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The Taoism of Jade Mountain Monastery


 

Fleeing the Revolution, Peter Goullart found himself a White Russian emigre working as a clerk in a company in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s. Later he would move to the southwest corner of the country and found cooperatives for the Nationalist government - a period of his life beautifully evoked in his 'Forgotten Kingdom' https://ncolloff.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-forgotten-kingdom.html a book that thankfully remains in print.

This, his 'The Monastery of Jade Mountain', addresses his discovery of Taoism whilst working in Shanghai and, sadly, has passed out of print. Sadly because it is a wonderful account of both Taoist beliefs and institutions - from the loftiest philosophy shared in a mountain top monastery to selling fortunes in an urban temple - and of his steady, deepening appreciation of the virtues of Taoist thought and practice. 

Goullart had a striking gift for sympathy and time and again this and genuine sincerity to understand open doors that might otherwise have remained closed to a foreigner. He discourses with abbots, befriends key monks, witnesses a strenuous exorcism, and even finds an open-minded (and not greedy) temple priest to explore the more ''popularist" aspects of Taoist faith and practice.

It is a deft and engaging portrait of a thought world. 

It is true that, to an extent, Goullart sees this world through his original Christian eyes, the eyes of his first formation and framing, and some of his acts of translation reflect this; but, as his hosts continually point out Taoism is not a religion in competition with other patterns of believing but a compliment, one that can enrich anyone's thought world and practice as human beings. You do not have to join to be thus influenced.

In a remarkable passage, it is the Buddhist Abbot Mingzing, who is visiting the Taoist monastery of his friends, that gives voice to this:

"But I am not in favor of conversion from one faith to another, neither do I believe in the fusion of all religions into one. The Ultimate Truth is one, but it has an infinite number of aspects, and what is more beautiful than that each faith should reflect only one facet of the Divine, all of them coming together creating a shining gem of beauty. Would the world be more beautiful if all the flowers on earth had been blended into one uniform color or all mountains razed to make the globe monotonously flat? Each religion offers something glorious, peculiarly its own, to point out the road to Ultimate Reality. What person or group of people would be able to prescribe a single form of religion that would satisfy all and everybody. That would be to give a finite concept to the Infinite and, of course, it would fail." 

We can learn from other people's gems - we do not have to imagine that any one gem is an exclusive reflector of the light.

If Goullart does not convert in any formal fashion, it is clear that his exposure to Taoism, his close study of it and interaction with it, does affect a conversion of life - a deeply transformative dialogue with lasting consequence - and in a final chapter he describes a compelling outline of this - the expectation of wonder that the world is always a gifted stepping out from mystery, that the Tao is benevolent - the universe is evolving towards an ever deeper expression of harmony, that navigating it requires the cultivation of attention to Nature's ways and its interconnections, that one should always build with nature not conquer it, humility, being of the earth and fully present to the 'place of things' is critical and often it is wiser not to act, to keep counsel than to confront.

Meanwhile, as you learn about Taoism you are taken on a delightful tour of some of the aspects of traditional Chinese culture and mores in the hands, and with the eyes, of a cultivated, open-minded visitor - who yet became more than a visitor.



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