NEWS - GEOFF’S RECOMMENDED READING - (SEPTEMBER)

‘Awakened Cosmos: The Mind of Classical Chinese Poetry’ by David Hinton

This month I’d like to recommend David Hinton’s book ‘Awakened Cosmos’. You can buy it here

The purchase of this book is worth it, just for the opening line of the book alone,

“POETRY IS THE COSMOS AWAKENED TO ITSELF” - (Introduction, p.ix)

It is a study of the Classical Chines Poet, Tu Fu (8th Century CE, T’ang Dynasty). It may appear a tad esoteric, but I promise you it is the most sublime insight into poetry and meditation that I’ve read (so far).

Hinton explores the terrain of Tao/Ch’an worldviews and meditational practice. Shula would be thrilled. He considers Tu Fu’s poetry to be not just an act of writing but of mediation, where the everyday is looked at through a contemplative lens.

Poems are analysed in the light of this spiritual practice, each line is made up of 5 Chinese characters, take this one from ‘Gazing at the Sacred Peak’

Gazing at Sacred Peak - Line 3. (C) Geoff Hall, 2021.

This is translated as:

“where Changemaker distills Divine beauty”

This is from the earliest of Tu Fu’s surviving poems, and it gives us an insight into the mind of this Classical Poet. Hinton speaks the Sacred Peak on what was known as Exalt Mountain, this way.

…[the] mountain cosmology begins here in this poem with Changemaker, which also sounds like some kind of deity. But it is in fact Tao, that generative existence-tissue that is the maker of change. In gazing at the mountain , Tu Fu is gazing at a dramatic manifestation of the wild Taoist Cosmos… (p.4)

Hinton also delves into Ch’an (Zen) meditation and I see many comparisons with my own contemplative practice. This is such an exciting book to read, in that it gives insight into the mind of Tu Fu, but also the Taoist/Ch’an meditative practice and cosmology. But also poetry itself as a spiritual practice

If you love Chinese culture, poetry and spiritual practice then please read this book.

Geoff Hall