It’s time for us to return to Asia. We want to spend time in China, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and Thailand, so we’ve set aside four months and bought round trip tickets to Shanghai, leaving July 16 and returning November 19. It’s been 25 years since we visited Beijing with our four-month old son Julian in 1984. David gave lectures at Beijing Normal University on uses of computers in education (when the most popular machine was a Digital VAX 750). This trip feels a bit like a Buddhist pilgrimage; there are several temples and monasteries in China that are important in the history of Zen. We’d like to find some of the quiet places in China where we can sit with the patriarchs. We’ve always wanted to go to Lhasa and explore Tibet. This time, we hope to do a walk around Mt. Kailash in Western Tibet. We will be returning to Nepal where David had served as a Peace Corps volunteer 1971-73 and where our family had returned to visit David’s village in 1995. We have lots of friends, including former students and teachers at Buddha Padma High School in Taulihawa, though we discovered in 1995 that sometimes it was a bit hard to recognize former students who had now grown up and had children of their own. The trip to Bhutan will be our first — the combination of remoteness and a beneficent king has resulted in a fascinating country. Finally, we would like to explore parts of Thailand outside of Bangkok. Maybe we will get to visit one of the forest monasteries and we’re hoping to relax on the beach before returning to Seattle.

During our travels, I’ll be using a Blackberry Bold 9000 to post journal entries and photos to this blog, abidingnowhere.blogspot.com For details, see Blogging with a Blackberry on our Resources site. Sure is handy having this bluetooth external keyboard (Freedom External Keyboard) so that I can touch type the way I am accustomed, rather than trying to learn how to type with my thumbs! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Here we are in the AT&T store purchasing a memory card that we can use in our digital camera for taking pictures and then inserting it in our Blackberry to upload photos to this blog. This is the first photo taken with our Panasonic Lumix camera that we successfully uploaded from the Blackberry Bold 9000. No computer was needed!

It’s 2:00am and I just woke up to take a pee. Then I started thinking about the process I have just yesterday set in motion — a trip to the remote NW region of Nepal and a trek into Tibet to Mt Kailash. It suddenly took on a feeling of reality when our son Julian responded to my inquiry as to whether he might like to join us. His enthusiasm is marvelous, but it also makes me realize that I have started a chain of events that may very well lead to.a challenging, or shall we say, scary experience. After all, this is a route that gets up to about 18,000 feet and where there are plenty of real dangers of exposure in an extremely remote part of the world. What is it that brings me to do things like this? Especially as my body starts to show signs of aging. An adventure like this is certainly not “necessary”. So why expose oneself to risks like this? When I got Julian’s reply, I was delighted that our son might be joining us. But it also is quite sobering to realize that we are moving from the purely speculative planning stages into the reality of boots on the ground, facing a distant mountain vista and asking ourselves, what have we got ourselves into now? Time to go back to bed; maybe having written this, I can get back to sleep. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Well, putting on the hiking boots and getting out into the woods is the best way to find out how the body will respond to the challenges of trekking. So Cynthia and I set out on a day hike to Mt. Si, near North Bend, just off I-90, about 45 minutes outside of Seattle. This time of year, the Mt Si trail can get pretty crowded, but on this cool drizzly day in mid-week, there were plenty of parking spaces and we just came across a few fellow hikers. We took it quite slowly, so we could monitor how Cynthia’s new hip functions on mountain trails. Well, the hip did quite well; amazingly well, actually. We didn’t have time to go the entire 4 miles to the summit, since we had an appointment for our Chinese lesson in Bellevue at 3:00 pm so we turned around after going about 2 miles up the trail. But after we got back to the car, it was obvious that Cynthia’s knee was having some issues. Some pain and swelling started developing right away. We stopped at a service station restroom to change our clothes and pick up some ibuprufen at the Handy Mart. Why was the knee acting up? Could it have anything to do with the fact that this was the first day of Cynthia’s typhoid medication regimen? Or was the two miles down the mountain trial just a bit too much? Too early to say, but this isn’t boding well for long-distance Himalayan mountain trekking. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Due a fortunate set of circumstances, a 42 lb bag of our cold weather gear has been delivered to Kathmandu. What a relief! Our sleeping bags, boots, warm coats, gloves, and hats, etc will be ready to pick up there when we need them. Our friend Sarita decided to make a trip back to Nepal to visit family and generously agreed to take along an extra bag. So we packed up the things we won’t need during our travels in warmer climes and sent them with Sarita to be stored at her sister’s home in Kathmandu. Now we can travel with carry-on bags only and still have what we need for mountain trekking in Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet. Yay!! Thank you, Sarita! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Well, now we face the test: How much can we reduce our luggage for this trip? Given that we will be carrying it around for 18 weeks, the less we have the better. Generally, this is a difficult area for me. I have a kind of Boy Scout “Be Prepared for any Eventuality” mentality and it often ends up that I’m carrying a much heavier bag than is necessary. After all, it’s possible to find the essentials almost anywhere in the world. I remember reading that when Mother Teresa traveled, she never took ANY luggage! Of course, I don’t expect Cynthia and I will have anywhere near the retinue that followed Mother Teresa, but still, it’s a good lesson to remember about feeling sufficient and letting the universe provide. My more modest goal is to pack everything into a 44-liter Lookout daypack from REI. Tempting as it was to bring along a telescope for the solar eclipse, I resisted that and settled for a pair of binoculars and a #14 welder’s glass. Also, no scuba diving equipment on this trip. See? I really have made progress toward traveling with less.

Well, it took us TWO trips to San Francisco to get our visas for China, but fortunately on our way to Arizona to attend Allison’s graduation, we were able to pass through San Francisco both on the way down and on the way back. The Chinese Consulate requires that one submit one’s passport in person (oneself or one’s agent) and they offer to mail it back with the visa if you provide the stamped, self-addressed envelope. Problem is that when you select this option, you cannot pay the visa fee with your Visa card — (seems like you should be able to) — you have to pay the $130 x 2 in cash, which we didn’t have with us. Anyway, we now have passports with visas in hand. Also, we have a draft of an itinerary the first leg of our trip in China, which we’ve posted on our Resources site. According to the countdown counter, we have just 53 days until we leave.

Going on a long trip like this was a good motivation to get a physical exam and deal with scheduling that long overdue appointment for a colonoscopy. So I had the physical, scheduled the appointment and purchased the “prep” medication — 10 ounces of magnesium citrate and 4 liters of polyethelene glycol solution. To drink in big glasses at 15 minute intervals for two hours. Yuk! But I found that by not eating any solid food for two days before the procedure, I was able to completely clean myself out after drinking only 2 liters of the solution. Interesting. Liquids flow right on through. So everything was moving smoothly along for having the colonoscopy on Monday morning. I had my blood pressure and pulse taken and an IV inserted in my left hand. My pulse was typical — 44 beats per minute. It’s always been low, as long as I can remember. When the doctor came by to explain the procedure, he asked about the low heart rate. He was a little concerned about it, because sometimes a person’s body will have a response to the procedure that lowers their heart rate by 10-20 bpm. And that would be dangerously low. He thought it would be prudent to do a quick electrocardiogram before starting. So they rolled over a compact device and attached half a dozen electrodes to my chest. They ran the monitor for a couple of minutes and the device then spit out a graph of the electrical signals from various parts of my heart. The doctor looked at the graph, paused a few moments, then briefly placed his hand on Cynthia’s shoulder as he walked around to discuss the results with me. Cynthia knew immediately that he had some concerns. The signal from my left ventricle was much stronger than from any other parts of the heart. The machine had automatically applied some algorithms to the data and printed out some diagnoses. The doctor explained that there was some indication that my left ventricle was thicker or larger than normal, and there was some question as to whether the artery serving it was able to provide enough blood. He decided that this was enough to cancel the colonoscopy and recommended that I see a cardiologist as soon as possible. Well. That was unexpected. I haven’t felt any symptoms of anything amiss with my heart. I climbed Mt Rainier last summer, Kilimanjaro the previous year and Longs Peak before that. I’ve been confident that doing the kora around Mt Kailash will not be too difficult for me. So it seems really puzzling. In any case, I was very fortunate to be able to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist in Everett this afternoon. Stay tuned.

