Buddhism

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

17

In the third month, when silk worms are small,
women come to pick flowers in a field.
Then they play with butterflies by the fence
and toss toads into the pond.
One gathers plums in her soft sleeves,
another digs up bamboo shoots with a golden hairpin.
If I was forced to compare them,
this village is better than my home.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

16

People are a country’s foundation,
just like a tree depends on the ground.
If the soil is deep, it supports the spreading branches.
If the soil is poor, the tree will decline.
Do not expose its roots,
or the branches will wither and the fruit will fall.
To get fish by destroying a dam
benefits you just one time.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

15

A country person lives in a thatched-roof hut.
In front of his gate, a horse or cart is rarely seen.
Birds gather in the dark forest,
the broad streams teem with fish.
He takes his child to collect nuts and berries,
and together, he and his wife plow the hilly field.
Inside their hut, what do they possess?
Only books on a single shelf.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

14

I am a woman who lives in Handan.
I sing in low and high pitches.
Happily, in this place where you peacefully hide,
this music has been played for ages.
Already drunk, don’t say a word about leaving,
the sun is not yet in the middle of the sky.
In my house, you sleep
beneath a quilt embroidered with silver.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

13

Much has been inherited from their parents,
rice and vegetable fields—there’s no need to envy others.
The wife rocks the loom, cr-ack cr-ack.
The children make baby sounds, gaa gaa.
They clap their hands at dancing flowers,
or prop up their chins to listen to bird songs.
Who will come around to appreciate this?
Woodcutters often pass right by.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

12

In a jeweled hall with hanging pearl screens,
there’s a lovely and graceful young woman.
Looking more beautiful than a goddess,
her blossoming figure is like a young peach.
Her house in the east merges with spring mist,
but in her western house, autumn winds rise.
In thirty years, she too will become
like the remains of sugar cane.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

11

A handsome young man on a horse
swings his whip and points to the pleasure quarter,
saying, “I will never die.”
He has not yet taken a journey.
As the four seasons change, he enjoys flowers,
but one day they all will wither and yellow.
He can’t taste the finest cream and honey
until the day he dies.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

10

A city woman with delicate eyebrows
and a white agate-studded sash
teases a parrot surrounded by flowers.
When she plays her lute beneath the moon,
the melody resounds for three months.
Countless people admire her short dance,
but none of this can last.
A lotus cannot withstand the winter cold.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

9

A parrot who lived in the western country
was captured by a net in Wu and brought here.
A beautiful woman plays with it from morning to night,
going in and out of the courtyard of the women’s quarters.
She keeps it in a royal golden cage,
with a bar to the door that injured its wing.
Unlike a swan or a crane, it can’t
drift with the wind or soar away into the clouds.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

8

Once I moved to Cold Mountain, everything was at rest.
No more useless, mixed-up thinking.
In idleness, I write my poems on stone walls,
accepting whatever happens like an untied boat.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

7

My mind is like an autumn moon
glowing purely in a clear blue abyss.
Nothing compares to it.
What could I possibly say?

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

6

Lute and books should fill your life,
what can fame and money provide?
Abandon your carriage and follow the wisdom of your wife.
A humble cart is pulled by devoted children.
Wind blows over barley drying on the ground,
water floods from the pond stocked with fish.
I often think of wrens
that live peacefully on just one branch.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

5

Go ahead! Make fun of the way to Cold Mountain,
where there’s not a trace of horse or cart.
It’s hard to remember valley switchbacks
below layer upon layer of so many peaks.
Dew weeps on a thousand kinds of grasses,
winds sing through the pine.
Lost now on my path,
Shadow, tell me, which way should I go?

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

4

If you want to attain a peaceful life,
settle down at Cold Mountain.
Subtle breezes blow through mysterious pine.
Listen closely, the sound is really good.
Beneath it, someone with graying hair
reads the Yellow Emperor and Laozi without ceasing.
After ten years, I can never return—
I’ve even forgotten the way I came.

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

3

Amidst cliffs I have made my home.
The paths of birds are beyond human tracing.
What is there beside my garden?
White clouds embracing dark stone.
How many years have I lived in this place,
watching the many changes of winter and spring?
Let me say to those with cauldrons and chimes—
there’s no merit in your worthless reputation!

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

2

No matter how high you climb Cold Mountain road,
the way to Cold Mountain never ends.
The long valley is stacked with boulders,
its shoreline wet with lush grass.
Slippery moss, regardless of rain,
pine trees singing, even without wind.
Who can go beyond the entangled world
to sit with me in the midst of white clouds?

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Hanshan wiki

The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt

Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

1

You ask the way to Cold Mountain,
but the road does not go through.
In summer, the ice is not yet melted,
the morning sun remains hidden in mist.
How can you get here, like I did?
Our minds are not the same.
When your mind becomes like mine,
you will get here, too.

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1
Hanshan wiki
I have a few of these I'll post in here :)

I'm really nervous about making next steps. There's not really anything near me in English for Buddhism and I would really like someone to be a guide or a pen pal.

1. I enjoy games, is bluffing such as in poker forbidden? I don't gamble.

2. Where do I start?

3. I don't understand meditation. Maybe I'm not doing it correctly?

4. Where does the Buddhist code vs religion start. For example I was told you could for example be a Christian/Muslim/Jew/Tao/Hindu/exct and Buddhist.

5. Why do you personally feel this religion is real? Is there something that made you drawn to it?

I'd like to go to a see a service. For example Catholics have church services usually on Sundays. Is there anything like that online for Buddhist teachings? There isn't much near me.

IN BUDDHISM, it is said that love and compassion are made out of one substance, which is called "understanding." If you understand, you can love. But if understanding is not there, it is impossible for you to accept and love someone. Why did he act that way? Why did he say those things? You should look deeply into these questions, and then you will see the causes of what you are dealing with.

With this understanding, you stop blaming and criticizing. Your compassion is born of your understanding of the situation.

176

Training for Happiness

LITTLE BY LITTLE you must train yourself for life, for happiness. You probably received a college degree that you spent years working for, and you thought that happiness would be possible after you got it. But that was not true, because after getting the degree and finding a job, you continued to suffer. You have to realize that happiness is not something you find at the end of the road. You have to understand that it is here, now.

I36

Feed Your Love, Not Your Suffering

NOTHING CAN survive without food, not even suffer-ing. No animal or plant can survive without food. In order for our love to survive, we have to feed it. If we don't feed it, or we feed it the wrong kind of nutrients, our love will die. In a short time, our love can turn into hate. Our suffering, our depression also needs food to survive. If our depression refuses to go away, it's because we keep feeding it daily. We can look deeply into the source of nutrition that is feeding our suffering.

Here is an essay I've written about immortality. I am aware that God is not a buddhist concept, but I believe you will find many aspects of this essay that are strikingly similar to concepts in buddhism. Either link below is fine, they are both the same content.

https://yourconstruct2.blogspot.com/

or

https://www.jamiiforums.com/threads/you-are-god-a-philosophical-essay-on-the-nature-of-existence-reality-and-immortality.1964828/