Chinese Monks

Bill Porter who became Red Pine is older in this one, so this is an update. There's a real respect and devotion that I really like.

Bird sounds, dogs barking, insects, beautiful panoramas. As the effects of the Cultural Revolution wear off more people come there. One guy says Porter's book Road To Heaven opening things up a little bit, re-educated the Chinese about their cultural heritage. 

A young fellow recognizes him. Porter leaves some money under his bowl of water. The fellow lets bugs bite him. He bows very deeply. 

A woman carved out a cave. It took 3 people 2 months to chisel out a cave. Red Pine talks about translating poets. He was just doing it, and somehow someone got interested in publishing them. I've ordered all the red pine books from my library. I have a copy of his book on the Heart Sutra, maybe I'll give it a reread. He had a Taiwanese wife, and he wasn't allowed to go to China until 1989. He wanted to inspire Americans to a more austere practice, they are too comfortable. He didn't know his book would be a hit in China, but it was.

She gets up at 430am and meditates first thing. She goes for a walk around 6, and by 8 after refreshing herself she makes breakfast. She farms, chants and copies texts, and reads them till 11. Her favorite text is Tao Te Ching. She eats rice porridge and vegetables. If she's not hungry, she doesn't eat. Lay people bring her rice and noodles. She eats potatoes, yams and cabbage in the winter. She eats ginger to cope with the dampness. She has a bush that tastes like mint to Porter, but she thinks it smells like patchouli and it's "heat clearing" in the summer.

He first came in 1989, and he says he's 71 which is 7 years ago, so around 2014-15 the footage was shot. He reports he's lived in Seattle for 21 years, so that's 1993 onward. He talks about his first translation of a Pure Land sutra about the 16 contemplations, it starts out about the sun setting.

The monks seem more like hipsters as he goes along, they have fruit from somewhere else, they they say all the right Buddhist things. He speaks to the camera.

Another monk says tourism isn't bad if the monks are closed off and can practice in part of the monastery and the tourists come and light incense in another part.

The sun sets. One monk thinks words don't really help people, teaching them to meditate, chant and study gets more done. He doesn't like to talk much. He didn't feel like the Dharma healed people's problems. Just giving a hint of the Dharma life possibilities is better. You can see the lights of a city encroaching on the remote mountain monastery. It took Pine 5 hours to hike to it.

A female monks points out that she doesn't have to go to the village any more, presumably people bring food now. They used dynamite to blow up and get rocks for construction. She feels like that Tao is receding. The loss of hardship weakens the practice. Those with weak will quit. She chants the Shurangama Sutra (Some of the main themes of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra are the worthlessness of the Dharma when unaccompanied by samādhi power, and the importance of moral precepts as a foundation for the Buddhist practice. Also stressed is the theme of how one effectively combats delusions that may arise during meditation.). She makes him some bread, garden vegetables and soup, while he stares off into the distance. They show her lips move while she reads a sutra.

He takes a walk with an acupuncturist. He meets a fellow who wants to go over Taoist lineage. He gives him a poem to stick in his pocket. Another guy practices Tai Chi and martial arts. It ends with footage of a guy carrying huge bags up the mountain. 

Chinese Monks. This one has commercials, feel really violent next to the peaceful setting. I'll only watch it once, I'll watch the other one over and over probably.