It’s really interesting how our minds can launch into worrisome thoughts so quickly and weave such a complex tapestry of “what if” scenarios related to one’s health. Within minutes of hearing the doctor’s concerns about my heart, I was remembering the stories of Enso House guests who only 18 months prior to admittance had been in apparently perfect health. Then all of a sudden … BAM! They’ve been diagnosed with terminal cancer. It would have been difficult to have had to wait weeks for my follow-up appointment with a cardiologist. We’re incredibly grateful that I was able to get an appointment the following day. Getting the “all clear” from him meant that after only about 30 hours of mental spinning, our concerns suddenly went POOF! Now if I could just use this awareness of mortality as reminder of the preciousness of these moments, without getting stuck in fearful thoughts. It’s good to get these reminders from time to time. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Gamow bags are airtight nylon bags, invented a few years ago, that have become popular among mountain rescue organizations, as they have proven to be effective in alleviating altitude sickness. When a person starts to feel symptoms of altitude sickness, they can be placed inside the bag. The bag is then pressurized using a foot pump to about 2 psi, and the person breathes the pressurized air for a few hours, usually finding that their symptoms subside. There is evidence that Gamow bags can be effective in the prevention or treatment of pulmonary edema, which can be fatal. A close friend of ours has given me a tiger eye amulet to keep for the purpose of warding off misfortune. It’s a beautiful small polished stone with a shimmery cast to it, and it’s pleasant to hold. Our friend says she has always kept this stone with her, while traveling to uncountable numbers of places and it has served her well, protecting her and keeping her safe. So she wants me to have it on this trip so we can draw upon its magic. I am so grateful to her. On the subject of Gamow bags, the trekking agency we will be working with does provide these and bottled oxygen as options. Their availability is a relatively new development. Altitude sickness has always been a risk in mountain travel; the rule has been that a person suffering from headache, nausea, shortness of breath, a dry hacking cough or dizziness should descend to a lower elevation as soon as possible. Of course, circumstances can sometimes make this an untenable option. So there is a definite risk. And the Gamow bag and bottled oxygen can reduce the risk. If I think about a scenario in which one of us is coming down with acute symptoms of mountain sickness and thinking that if only I had ordered a Gamow bag but chose not to, then I know there would be some deep regret. In fact, thinking about the possible outcomes gives me a sense of dread. So the question arises as to whether I want to spend $500 to rent these devices and have them carried by our porters, or leave them behind. They are considerably bulky and add extra weight. I’ve never had a Gamow bag with me before on a high altitude trip, and so far I have never needed one. And then there’s the amulet. I’m certain that this stone is not going to provide more oxygen to my blood if and when I experience symptoms of altitude sickness. And I’m equally certain that it is not going to kill microbes in my gut if and when I come down with an intestinal infection. And it’s obvious that this little rock is not going to have an effect on local weather conditions or divert storms. But perhaps it can help with my worries. While the Gamow bag clearly provides an objective benefit under specific circumstances, it doesn’t do much about the tendency to weave endless what-if scenarios. On the other hand, the tiger eye has no objective benefit, but it sure feels good to know that a close friend, for whom this object has been so special for so long, cares enough about our well-being on this trip she has loaned it to me. So I haven’t decided for sure about the Gamow bag, but I’m definitely going to take along the tiger eye amulet. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The day of our departure, July 16 seems auspicious. This is Mumon Roshi’s birthday. He was born in 1900 so this would be his 109th birthday. I met him in 1973 when I visited the Zen monastery, Shofukuji in Kobe, Japan. I would have to say that having tea with Mumon Roshi was a key event in my life, and his influence continues to this day. He passed away in 1988. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Here we are leaving Whidbey Island on the Clinton-Mukilteo ferry. We are incredibly fortunate to have found Susanne to be our house sitter while we’re away. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Kyosan comes to the San Francisco Airport to see us off. We take BART to 16th and Mission where we get off to visit the Gratitude Cafe, a perfect venue for a last meal before boarding our flight to Shanghai. I have a really tasty Bhutanese red rice dish and Cynthia orders a stuffed avacado dish called a Celebration Special. Kyosan sticks with granola and fruit on the side. Did our gratitude draw us to this cafe? Or did the cafe instill in us the gratitude? It defies logic. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Our flight arrived on time early Friday evening. We hired a taxi to take us to our hotel in the city. The concept of freeway driving here is quite different than in Seattle. Everyone is free to weave in and out of lanes without ever signaling. Any gap in traffic is free for the taking– the first driver there wins, and if you don’t seize the spot, the nearest driver will. Amazing that the system works as well as it does. In the U.S., this style would be considered rude; here, it’s just the way things are. The Astor House Hotel is listed as a “Budget Hotel” in Lonely Planet. Built in 1846, it is the oldest hotel in Shanghai. According to the welcome book, the first electric light in China was lit here and the first telephone was installed here. It turns out that Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Charlie Chaplin and Scott Joplin have all stayed here. Our room is HUGE, about 25′ square, with 12′ high ceilings. Quite comfortable. We visited the Jade Buddha Temple on foot and had lunch at the vegetarian restaurant there. Tasty noodles with lots of different kinds of mushrooms. Tomorrow we’re off to Moganshan, a mountain from where we hope to see the eclipse on Wednesday. The weather forecast for mid-week is calling for clouds and rain, but things could change before then. Stay tuned. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The apartment we are staying in, the Moganshan Loft is in a beautiful setting overlooking Laoling Lake and a view of Mogan mountain. We have a top floor unit with an open view of the southeastern sky where the sun will be during the eclipse. With less than 24 hours to go before eclipse time, we are seeing increasing cloudiness, a mixture of high cirrus and incoming lower stratus. The forecast for Hangzhou, a city about 25 miles from here for tomorrow is: Isolated thunderstorms in the morning becoming more widespread in the afternoon. High 92F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. So it all depends upon how those thunderstorms play out. I am reminded of the time several months ago when a group of school kids came up to visit the observatory on Whidbey Island. Just before they set out, the sky was clear, but when they arrived, a thick fog had settled in. It was impossible to see anything in the sky. I explained to the kids that all we could see was the fog. But they were undeterred. They shouted excitedly, “Can we see the fog through the telescope?! Can we? Can we? Please, please?!!!” I had never before tried to look at fog through the telescope, but I invited them into the observatory nonetheless. Looking through the eyepiece, there was nothing but darkness to be seen. But the kids exclaimed, “Cool!” And they all wanted to take a look in turn. So there was a good lesson there, probably one we will have an opportunity to apply tomorrow morning. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

