{"id":13665,"date":"2015-04-12T07:43:55","date_gmt":"2015-04-12T11:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=13665"},"modified":"2015-04-12T07:43:55","modified_gmt":"2015-04-12T11:43:55","slug":"master-shih-tes-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/master-shih-tes-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Master Shih Te’s Words"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I see a lot of silly folks
\nwho claim their own small spine’s
\nSumeru, the sacred mountain
\nthat supports the universe.
\nPiss ants, gnawing away at a noble tree,
\nwith never a doubt about their strength.
\nThey chew up a couple of Sutras,
\nand pass themselves off as Masters.
\nLet them hurry and repent.
\nFrom now on no more foolishness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is poem XI*<\/span> from Master Shih Te<\/strong>, a hermit on Cold Mountain; contemporary of and close friend to\u00a0the Tang dynasty poet, Han Shan. This verse is translated by J. P. Seaton from his book, Cold Mountain Poems<\/a> (Shambhala, Boston, Mass, 2009).<\/p>\n

Only 49 poems attributed to Shih Te<\/a> (also written as Shi De or \u00a0Shide) survive; most have distinctly Buddhist themes, but like this one, have metaphorical resonance outside the strict religious or spiritual framework.<\/p>\n

This particular poem struck me as particularly\u00a0relevant, when I read it in Seaton’s collection, this weekend. How much some people\u00a0 think their\u00a0own view alone gazes from the highest mountain, and all the rest of us are below them. How they\u00a0think their\u00a0own words are akin to scripture, and those of others are dross. But, as Shih Te says,\u00a0they\u00a0are merely ants gnawing at the bark of the great tree of truth, thinking their tiny jaws will topple it.<\/p>\n

Foolishness,\u00a0\u00a0he says, just foolishness.<\/p>\n

~~~~~<\/strong>
\n*<\/span> James Hargett<\/a> translated it thus:<\/p>\n

I am aware of those foolish fellows,
\nWho support Sumeru with their illumed hearts.1
\nLike ants gnawing on a huge tree,
\nHow can they know their strength is so slight?
\nLearning to gnaw on two stalks of herbs,
\nTheir words then become one with the Buddha.
\nI desperately seek to confess my sins,
\nHereafter, never again to go astray.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

**<\/span> Sumeru<\/a>, or Sineru, is the central peak in Buddhist cosmology\u00a0and\u00a0mythology: Sumeru rises above the centre of a ‘mandala-like complex of seas and mountains.’ We use a similar metaphor when we speak of the ‘Everest’ of things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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I see a lot of silly folks who claim their own small spine’s Sumeru, the sacred mountain that supports the universe. Piss ants, gnawing away at a noble tree, with never a doubt about their strength. They chew up a couple of Sutras, and pass themselves off as Masters. Let them hurry and repent. From now on no more foolishness. This is poem XI* from Master Shih Te, a hermit on Cold Mountain; contemporary of and close friend to\u00a0the Tang dynasty poet, Han Shan. This verse is translated by J. P. Seaton from his book, Cold Mountain Poems (Shambhala, Boston, \u2026…… click below for more \u2193<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[347,411,62,72],"tags":[406,626,189,61],"class_list":["post-13665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-poetry-lyrics","category-world-politics","category-books-by-the-bedside","tag-books-reviews","tag-buddhism","tag-philosophy","tag-politics"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":4072,"today_views":9},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13666,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13665\/revisions\/13666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}