Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2002 3:00-5:00 p.m.
"When the sun rises, I get up. When it sets, I rest.
I'm free
to do what I want in this world, and with this I'm content.
What do I want with a kingdom?"
--The hermit Shan-chuan to the Emperor Sun. Kaoshihchuan,
3rd century.
How does the freedom Americans prize at work and play today
intersect with eons-old Chinese visions of living a simpler
life inside a cloud, under a pine, deep in the mountains,
surviving on moonlight, mud and solitude? To find out, Bill
Porter left Columbia University's anthropology doctoral program
for four years in a Chinese Buddhist monastery, then trekked
the spires and meadows of the Nanshan mountains. His encounters
there with Taoist and Buddhist hermits inform his reflections
on the counterpoint between modern Western ideals of social
withdrawal and self-expression, and Chinese religious traditions
discerning in solitude the pinnacle of social responsibility
and the point of political criticism.
Bill Porter is an award-winning poet, translator and cultural
commentator who lived for many years in Taiwan and Hong Kong
and has traveled extensively in China. His books include "Road
to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits," and, under
the name of Red Pine, a new translation of "The Diamond
Sutra" from the Sanskrit and Chinese; and "The Collected
Songs of Cold Mountain," "The Mountain Poems of
Stonehouse," and "The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma."
The MARIAL Center
Emory West, 4th Floor, Room 415E
Open to the public
Refreshments will be served
