The Zen rebels: obscure hermits and existential reformers. Shiwu Qinggong (part 7)

(Image from https://terebess.hu)

As discussed in the Zen Master's Zhongfeng Mingben article, 1279-1363 period of the Yuan Dynasty the implementation of Esoteric Buddhism, lead by the Mongols as the main religion at the time, to which the Tibetan Lamas were allowed an autonomous influence to practice the Esoteric Buddhism within China under the Yuan Dynasty.  Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism took lesser of an influential role, however it had already been able to establish a footing within the Chinese dynasty's over the various centuries, to which it continued to add the lineage of Obscure hermits and existential reformers of Zen Buddhism.       

Shiwu Qinggong was born in 1272 and later into his life he became known as “Stonehouse”.  He is probably one of the least of the obscure hermits, although it has been said that he nether saw himself as a recluse nor probably a reformer, for what we know about his history is the large collection of poems that are titled under the“Mountain Poems” - as it is very likely that his inspiration to write in some a prolific manner, was his isolation and ability to be motivated by that seclusion.   A truly disciplined and humble man who now joins the relevancy of being a unique Zen Master.   Not much is known about his parents, nor his background –  and like most Chinese young men at the time, he was educated under the Confucius doctrines.  And in Shiwu's inclination it was his interest in pursing the Buddhist schools and of course the predominant Caodong Zen school's which have spread across China in the 11th and 12th centuries.  He then was ordained as a monk and traveled in his later years seeking teachers, becoming a pupil under the notable Zen Master Kao-Feng.   Later, it was a Master named Chi-an who resided outside the old city of Nanching that Shiwu finally felt closer to the Dharma transmission and this is where in discussing these potential reformers, that also could been seen as inspirational characters of Zen.  These adherents of Zen teachings, particularly monks such as Shiwu – despite, being aware that they have penetrated the mind there seems to be an internal restlessness.  Which stirs within the processes of understanding what detachment and realization mean.  Whether this could be called a struggle or a yearning for further knowledge, is the personal journey in developing an attribute.  That zeal to become a hermit under the teachings of Zen.  A simple perspective, beyond the sutras and ceremonial aspects in attaining the Buddha nature.  To which Shiwu embraced completely. 

Shiwu attained enlightenment under the auspiciousness of the Zen Master Chi-an.   

Shiwu, between becoming a Master under Ch-an and given the responsibility to abbot the monastery at Taochang Temple in Huchou.  He was at the time, probably already a hermit, living possibly in a cave.  This may have contributed to the name “Stonehouse”, as information is scarce of his movements within that time.  What is known, is that he became the abbot to the Taochang Temple monastery to which he spent many years teaching there, later moving across to the Lingyin Temple as a meditation master.  So, he has already achieved these prestigious appointments in the Zen schools and monasteries.  Yet, he has that yearning to return to the mountains, to be alone.  To seclude himself, not consciously as rogue or, as mentioned, even a reformer of sorts.  As he leaves, by his own discretion, one of the last appointments granted to him at the Lingyin Temple, traveling to the Hsiamushan mountains.  There are stories which described that it was insisted that he return to the positions offered to him.  And he may have attempted to reinstate himself back within the monastery structure.  But to no avail and this is why “Stonehouse” should be deemed, in my opinion, as a rebel – because he brought Zen back to the original manifestation of Bodhidharma, who lived and meditated in a cave.  That isolation, in a true Zen meaning, is a powerful realization of the self.  A rawness that in its clarity is what was defined by Ch'an (Zen) and the first patriarchs.  So, this is the appeal of Shiwu and not only did he reassert the early teachings, as a manifestation to himself, of Zen Buddhism in China, he proved, being a hermit Zen Master, to be an incredibly adept survivalist in his final years before he passed away in 1352. 

       
“Plowing and hoeing make up my day 

half a dozen terraced fields ...

in the mountains I'm never idle             

but I've learned what others don't know             

how to channel a spring across a slope             

how to start the morning fire with rocks             

how to hull mountain rice and chop wood.”

His skills, in Zen focus, in staying occupied without idle thoughts to retain his small hut on the mountains:                       

"I don't stop moving all day             
long before sunset I'm done             
back home I wash off my feet and sleep            
too tired to notice the mountain moon's passage             
birds wake me up from a distant grove             
the red sun's disc shines through the pines             
today and tomorrow don't differ             
the years are all the same."

The joy of cooking what he had cultivated with food attained around his small home:

"A meal in my mountain kitchen             
the spring provides the perfect sauce             
behold a stew of preserved bamboo             
a pot of fragrant hard-grain rice            
blue-cap mushrooms fried in oil             
purple-bud ginger pickles."

Then we see, after forty years of  Shiwu's hermitage, that within his poems, he begins to show the hardship that has been endured as a Zen hermit.  More importantly is that his small hut, is now the center of his spiritual shelter.  Which has become his freedom:

"I built my hut on a lonely peak…Am I a fool or a sage?”

“More than forty years I have lived as a hermit             
out of touch with the world's rise and fall…”                     

“…Nothing is better than being free             
but getting free is not luck.             
a humble place free from care             
quiet untroubled days             
who can do as well            
nothing to do or change.”

More importantly is the realization that all worlds are one world within the self.  Shiwu sums this up beautifully:
           
“A hundred years slip by when you are free             
ten thousand cares dissolve when you are still.             
And the hermit's hut is the symbol of this consciousness:             
Standing outside my pointed-roof hut             
how much space do you think is inside             
all the worlds of the universe are there.”

And true power, which is of the mind:

“Cold Mountain has a line
My mind is like the autumn moon            
I have a line of my own             
my mind outshines the autumn moon             
not that the autumn moon isn’t bright             
but once it’s full it fades             
how unlike my mind            
forever full and bright             
as for what the mind is like            
what more can I say"

and finally:

"This body's existence is like a bubble's 
may as well accept what happens 
events and hopes seldom agree 
but who can step back doesn't worry 
we blossom and fade like flowers 
gather and part like clouds 
worldly thoughts I forgot long ago 
relaxing all day on a peak"

____

Authored by Adrian Glass