This morning we woke to overcast conditions and flashes of lightning in the distance. A couple of hours before the eclipse, it started raining. We sat down with a cup of coffee and checked the weather forecast. Not promising. Basically, a wide swath of clouds from Shanghai in the east to Wuhan and Chengdu in the west. Not favorable for eclipse viewing. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The whole sky is cloudy, but as clouds drift in front of the sun, there are times when we can make out sun’s disk (before the partial eclipse has started) and a little later, we catch glimpses of the crescent sun, partially blocked by the moon. We take some pictures through the dark #14 welder’s glass. If we are totally clouded during totality, we will still have a few souvenir photos of a partial eclipse. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Anyone who witnesses a total solar eclipse knows what awe is. Our normal perception of diurnal cycles is so deeply ingrained that when daylight suddenly turns to darkness and an unfamiliar ring of light hangs over our heads, our attention becomes acute and our sense of mystery is heightened. Tears start streaming down Cynthia’s face. My eyes widen. THIS is unique! As clouds part for a few seconds in this longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, we are granted brief witness to this amazing astronomical spectacle. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

We knew that finding our accommodations at Moganshan Loft required that we take a bus to De Qing and then catch a taxi to Moganshan. What we didn’t realize is that our taxi driver didn’t know how to get to Moganshan Loft (and neither did we) nor that his three-wheeler taxi didn’t have the power to climb the mountain. So we were puzzled as to what to do when he dropped us off midway up the mountain. We were reluctant to pay him, as we had not reached our destination but were not sure how to proceed. Fortunately we were rescued by some Israeli travelers, one of whom spoke Chinese. They invited us to join them in their larger van and the one who spoke Chinese explained that their driver would pay our driver once we got to our destination. We accepted that and went on with them. The Israelis were staying at a hotel inside Moganshan National Park. We soon found ourselves at the entrance to the park and had to pay the entrance fee. It was only later that we discovered that our hotel was not within the park at all, but farther down the mountain. So after the Israelis were dropped off and after several phone calls, we were delivered finally to our accommodations at Moganshan Loft. But there was no front desk and no receptionist to be seen. Only an elderly man with a bandaged arm, dressed in boxer shorts. The man spoke rapidly and insisted that we pay him some money. I understood practically nothing of what he was saying and I was not at all sure why we should pay him; we had just arrived and I had already paid a 33% deposit for our room. When we called the owner, with whom we had made our reservations, he informed us that he lived in Hangzhou and was presently on a business trip. He explained that the man in the boxer shorts was the manager of the property. Soon the manager gave us a key and showed us our room. We hadn’t eaten all day, so we were getting hungry. He motioned with the universal fingers-together-and-hand-to-the-mouth gesture, indicating that we could get something to eat next door. Next door we saw several laborers eating at a table next to a makeshift outdoor kitchen. We waited until the men finished eating and left the table. With the universal eating gesture, the two women cooking asked if we wanted something to eat and we nodded enthusiastically. Then we were led into the food storage area where there were all kinds of vegetables and meats and spices. They seemed to be expecting us to point to the foods we wanted. We had no idea whether they were inviting us to purchase the food and cook it ourselves, or whether they would cook it for us and serve us a meal. We pointed to some eggs and some tomatoes and some tofu. They motioned for us to sit down. Soon they were placing in front of us a mouth watering tofu dish, an egg-tomato dish and a plate of rice. We ate it all with gusto. So it all worked out just fine; we had a place to stay and our bellies were full. The day just didn’t resemble the expectations we had about finding a hotel, checking in, and ordering a meal. And without being able to understand what people were saying, we had precious little information to use for making sense of the situation. And you remember those Chinese lessons we took before the trip, to learn some Mandarin fundamentals? Well, it turns out, in this part of China, the dialect is very different from Mandarin; it sounds like a completely different language. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

In the dharma lineage recognized by Sogenji monastery in Okayama, Japan, the 27th ancestor after Bodhidharma is Nampo Jomyo Zenji, who lived from 1235 – 1309. According to Andy Ferguson, author of the book, Zen’s Chinese Heritage, Jingci Temple in Hangzhou is where Nampo Jomyo learned much about Zen and tea culture before taking his knowledge back to Daitokuji Temple in Kyoto. This is where the famous Japanese tea master Sen Rikkyu established a tea dojo. Today, Jingci Temple is visited my many Chinese people who pay tribute to the ancestors by lighting incense sticks, bowing to the north, south, east and west, then placing their incense in a very larger burner in front of the temple. What I liked best here was the billboard erected recently by a Buddhist organization which says, “A harmonious world begins in the mind”. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

We spent the night at the city of Huangshan, which is about two hours short of the summit of Huangshan mountain. “Huang” means yellow and “shan” means mountain. We will be staying in one of about 5 hotels that are located near the top of the mountain. To get here we took a van for an hour and a half, a shuttle bus up the mountain road and a cable car similar to what you see in large ski resorts. The elevation here is about 5,000 feet. It was raining when we left this morning and the rain has continued pretty much the whole day. There are shops that sell plastic raincoats, including rain pants for 10 Yuan – about $1.50. That was one of our best investments. We passed up the booties they sell, so our shoes need to be dried out tonight, but it hasn’t been cold, just wet. The heavy cloudiness has obscured some of the views so far, but this place is obviously incredibly scenic — steep granite peaks with pine trees clinging to the crags, misty clouds drifting among the foliage. We will be up here two nights, so we may get some more photography opportunities tomorrow. Our Lonely Planet guide book says that Huangshan “is not one of China’s sacred mountains, so little religious activity is evident,” but I wonder whether there may be more to the story than that. The scenery is so stunning, it looks like the place calls out for sacred. Any Buddhist or Daoist scholars out there who can shed more light on the subject? What religious significance do the Huangshan mountains have? Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

These two well-named sights are called “Flower Blooming on a Brush Tip” and “Beginning to Believe Peak”. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

For a slideshow of some of our photos of Huangshan, try this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621856871074/show/ Good luck! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

To all our perspiring Seattle friends: wish you were here in nice cool Hangzhou. Here are links to some of our photos of the past two weeks: Eclipse http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/721576217440843411/show/ Huangshan http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621856871074/show/ Hangzhou http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/7215762176426156/show/ Jingci Temple http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621868433172/show/ Lingyin Pagoda http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621868407490/show/ Chungkang Village http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621868269900/show/ Keep cool! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

