedly Lao-tzu/Laozi composed the Tao Te Ching/Daodejing.  All the hermits who dwell here live in small, rustic stone dwellings scattered throughout this verdant mountain range.  

 

Not in any showy or pretentious manner, these hermits keep the tradition of Buddhism alive through their practice.  From what I could see, their practice seems not to have succumbed to any of the modern tendencies which seem, regrettably, to have made inroads into Western Buddhist practice.  One regrettable example is the enthronement of zazen or seated meditation over the text, not to mention the psychologization of Buddhism, in general, changing its focus to self-help.

 

What is evident from Burger’s documentary is the daily life of tending a sizable garden, cooking, building and repairing hermitages, fetching water and firewood, are integral elements of practice, not just sitting.  But of more importance was the place of the Buddhist text.  It was like the Buddha was still teaching; who was alive and well in these mountains.

 

To some extent, the flim reminded me of what I used to do at my ranch many years ago.  I would rise early in the morning; light the kerosene lamp; stir the coals in the old iron stove; add an oak log; then crack the Lankavatara Sutra which I can assure you, at the time, I didn't understand!  For the rest of the day I hoped that I might understand just a tiny portion of it.  Maybe when cutting firewood I might even understand one word of it!

 

Burger’s film conveys the impression that the life of the Buddhist hermit monk and nun is not by any means easy nor is it brutally painful or sad.  It is exactly made to order for a seeking mind—a mind fully given to comprehending itself which when it happens, hurls one beyond the sphere of birth and death.  In a way, there is a very positive and uplifting side to the life of the Buddhist hermit if they have faith that all of the Buddhist texts do, in fact, point to liberation as a real and attainable goal.

 

By the way, I would highly recommend this movie to be included in the reader's list of great Buddhist flicks.  It is not going to enlighten you nor does it romanticize the Buddhist path, but it will show you a great deal of ‘practice’ in its proper context.

 

 

Comments

[Ted Bagley]

Martin,
I didn't say there was a deeper meaning, I said there was nothing.
You asked me if I was nuts and I said I could be, but my questions to you stand just to find out if it's so.
"Every time I sang de Heart Sutra y "bite" every word..."
I say good for you, but it didn't mean anything to me because you were describing your experience in a way I couldn't relate. That's why I asked the questions next, after I laughed about the being nuts part. Lighten up with the caps lock key.

[Martin Rosberg]

TED: YES, MAYBE WE ARE ALL NUTS, AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT I FEEL WHEN I READ YOUR FIRST POST.
OF COURSE, THERE'S A MUCH DEEPER ARGUMENT BEYOND YOUR PERCEPTION AND ANOTHER -LIKE MINE- WHAT'S THE EXPLANATION FOR THAT? I DON'T KNOW.
IN ANY CASE, WE CAN TALK ABOUT IT MORE PROFOUNDLY BY MAIL. GREETINGS.-

[Ted Bagley]

Martin,
All "hahaha' aside, when you say "feel it", what is the "it" to be felt? After chanting said sutra, what do you mean by internalizing a word or a concept? And what are others at another time?
I tried thinking of what the answers would be, but could come up with nothing.
Yes, I could be a bit nuts!

[Ted Bagley]

hahaha!

[Martin Rosberg]

A beginnig with an end with nothing in the middle? Are you Nuts?
Every time I sang de Heart Sutra y "bite" every word, internalizing them, one time some words and concepts, another time others.
Please, "feel" it!