ARTICLE
without there being any wind; rocks will fall without warning and strike him dead. Or, yet again, seized with panic, he will throw himself into the depths of a ravine, trying to avoid the attacks of tigers, wolves and poisonous animals. One does not venture into the mountains lightly.
Ko Hung is undeniably wise to warn us of the dangers of mountains. His words were true when he wrote them around 320AD. They remain true today. However, that other great Taoist mystic, Hsieh Ling-yun is also right to describe mountain landscapes as offering endless serenity:
In the mountains, all is pure, all is calm All complication is cut off. Rare are they who know to listen; Happy they who possess wisdom. If the cold wind stings and bothers you, Sit in the sun: it is always warm there. Its hot rays burn like flames.
While, opposite, in the shade, all is frost and snow.
Alongside these paradoxes of immanence and transcendence, and the fear and fascination of mountains, a third paradox arises where mountains can simulta- neously clarify our thinking as well as confound our groping attempts to under- stand the landscapes and our responses to them. Again therefore, it is literature which can offer us a resource to try and deal with this challenge. Words offer us a structure to our fleetingly clear understanding of mountains alongside our more frequently clouded view of their complexity. Toward the end of the eighth century AD, the Tang Dynasty poet Han-shan captured this paradox of clarified thought alongside confounded understanding:
Men these days search for a way through the clouds. But the cloud way is dark and without sign. The mountains are high and often steep and rocky; In the broadest valleys the sun seldom shines. Green crests before you and behind, White clouds to east and west Do you know where the cloud way lies? There it is, in the midst of the Void!
Even when pilgrims and other travellers are away from the mountains, they often find that memories of the peaks will inspire them to encounter their challenges with heightened resolve. Lama Anagarika Govinda saw this when he met pilgrims who returned home from their journey to Mount Kailas in Tibet.
They return to their home with shining eyes, enriched by an experience which all through their life will be a source of strength and inspiration, because they have been face to face with the Eternal, they have seen the Land of the Gods.
In one sense, extensive mountain travel makes us more familiar with the physical 16
London & South East Connection - April/July 2017
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