I (Cynthia) sit in a hotel at the top of the Yellow Mountains. Those famous mountains that appear out of the fog with beautifully shaped trees growing at perfect angles out of the rock. No landscape designer could plan such perfection. Whole ridges appear and disappear in a few blinks of the eye and each scene seems like it must have been the most beautiful. It does, indeed, have a spiritual quality. I feel a deep gratitude to be in this place. This constantly changing view leaves me pondering what may be before me that I don’t see due to my own fog or mist. Anticipating what is next… Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Cynthia and I are at the train station in Hangzhou, waiting for the overnight train to Nanchang, scheduled to leave at 7:41pm. We are in the Soft Sleeper Waiting Room. We haven’t had dinner yet and the options here in the waiting room include candy, biscuits and fruit juice. So I was curious as to whether we would be able to order dinner on the train. So I went up to the woman who took punched our tickets, showed mine and asked, “Qing wen, zhege huo che, yao buyao, wan fan?” (Lit. Please may I ask, this train, is there or not, dinner?) [Probably not grammatically correct, but it contains the main ideas) And she replied, “Yao de” (It is) Not sure what the “de” means, but the “Yao” was good enough for me. We’ll expect to have dinner on the train. So I just wanted to say, thank you, Ms. Pamela Lin, our Chinese instructor and Josette Hendrix who hooked us up with her. Lin Laoshi, you just saved us from a dinner of candy and biscuits! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Baofeng Temple, located just north of Nanchang is a large, operating Zen temple. It looks like there has been a lot of recent refurbishing, We didn’t see a lot of monks, but the few we did see looked us in the eye and greeted us warmly. In the eighth century Baofeng was the dharma seat of Ma-tsu (Baso Do’itsu in Japanese), who lived from 709-788. Rinzai Zen in Japan traces its origins to Ma-tsu, seventh in the line of patriarchs after Bodhidharma. Ma-tsu excelled at training monks, producing nearly a hundred successors. Quoting from THE RECORD OF MA-TSU in the book Roaring Stream, “The Ancestor said to the assembly, ‘… If one wants to know the Way directly: Ordinary Mind is the Way! What is meant by Ordinary Mind? No activity, no right or wrong, no grasping or rejecting, neither terminable nor permanent, without worldly or holy.’ ” This is the instruction I needed during our overnight train trip to Nanchang. Cynthia and I were assigned the upper and lower berth in a Soft Sleeper compartment and were looking forward to a restful night aboard a gently rocking train. Then a young man, in his mid-thirties showed up to claim his upper berth opposite ours in the same compartment. He seemed like a nice enough fellow, and we had no problem with him taking a phone call before we turned out the lights. Then he got another call, around 11:00 and that lasted for nearly an hour. Then another call around 1:30 am; it sounded like he was talking with his girlfriend, for at least another hour. Then another call at about 3:00 am. What’s with these people with their cell phones!! At that point I felt that I was really being tested– I didn’t feel like I had slept at all. So I got up and put in some ear plugs, but they were only partially successful. I tried to maintain an attitude that his end of the conversation was just random sounds, basically no different from the random sounds of the train wheels on the tracks. But I had a hard time convincing myself of this. The guy was still talking with his girlfriend at 4:00 am! In desperation, I got up and sat zazen on the lower berth beneath the man with the cell phone. That helped a bit. Then I tried one last time to get some sleep before the train arrived in Nanchang at 5:35 am. I managed to catch a few minutes of sleep, but Cynthia was still awake. She found it challenging to fall asleep, especially when she realized that she was only about four feet away from a person having telephone sex. So when the train arrived, we were both rather bleary eyed. Fortunately our driver was there to meet us at the train station and take us up to Baofeng Temple. I remembered a line from the book, “The Art of Pilgrimage” by Phil Cousineau: “The bittersweet truth about travel is embedded in the word, which derives from the older word travail, itself rooted in the Latin tripalium, a medieval torture rack.” That night on the train really did feel like torture. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

[Cynthia’s observations] On Mt. Lu, we as westerners are very rare. In fact we hadn’t seen any others as we took a morning walk up to the village. In the park near a viewpoint into a valley, we saw many elderly Chinese people playing games — a unusual version of checkers, majong, and a gambling game with Chinese characters on thin strips of paper. Women were engaged in dancing/qigong and another man was playing a traditional two-stringed instrument. We glanced up and spotted a young western man across the street. We nodded in recognition and went about finding a place for a breakfast bite. A moment later, the young man along with several Chinese young people followed us in, curious about how we came to be there. His grandmother had gone to school in this mountain top village. I would have liked to know more of this story as I think it would have been quite an interesting piece of personal and cultural history. We returned to our overpriced, musty, mildew-smelling, dirty hotel and checked out, needing to figure out how to make our way down this steep mountain. The three young women working there brainstormed, and hailed a taxi for us which took us up the mountain. The driver then secured us a place in a minivan to take us down the mountain. The minivan dropped us on a busy street corner 3 km from the bus station. A young Chinese man who spoke some English then secured us a taxi to take us to the bus station. After 1-1/2 hours we ended up on a filthy old bus to Huangmei. We looked longingly at the air-conditioned long distance buses next to us as our rickety bus pulled out of the bus station. When the conductor at the gate saw our ticket was to Huangmei she gave us a brief look of pity (or was it sympathy)? In Huangmei the bus driver dropped us at the corner of some rutted back streets. Across the street some young women in a bathroom fixture shop motioned us in. They gave us glasses of water and they and the people from the neighboring shop decided they must help us find an appropriate place to stay. Then they called the owner of the shop who came and took us to a lovely hotel, the Royal Hotel; he stayed with us until he was assured that we would be well cared for. The staff of the hotel are enjoying practicing their English language skills with us and we are enjoying clean surroundings and air conditioning and a bathroom without jumping spiders. In general, in the countryside, not many people speak English and here in the south, they speak a dialect that little resembles the Mandarin we learned. With almost no direct communication, quite a large number of people have helped us arrive at our destination with relative ease. We feel great appreciation for all the efforts they made for us. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

As we walked into the Fourth Patriarch’s Temple, the one thing we needed most was someone to let us know whether it was possible for us to stay overnight, and if so what the procedure was to do so. We had no idea how to find out or where to go. At that moment, a taxi pulled up and two women got out carrying some luggage. This looked hopeful. I went up to the older woman and asked if she spoke English and she motioned to the younger woman, her daughter. The younger woman came over and asked if she could be of any assistance. She introduced herself as “Carla”, and asked us to follow her. It turns out she and her mother had come to stay at the temple for three weeks where she would participate in a week long “camp” for university students interested in Buddhist practice. She took us to the monk who was responsible for checking in visitors. Carla has been our personal guide, interpreter and assistant throughout the day. We couldn’t have asked for a better welcome. Cynthia and I were directed to separate (but adjacent) dormitory rooms, where we have been relaxing and enjoying refreshing cold showers. Carla showed us around the temple and escorted me up the long flight of stairs to Tao-hsin’s stupa, which house his relics. Cynthia chose to pass up the stair climb and enjoy the quiet pond instead. We had a nice long chat with Carla about the resurgence of Buddhism in China and the number of new reconstructed temples that are have been conducting summer camps for university students for the past 6-10 years or so. In fact, the camp here will start next week with 180 participants. There are a huge number of preparations underway to accommodate the students. The daily schedule has been modified so that the formal meditation periods have been omitted. A cafeteria style vegetarian dinner was served around 6:00. Men eat on one side of the hall and women on the other. At 7:00 pm we joined the chanting service held in the hall with three big buddha statues There are cushioned low benches for doing prostrations. There were about 50 monks and 10 nuns plus about a dozen lay people in attendance. The chanting has a soothing quality that tends to stay with you after you leave the hall. Lights go out at 9:30 pm. Carla suggested I set my alarm for 4:00 am, as the morning service begins at 4:30. We had a few moments to stand outside the hall to listen to the head monk doing some chanting. His chanting was punctuated by a rooster crowing and some bats flying around. Seemed a bit early for the rooster, as it was still pitch dark. The morning chanting service was similar to the evening’s. Most of the monks knew the chants by heart, but a few held chant booklets to read along. When the head monk noticed that I asn’t chanting and didn’t have a chant booklet, we went over and got one for me. At first I thought I should refuse it as it was all in Chinese, but then on second thought I accepted it as to not be rude. About the only thing I could gather from the booklet was that you turned the pages from right to left and the characters were read vertically in columns from right to left. Oh, I did notice that some characters were repeated. Other than that, my practice was to try to keep track of when to have my hands palms together and when clasped over my chest, when to go down into a prostration and when to come back up again. After the morning chanting service we were served breakfast, this time in a slightly more formal “Zen-like” style. We each had two bowls in front of us and a pair of chopsticks. People serving the food came by periodically and you could indicate our wish to have some by placing your bowl forward, or pass it by by pulling your bowl back. No food is to be left in the bowl when you are finished. They come by with hot water so you can wash out the last grains of rice and drink the liquid. After some meal chanting, we each filed out to wash our bowls in a sink, before placing them in an upright steam sterilizer. Everyone is busy preparing for the summer camp while Cynthia and I are reading and writing. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Dayi Daoxin (Tao-hsin in Chinese Wade-Giles, and Daii Doshin in Japanese Romanji) lived from 580 to 651. Some background from the book, Zen’s Chinese Heritage, by Andrew Ferguson (pp 24-25): _____ When he was fourteen years old he went to pay respects to Sengcan Jianzhi, the Third Patriarch. Daoxin said, “I ask for the Master’s compassion. Please tell me of the gate to emancipation.” Sengcan said, “Who has bound you?” Daoxin said, “No one has bound me.” Sengcan said, “Then why are you seeking emancipation?” Upon hearing these words, Daoxin experienced great enlightenment. _____ Daoxin acted as Sengcan’s attendant for nine years. After leaving Sengcan, taught at “Broken Head Mountain” for thirty years. This is the present location of the Fourth Patriarch’s Temple. Daoxin is often credited with creating the first self-sufficient monastery for Zen monks in China. According to Bill Porter, Author of the book, Zen Baggage, “When people think about Zen, they usually think of it in external terms: nonsensical talk, spontaneous behavior, or minimalist art forms. But that would be to look at it from the outside. If you look at it from the inside, from your own mind, Zen is just a way of living. And that way of living is far easier to realize in a communal setting with the support of others than it is alone. Seclusion has its place, especially once a person has practiced in a community, but it was its communal approach to spiritual cultivation that was the strength of Zen. That was why it overwhelmed all other Buddhist sects in China, both in terms of numbers and in terms of influence. Its success was Darwinian. It produced a better-trained monk and more of them. Other sects were ideology-driven. Zen didn’t have an ideology. Zen was life-driven. Its motto was ‘No work, no food.'” Self-sufficiency has been a hallmark of Zen in China and is probably partly responsible for its resurgence today. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

