Information on this picture and the background to my poem follows the poem
Meditation:
elements and seasons. (a sestina)
Tread soft and mindful
steps into the wood
Dragons awake and set the east on fire.
Sun’s warming rays
strike deep, damp, cold dark earth.
Incense scents the air, voices chant.
Metal
pings bronze bell, disturbing temple
water
bowl, ripples spill and freeze in frozen
air.
This sacred space with
blossom scented air;
finds azure dragon in an aspen wood,
stopped to drink and
rest by clear still water.
Distant smoke twirls
from an apple wood fire.
The harbinger of
spring takes flight. Metal
tangs temple bell
waking new springtime earth.
Bright vermillion bird
descends to earth
from a sunrise sky,
its wings beat warm air.
Temple priests praise Mars for summer birds. Fires
lit for solstice with
incense, and spiced wood,
smoulder in bronze stoves for prayers. Metal
tings brass bowls
creating rippled water.
Yellow dragon drinks
from the temple water.
Saturn calms natures
growth, soothes troubled earth.
On crisp white
mountain tops he hears metal
clinking temple bells.
Curtains of damp air
wash moss, helping
ripen, pine and beech wood,
trees sigh as priests
chop logs for sacred fires.
White tiger roars in
blowing autumn fire,
twirling swirling leaves that drift on water.
Maples pave a golden
path to the wood.
Priests clear temple
grounds of windswept earth
and acknowledge scents of autumn in the air.
Temple bells ring out, brass against metal.
Black tortoise, brings
in ice. His cold metal
sword seals sacred
temple gates. Priests light fires
of scented pine for burners warming air.
Winter dragon swims through frozen water,
to pray safe keeping
for the winter earth,
mindful and still he
prays in sacred woods.
In incensed air, temple priests light small fires
of cherry wood. Holding bowls of metal,
struck from earth, they bathe in sacred water.
copyright Diana Leighton May 2012
Qiu Chuji (Chinese: 丘處機; Taoist name 長春 meaning "Perpetual Spring",
aka Kiu Chang Chun or Ch’iu Ch’ang Chun, 1148 - 1227 AD) was a Complete Reality School
Taoist and the most famous of Wang Chongyang's seven disciples,
or Seven Immortals. He founded the Dragon's Gate (Lung Men) School
of Taoism, one of the 7 branches of the Northern School of Complete
Reality Taoism.
In 1180, Qiu Chuji came to the Dragon Gate Mountain (龍門山)
in Longzhou (隴州). Seeing the beautiful scenery, quiet surroundings,
natural caves, and springs and hearing that immortal Lou Jing of the
Han dynasty once cultivated himself in this place, Qiu decided to settle here.
After selecting a cave as his residence he went on with his
Cultivation and Refinement (修煉) for 6 years, using the methods
inherited from his master, Wang Chongyang.
Qiu Chuji read and studied Taoist scriptures carefully.
He found a phrase in the Book of the Inner Landscape of the
Yellow Court (黃庭內景經) that read "if staying awake day and night,
one achieves perfection and can remain unperturbed even under
lightning and thunders". Qiu forced himself not to sleep at night
and finally succeeded. Henceforth Qiu never lay down at night and rested
simply by Sitting in Meditation (打坐) and Entering Tranquility (入靜).
He left Dragon Gate Mountain in 1186.
