Lesson from the Mountain

A short lesson from the mountain...

Each year, around March / April, I go stay in a hut up a hill to find some quietude, inside and out :) This time, I planned a lot of Jing Gong, some Dong Gong, and in between reading & writing. 4 days away which, as a home-schooling Dad and husband, was a long time from the 'red dust'* of real life.

The hut is only accessible by foot. A steep winding path ascends through native woods, and brings you out to a ridge clearing, where the hut looks out down the great Wangapeka River Valley. It’s an awesome spot.

On a still days, you can just hear the river deep below, and pines sifting the breeze.

But my quietude was soon disturbed.

I had the company of at least two nocturnal residents: (at least) one rat in the wall and roof space, and (at least) one possum jumping and squealing around on the tin roof.

So, late on my third day, faced with a third night of broken sleep, and came down from the hut…

I did manage some long periods of meditation, in between my re-reading The Secret of the Golden Flower (T. Cleary translation). A must read here.

In it is written this pertinent lesson, which I wanted to share:

“ It is necessary to be working on the Way whatever you are doing in order to be able to ‘sit on the summit of a thousand mountains without leaving the crossroads’ ”

Walking down from the hut, returning via the crossroads to home, I realised that I had been shown my lesson.

Most of our work, our self-cultivation, is achieved through daily, disciplined practice. Away from mountain tops, mantras and mudras.

[And possums].

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* “Refine the Self in the ‘Red Dust’ of the secular world. Nourish Qi in the deep mountains. Sublimate in remoteness.”

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Gregg Wagstaff 衛仕達