With 4:00 am wake-ups for the past couple of days, neither Cynthia nor I think we will be able to stay up much past 8:00 pm tonight at our hotel back in Nanchang. But I did want to share this little quote from Hakuin in today’s newsletter from the Upaya Zen Center: ___________ Hakuin’s Four Ways of Knowing When you see something, shine through it; when you hear, shine through what you are hearing; shine through the five skandhas; shine through the six fields of sense perception—in front, behind, left and right, through seven calamities and eight disasters, become one with radiant vision of the whole body. See through all things, internal and external; shine through them. When this work becomes solid, then perception of reality will be perfectly, distinctly clear, just like looking at the palm of your hand. At this point, while increasing the use of this clear knowing and insight, if you enter awakening, then shine through awakening. If you get into agreeable circumstances, then shine through agreeable circumstances. If you fall into adverse situations, then shine through adverse situations. When greed or desire arise, shine through greed and desire; when hatred or anger arise, shine through hatred and anger; when you act out of ignorance, shine through ignorance. When the three poisons of hatred, greed, and ignorance are no more, and the mind is pure, shine through that pure mind. At all times, in all places, be it desires, senses, gain, loss, right, wrong, visions of Buddha or of dharma, in all things shine through with your whole body. From The Upaya Zen Center’s newsletter, Aug 3, 2009 http://www.upaya.org/newsletter/view/2009/08/03 Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Cynthia’s impressions of Lu Hua (“reed flower”) temple: In the mountains above the 4th Patriarch’s Temple, about 2 miles up a steep, still-being-built road, a newly built nunnery nestles gently in a setting that seems to have been waiting for its appearance. Unlike other temples we have visited, this modest temple seems perfectly integrated into the surroundings with a lovely lake fed by a waterfall. Plants from outside the walls flow into the grounds. The buildings have more human, less grand proportions. A young Chinese man commented that everything in the “female monks” temple was required to be smaller. I am guessing the nuns are more comfortable in their connection with the earth and more earthly proportions. There was a welcoming shyness in the smiles of the few nuns we encountered. They all seemed very busy as they went about their daily routines. I feel very pleased with this brief encounter in what has otherwise been a very male dominated institution. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The Fifth Patriarch, Daman Hongren (Hung-jen in Chinese Wade-Giles and Daiman Konin in Japanese Romanji) was born near Huangmei in 601. He became a monk at a young age and was one of the first residents of the temple built by Daoxin. In 651, when Daoxin, the Fourth Patriarch died there were over 500 monks living here. Three years after Daoxin passed away, Hongren sought a site for a new temple. He found a place on Fengmaoshan, a mountain that belonged to a man named Feng Mao, located about a half-day’s walk from Daoxin’s temple. When Mr. Feng heard about Hongren’s plans, he gave him the mountain. The new monastery was able to support over 1,000 monks by the time Hongren passed away in 675. [From the book, Zen Baggage, pp 206-207] According to Bill Porter [ZB, p. 209], the only record we have of Hongren’s teaching is from his “Discourse on the Supreme Vehicle”: “The key to cultivating the Way is knowing that your own mind is originally pure, that it is neither created nor destroyed, and that it is free of discrimination. The mind whose nature is perfectly pure is your true teacher and superior to any of the buddhas of the ten directions you might call upon. … If you concentrate on guarding the mind, delusions will no longer arise, and the reality of nirvana will spontaneously appear. Thus you should know that your mind is originally pure.” After our taxi dropped us off at the entrance to the Fifth Patriarch’s temple and drove away, we stood with our bags at our feet, as a woman walked up to us, excitedly pointing to our bags and loudly shouting to us in Chinese, very concerned about something for which we had no clue. Should we move our bags? Should we pay an entry fee? Should we get out of there as soon as possible? The busybody wouldn’t stop. We kept saying “Bu dong, bu dong” (I don’t understand), but she kept on berating us in Chinese. I fumbled with my phrase book, hoping I could find something that would calm her down. We just wanted to visit the temple for a few hours; we didn’t intent to stay overnight. Maybe a phone call to the travel agent in Nanchang would help explain this to the woman. So I called “Mary” in Nanchang and had her speak with the busybody. That seemed to help. The woman stopped her tirade. We entered the temple and paid the entrance fee. We turned to go in and right in front of us, completely blocking passage into the temple was a mound of construction debris about 20 ft high. So now what? It was time to bring out the big guns from my phrase book: “Cesuo dzai nar?” (Where is the bathroom?) The ticket collectors pointed to a hallway on the left — lucky for us, no only was the toilet just a few feet away, but this was the temporary access route to the temple during construction. The temple was quite fascinating– especially the statues of the mothers of the first six Zen patriarchs and the rice-pounding stone used by Huineng, the “jungle rat” who became the Sixth Patriarch. And my mind felt considerably more pure after the bathroom break. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

As I was waking on the morning we were to fly from Nanchang to Xian, the memory of our only internal flight 25 years ago came back to me. We arrived at the airport about an hour before the flight from Beijing to Nanjing. The airport terminal, a dirty, squat building was completely locked up. There was no sign of activity. We wondered if we were in the right place. After about twenty minutes, some officials turned up, unlocked the doors, took our tickets and we were escorted to a plane, a very shabby plane. The seat back wobbled. There were no seat belts. It felt like the seats were missing a few essential bolts. The attendant offered us a piece of hard candy. David and I glanced at one another wondering if it was really safe to take our five-month-old first born child on such a contraption. And, of course, we breathed deeply and settled into out seats, arms around our sleeping son, and had a safe flight. Now airports are large and modern, especially considering the somewhat limited amount of air traffic during this economic downturn. We did wait in the plane for two hours due to a thunderstorm in Beijing but that was a welcome wait in the interest of safety, given the rough weather. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Fourth Ancestor’s Temple http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621961414886/show/ Lu Hua Nunnery http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621836923887/show/ Fifth Ancestor’s Temple http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621961419232/show/ Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The China we see today, 25 years after our previous visit, is a completely different country. Twenty-five years ago, we could sense the potential of an economic powerhouse, from the intense energy of the people, their huge numbers and the vast size of their country. Now it has become a reality. The capitalist engine is running at full steam and the consumer culture is in high gear. There are huge construction projects all over the country — superhighways, city skyscrapers, countless housing and commercial development projects, as evidenced by the myriad construction cranes in nearly every city. At the moment, many of these projects seem to be in a state of suspended animation — the cranes mostly stand idle over partially finished buildings, due undoubtedly to the worldwide economic downturn. But you sense that when things turn around, these projects will restart where they left off. And China seems to be poised to lead the recovery. We haven’t seen the sprawling ghettos that surround so many large cities around the world; there are plenty of extremely wealthy families here, a strong middle class and a huge working class that seems to be getting by — we haven’t seen much abject poverty at all — a few homeless people on the streets, but not as many as in Seattle or San Francisco. Commercial advertising is intense. The big public squares of Xian have giant LED video screens blasting messages to stimulate desire to purchase flashy cars, fancy clothes, perfume and liquor. There are hundreds of shopping malls hawking products of international brands. The only category “missing” relative to current American-style advertising is the class of pharmaceuticals that you should really ask your doctor about. While the theme song of today’s youth may seem to be “Material Girl,” there is another trend we discovered in talking with a 26-year old girl and a young man of similar age who came to attend a week-long workshop on Buddhism at the Fourth Patriarch’s Temple near Huangmei. She and her friend agreed that while their courses at the university provide them with a huge amount of information, it’s difficult to find instruction on how best to live one’s life. This is why the summer workshops at several Buddhist temples around the country are in such high demand. While many temples were in disrepair for much of the 20th century, and huge numbers suffered further destruction during the Cultural Revolution, since the 1990’s there has been a surge in reconstruction of temples driven entirely by donations by wealthy patrons and a hands-off policy by the government. The government tolerates worship and encourages tourism in temples, especially as entry fees provide a revenue stream to the department of tourism. There is much greater openness now than there was 25 years ago. Then we had to be kept under the watchful eye of a “guide.” Now we can travel relatively freely on our own. There still are clear indicators of a heavy-handed central government trying to control the media. The most aggravating example is the way the government blocks certain web sites. For example, you cannot get to Facebook or Twitter or most of the social network sites via an Ethernet connection. [I can still get to Facebook using my BlackBerry via the cell phone network, however.] Even Google’s blogspot site is blocked. This means that none of the photos I post to our blog can be viewed on computers in China. The English language newspaper, China Daily is an interesting mixed bag. There are plenty of articles bemoaning corruption of government officials, but on the other hand, there is no tolerance for printing the views of the Uygur separatist leader, Rebiya Kadeer whose film has caused so much controversy at the Melbourne International Film Festival. The strong central government and the fact that all land is owned by the state makes it possible to bulldoze huge neighborhoods and turn them into development projects without much resistance. There is some talk in the paper about compensating people for the loss of their homes or providing them “better” living conditions, but obviously there is a lot going on behind the scenes that is not finding a public forum. Education is valued highly. Universities have hired many professors from the West, especially in the areas of science and technology. English seems to be the main medium of instruction in these fields. According to a French student studying aerospace engineering in a Chinese university, it is sometimes difficult to ask questions of his Chinese professors as they tend to take this as a sign of disrespect. Chinese universities crank out 6 million graduates a year, but as in America, a college degree is no longer a ticket to a good paying job, as least right away. Youth everywhere seem to be facing strong challenges after graduation. An article in today’s paper says that China plans to launch a robotic rover to the moon in 2012 and a manned lunar landing mission as early as 2025. A recent editorial in Sky and Telescope magazine suggested that the first manned mission to Mars will be by the Chinese. I won’t be at all surprised if that turns out to be the case. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Ban Po neolithic village Archeological excavation of a village occupied from 4500 BCE to 3750 BCE. Evidence of a matriarchal culture http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621961370356/show/ Terracotta Warriors Constructed by emperor Qin Shi Huang around 240 BCE as part of his tomb, the army consists of 8,000 terracotta soldiers, horses and chariots http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621836851639/show/ Xian street scenes http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621984236858/show/ Big Goose Pagoda Completed in 652 CE, this pagoda was used to house Buddhist sutras brought back from India by monk Xuan Zang http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621859702461/show/ Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Before this trip I had never heard of the monk Xuanzang. But when we were visiting Big Goose Pagoda, I decided to look him up in Wikipedia. He’s a rather interesting fellow. Seems our paths have crossed several times, separated only by fourteen centuries. I ended up reading the entire article to Cynthia. The article is at, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanzang Xuanzang was born in Luoyang (the city where we are right now, having arrived from Xian this afternoon) in the year 602 CE. While raised in a Confucian family, Xuanzang became interested in Buddhism at an early age and in 622, at the age of twenty, he became fully ordained as a monk. At the time, there were apparently many inconsistencies and discrepancies among the documents being used to teach Buddhism, and Xuanzang decided he needed to go to India to find some of the originals. So first he learned Sanskrit in order to do the translations himself. On his way, he traveled through what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan before passing through Kashmir and into the Terai region of Nepal, to Kapilvastu, the place where Sakyamuni grew up as a boy (and the place where I first developed an interest in Buddhism in the early ’70s). At Lumbini, he reported seeing the pillar erected by king Ashoka, which was still there in 1995 when we visited. He went on to Kusinagara, Sarnath, and Bodh Gaya before going on to Bengal to continue his research for two years at Nalanda University. After returning to China in 645 CE, (with 657 Sanskrit texts), Xuanzang continued his research and translation work until his death in 664 CE. Many of Xuanzang’s translations remain important to this day. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Cynthia’s take on a day of travel We thought we had it all figured out. The lovely receptionist at our hotel in Xian checked on the bus station we needed and wrote it down in Chinese characters and also wrote down Louyang, our final destination as well as Sanmenxia, our midway destination for the day. We confidently handed the taxi driver our information and he took us to the bus station. However, upon handing the scrap of paper with the Sanmenxia Chinese characters to the ticket seller, we learn, No, there is no bus to Sanmenzia from this station. She writes down instructions on a slip of paper and we leave the window. To get to Sanmenxia, we need to go to a different bus station. Oh well, the buses leave every hour so off we went to another bus station in another taxi. There we learn that it will take us all day to get to Sanmenxia because we have to make other connections and the first bus won’t leave until 2:00 so there is no way to get to Louyang tonight. A quick conference and we decide to skip Sanmenxia altogether and just head to Louyang. Well that means yet another bus station. The young women in the bus station insists we mustn’t take another taxi. We end up following a very insistent Chinese couple down the street and in a few blocks we are standing on an island in the middle of the street; the wife is inspecting every bus that goes by and after about 10 minutes we see that the husband has boarded the bus to explain our predicament to the driver. The driver pulls over. They hustle us onto the bus with our packs, hand our bus fare over to the driver and jump off the bus, leaving us to fend for ourselves. After about half an hour or so, David decides to check with the young man across the aisle. Indeed, we are on the bus to Luoyang and four hours later we indeed arrive. Amazing. We find a clean, quiet, small hotel, go out and have hot pot for dinner and marvel that we actually did arrive. We had heard that long distance buses in China were quite luxurious. So far, that hasn’t been our experience (Maybe we are just at the wrong bus stations) but we have seen a lot of the countryside, a lot of expressways, many country roads and large numbers of poor villages as well as both small and large farms and mountains of many descriptions. I believe the next best thing to being a young and lovely travelers is being old (gray hair, gray beard) and doddering travelers. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The path to Bodhidharma’s cave is through the grounds of Shaolin Temple, just outside of Dengfeng. Shaolin seems to be primarily a gung fu training facility for boys and young men. Just inside the gate we saw several hundred of them, organized in groups of 30 or so, practicing their martial arts routines. In fact the whole Dengfeng area has a strong gung fu focus. We saw school boys practicing their running flips in the air and the shouts that go along with various stances. There are shops selling gung fu paraphernalia everywhere. Since we were more interested in visiting Bodhidharma’s cave, we set out directly to find the path up the mountain toward Wuru Peak. Part way up we came to the Chuzu Nunnery, where Cynthia decided to sit under the Cypress Tree allegedly planted by the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng while I went on up the steep stone steps to the cave. According to Zen tradition, Bodhidharma was the first Chinese Zen patriarch and the twenty-eighth master in a lineage traced from Shakyamuni. He is generally thought to have died around 536 CE. In Zen’s Chinese Heritage, Andrew Ferguson writes (p 17), “Central to the Bodhidharma legend is his interview with Emporer Liang Wudi of the Liang dynasty. The legend of their meeting serves as the preeminent example of Zen’s uncompromising method of instruction. “The emperor Wudi had attained power through intrigue and murder, but after assuming power he became a great supporter of Buddhism, and in atonement for his past sins, he established many Buddhist temples and provided for the welfare of the Buddhist clergy. But when he asked Bodhidharma what merit he had attained from these activities the sage answered, ‘No merit.’ “As recounted in the Blue Cliff Record, the emperor then asked Bodhidharma to expound the highest truth of Buddhism, to which he replied, ‘Emptiness. Nothing holy.’ “The emperor then asked, ‘Who is it that faces me?’ “Bodhidharma replied, ‘I don’t know.'” When I arrived at the cave, three young Chinese men were already there. They went inside to offer incense and do their prostrations. There was an alter with a statue of Bodhidharma. A nun, responsible for overseeing the alter sat off to the side and struck a gong once for each prostration. After the three left, I entered the cave, made an offering, lit some incense and did my own prostrations. Three rings of the gong. The place did seem like just the right place to be if you were going to meditate for nine years. Except for the constant stream of visitors, or course. The rocks in these mountains seem very old. Immediately around the cave there were lots of cracks. I could just see Bodhidharma moving rock pieces around to fashion himself a place to sit. Another thing that struck me was how stories of Bodhidharma and his successor, the Second Patriarch, Huike change as they are told over the years. Compare, for example, the story as related in Zen’s Chinese Heritage (p 20) with the inscription on a stone stele just outside of the cave, erected by the headmaster of Sholin Temple in 2006. First, the story from Andrew Ferguson’s book: “Huike met Bodhidharma and studied with him at Shaolin Temple on Mt Song for six years. Huike is remembered and extolled in Zen tradition for his determination to realize the great truth of the Zen school. According to legend, Huike stood waiting in the snow outside Bodhidharma’s cave, then cut off his left arm to show his sincerity. Recognizing Huike’s great resolve, Bohidharma accepted him as his student. Huike said to Bodhidharma, ‘My mind is anxious. Please pacify it.’ To which Bodhidharma replied, ‘Bring me your mind, and I will pacify it.’ Huike said, “‘Although I’ve sought it, I cannot find it.’ Bodhidharma then said, ‘There, I have pacified your mind.'” This is basically the same story story told by most Zen teachers, and while there is weak historical evidence to back it up, it has important instructional value. But when I read the recently erected stone stele next to the cave, I was struck by the differences. One side was in Chinese; the other in English. Note that “Dharma” refers to the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma, and “Hole” refers to the cave. Here is what it said: “Dharma Hole” “The first year of Da Tong of Nan Dynasty emperor Liang Wu (527 AD), Dharma left Jian Ye (Nan Jing), touring the Central China, came to Five Peaks of Song Shan Mountain, finding a hole beneath the central peak named Fire Dragon Hole where an immortal — Fire Dragon had been practising. It is all mystery inside, 24-section main keel centers clearly with two dragons on both sides correspondingly protecting the doctrine, stars, moon, colorful clouds, The Yangtze River. The Yellow River, high mountains and flowing water all appear inside, looking like “a mini-universe” The second generation ancestor stands on the right. The Fire Dragon went up to the heaven after first ancestor Dharma came here who then faced the wall nine years, being in deep meditation. Inside the hole, he experienced “trance” to “conscious trance”; When in trance, birds nestling on his shoulder did not undulate him; Outside, he climbed up branches and stretched body, and imitated monkeys, snakes, etc, forming a whole set each of “Xin Yi Boxing” and “Arhat Stick”, becoming the founder of “Shaolin Boxing”. The second generation ancestor — Hui Ke was determined to formally visit and learn from him. He knelt down on the snow ground outside the hole for nights running, and cut off part of his arm to show his will. Finally he became the second generation ancestor. First ancestor faced the wall for nine years, and the opposite wall reflected his image, just like a watercolor painting. It is said the stone hole on its left just the one where the king of Qin of Tang Dynasty Li Shi Min escaped being captured under the safeguard of martial monks. This monument: Set up by: headmaster of ShaoLin temple — Shi Yong Xin, abbot of First Ancestor Nunnery — Shi Yong Mei Organized by: Shi Yan Zhen from Rizhao City, Shandong Province Donators: Yan Zhen, Chang Yuan, Chang Qing, Chang Jing, Chang Cheng, Chang Fo, Hao Yu, Jia Yi Accompliished: on Nov. 25, 2006 (Oct. 5, 2006, Chinese lunar calendar)” So Bodhidharma is remembered as a martial arts adept, as “the founder of “Shaolin Boxing”. And there seems to be a lot of Taoist influence here too. Given that restatements of the story have gone on for 1500 years, I guess it’s not too surprising to see these differences, but I think it’s good to keep in mind that history is one thing and legend is another. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

While the Guanxing Tai Observatory is on the same map as the Shaolin Temple, there must be 1,000 visitors to the temple for each one who visits the observatory. Even our taxi driver seemed to be puzzled as to where the entrance to the observatory was. Built by the astronomer Guo Shoujing in 1276, the Guanxing Tai Observatory is China’s oldest surviving astronomical observatory. It was one of 27 observatories distributed around the country. One of its main purposes was to ascertain the length of the year as accurately as possible. After four years of observations, the astronomer’s best value for the length of the year (measured as the time between vernal equinoxes) was 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds. It turns out that his value is only 26 seconds longer than the modern accepted value. I think careful measurements such as this are often too little appreciated. If fact, I would even go so far as to assert that objective physical facts are sacred. That’s why I was so delighted to see a stone stele with the following engraving, referring to a Master Zhou who continued the work of the observatory until 1528 during the Ming dynasty: “Worship the Platform Measuring — by Master Zhou in Spring” “This inscription was written by the famous Chinese calligrapher Zheng Dayuan in the Ming Dynasty. The poem pictured grand scenes of measuring shadows and observing stars by Master Zhou the ancient times.” Well said, well said. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Among the hundreds of high rise apartment buildings and residential complexes we have seen, essentially all have solar hot water panels on the rooftops. In fact, China has 40% of the worldwide installation of solar hot water systems. Even many of the homes of the small farmers we saw as we passed through the countryside have solar hot water units on their rooftops. In all the hotels we’ve stayed in, there is an electric power conservation system installed in which lights and air conditioning in each room only comes on when you are present in the room. Most of the lights are efficient fluorescent types. Toilets are either low volume or dual flush types to conserve water. Recycling is big; China has one of the highest rates of recycling plastic water and beverage bottles. Most refuse cans on the streets are divided into recyclable and non-recyclable sections. Last night we had dinner with Patrick Tam, an old family friend from Seattle who has been working in China for the past several years setting up green technology investment funds. Basically, their company seeks promising start-ups or small businesses that are developing environmentally beneficial technologies and connects these companies with investors who seek to make a profit. Patrick says that China has decided to bypass hybrid gas-electric vehicles and go directly to all electric cars. The three largest companies for manufacturing lithium ion phosphate batteries, the kind that will be used in electric vehicles are all in China. Lithium is a light metal that occurs naturally in only a few places in the world, but there are extensive salt flats in China where lithium can be mined. So we’re getting a rather different perspective on China and the environment here than we could get from the American media. If there is a lesson here, it is probably a caution: next time you read a news article about pollution in China, just remember that China may very well become the world leader in green technologies. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

It is challenging to reconcile the China we see today with the China, truly a third world country, that we saw 25 years ago. Then, getting permission to travel anywhere was always a bureaucratic nightmare, and the state controlled where people could live. While generally, people had jobs and earned small salaries, few commodities were available for them to buy. Now, while tight governmental control is still there to some degree, people do have freedom to travel and choose their residence and livelihood. The country has completely embraced capitalism. Along with the amazing progress of the past 25 years, a voracious consumer society has developed. In any city of any size, shopping seems to be the major past time with every level of quality available. It tempers our view of America as the ultimate consumer society. Advertising is ubiquitous, billboards, giant LED video displays, TV, sometimes appealing to classist instincts. Here, as at home, we wonder where all this consumption will lead. At the present time, it seems to have created a very solid middle class here in China. Patrick shared with us last night that the recently wealthy in China are quickly developing philanthropic interests. We had heard that in the case of rebuilding Buddhist monasteries, individuals had contributed all the funds but this wider philanthropy was new to us. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

[Note: We actually arrived in Lhasa today. But if I start writing about Lhasa, I’ll forget the things I want to say about previous destinations, so just hold tight on Lhasa.] This post is about Zhaozhou (Joshu in Japanese), a Zen master who lived from 778 to 897. (That’s 120 years, by the way). We visited the place where Zhaozhou, at the age of 80 settled down and taught for 40 years. Many of Zhaozhou’s teachings are still used today. “Someone asked, ‘Master, will you enter Hell?’ The Master answered, ‘[I’ll be] the first to enter it.’ The man said, ‘Why should a great and good [Zen] master enter Hell?’ The Master said, ‘Who would transform you through the teaching if I had not entered it?'” [From Roaring Stream, p. 101] We had high expectations when we arrived at Bailin Temple (also known as Cypress Grove Temple), having spoken with Andy Ferguson, who has taken several Zen groups here to participate in the practice schedule. (See, for example, the description of the 2007 pilgrimage by the Ancient Dragon Zen Gate group at http://www.ancientdragon.org/sangha/news/more/china_trip) But as it turned out, ours was an experience of Falling Through the Cracks. Just by chance, shortly before we arrived, an international Buddhist Studies tour group had arrived and the attention was focused (quite rightly) on this previously organized tour. So first we had trouble finding the person who could check us in to guest quarters, then here was a problem making photocopies of our passports. We were told that we would be able to meet the abbot, that there was an evening meal available and that we could participate in evening meditation. But when the time came for each of these events, we had no one to show us where to go or what to do. So we simply enjoyed the evening air and reflected on the folly of building up expectations. The breakfast routine was similar enough to what we had experienced at the Fourth Patriarch’s Temple, so that went fine. I did find that the Chinese seem to be able to eat about four times as much rice gruel as I would normally eat (this was the one food item for which you didn’t indicate an amount you wanted — you just accepted (a gigantic) ladle-full in your bowl. I gulped it down, still taking longer than anyone else. Suffice it to say I was well fed that morning. One thing I remember at Bailin was overhearing the translation of a Zhaozhou dialog by a monk guiding the tour group. It was the famous Mu koan, but I had not appreciated the 3rd and 4th lines before: “A monk asked, ‘Does a dog have buddha nature?’ The Master replied, ‘Mu’ [meaning ‘No’] The monk continued, ‘But if all sentient beings have the buddha nature, then why not a dog?’ The Master said, ‘It’s your own mind that discriminates.'” And that gem made our trip Bailin Temple worth it. So the next day we were off to visit Zhaozhou’s bridge, the oldest stone arch bridge in the world (completed in 605 CE). In a famous interchange with a monk, Zhaozhou used the bridge (“Donkey’s cross, horses cross”)” as a metaphor for the mind being a bridge for everything. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

While we didn’t do a lot of sightseeing in Beijing, having seen most of the historic sites 25 years ago when there were almost no domestic tourists and only a few foreigners on highly controlled group tours, we did enjoy several feasts with our friend Patrick as our guide. Our first evening we experienced food from Northern Mongolia consisting of a delicious soup of mutton and vegetables in a delicious broth accompanied by several other delicious dishes. The following evening we enjoyed a central Beijing lakeside setting near the Imperial Palace. The evening temperature was perfect for great food and great conversation. Patrick introduced us to Plum Flower Wine which had been his father’s favorite. We had a delicious spicy fish soup with a tomato base accompanied by the best spicy green beans I’ve ever tasted and a salad with some wonderful kinds of sprouts and other goodies I can’t recall. I do remember the walnut paste cookies that were beyond belief, not only in beauty but in taste. Patrick and I each had one and my husband the cookie monster ate the remaining four. On our third evening in Beijing, we were on our own and selected a vegetarian restaurant listed in Lonely Planet. Unfortunately, the address given was incorrect and we couldn’t find it. While we were puzzling over our Lonely Planet map and Google Maps on David’s Blackberry, a rickshaw driver came and peered over our shoulder. When we pointed to the Chinese characters, he lit up, gave a broad smile and flashed the international gesture for eating. We hopped in and he took us directly to the restaurant. The food was absolutely amazing — a hundred different dishes to choose from by selecting the glossy pictures. Very tasty. The kind of place we would go to often if it were nearby. In a phone call earlier that day, Patrick’s wife, Angelika, had encouraged him to take us for a Chinese foot massage after dinner. Late that evening we found ourselves in a health club, in side by side reclining chairs, our feet in basins of hot herbal water, warm neck pillows and warm kidney pillows comforting us as our warm-up shoulder and back massages. In good time, our presoaked feet enjoyed about an hour of pampering and exfoliating. Indeed, neither David nor I recognized my happy feet after the treatment. The experience was like a whole body massage. We all walked out totally relaxed. Our final meal before we headed to Lhasa was a gorgeous meal of Peking duck with all the trimmings. They even provided us with a certificate of the duck’s number. In every place we were treated to gracious service as well as great food. Thank you Patrick for all you did to make our Beijing stay special. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Here are some more photos of our trip before leaving Beijing: Bailin Temple www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622051143340/show/ LinJi Temple www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622051152752/show/ Zhaozhou’s Bridge www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621926716653/show/ Beijing www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621967004057/show/ Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T