SUNDAY
climbed to the top of qinchen mountain yesterday, one of the 4 sacred mountains of china
god help me it was more than a notion, me and john the history teacher had planned to
work our way to shaolin, one of the legendary mountaintop monasteries and birthplace
of shaolin kung fu, but i believe im about mountain monasteried out
there was a cablecar that took us about maybe a third of the way but even still it was little bit much for the
kid - qinchen is a taoist monastery, shaolin is a buddhist monastery, but at this point my position is seen
one mountain monastery seen them all, and qinchen is closer to chendgu, about 2 hours by bus
bonnie is getting here tomorrow and she wanted to see shaolin but qinchen is what she will get
1st we went to what they call an ancient town, nestled at the foot of it, built about 7000 years ago
rebuilt about 300 years ago, it was cool, mostly shopping, there was this extraordinary bridge that
was kinda the highlight of it - but we here for the mountain, so on we go, busload of us, about 15 folk id say
once again a lot of staring, lot of folk asking for pictures with me, it was kinda funny, id be trying to
take surreptious pictures of chinafolk while they would be trying to take surreptious picture of me
somefolk i would ask but after awhile folk trying to sneak pictures of me i figured i could sneak pictures
of them - so we start climbing, a concrete path, a million folk, we climbing, and climbing, and climbing
folk started dropping by the wayside, folk who had walking problems, with canes and the like, fell off right away
the hale kept going, and going, and going, there were these bearers carring folk who faltered on litters
the temptation was there but it was too embarassing, even for kristis mother, marie, who is 80 something
and who eventually almost made it to the top, she is a trooper, one of the last to turn back
so, about a third of the way up, we reach a boat that crosses a lake, this is cool, we cross the lake
congratulating ourselves on making it this far, then we catch the cable car, this is frightening, high
above the mountain, cablecarring on up maybe another third of the way, frightening, but breathtakingly beautiful
like we in another world, and all along there have been temple structures in the woods that surround us
it was unbelieveably beautiful and spiritual and at one point i tried to ditch my colleagues because i was
feeling like less conversation, less complaining, i wanted to commune and get into a solitary thing
thinking i will get more out of this if i focus less on the goal and more on the journey, but folk wouldnt
let me, i kept saying yall go on, i will catch up and they kept saying no art, we will wait on you
and there was some advantage to being with fellow pilgrims, egging each other on, but at the
other end of the cablecar, more steps, more temples, another set of folk turned back at this point
there were about 7 of us left now, for me it was a mix of pride and curiousity, i didnt come this far
not to be able to say i got to the top, kristi and her mother still with us, problem was we kept getting
to various temples and would think surely this is it, look out the back door and right, more steps
kristi and her mother turned back, my bad knees have gon bad, but i just cant turn around
by now its just me, john, tracey, norm, and two chinese students, cherry and yuan, tracy is a youngster, 30
something, does a spinning class, me and john in our 60s, norm in his 70s, the kids were 19, 20
by now we all resting every temple, let that heartrate slowdown, and everytemple a little more . . .spiritual
the hordes that started have fallen by, more folk being carried on litters by bearers who must have legs of steel
we suggest marie use a bearer but we were concerned they would drop her and that wouldnt be good
everytime we see another temple ahead of us we think o joy, we made it, then there would be . . more steps
the higher we got the steeper the steps got, dont have time for spiritual pursuit, all we got now is keep climbing, but the temples getting more and more interesting, more folk with the incense and the candles and the devotions
finally we made it to the top temple, by now its raining & overcast & you couldnt see anything, norm started
complaining about how disappointed he was, i told him he needed to change up his attitude, you messing w/my high
felt like oddjob in kellys heroes, im surrounded by negativity, leave the negativity at the bottom of the mountain, please
but by that time all you could do is kinda take a breath and the bus was leaving at 630 so we didnt have time to do much communing, maybe nexttime, but for now it was time to carefully start making your way back down the mountain, the steps of which were rainslick wet, but it was a light grace rain, added to the vibe
there were a lot of little souvie shops around, as is the case every spiritual
spot in the world ive ever visited, commerce will make a way
i bought little bronze of a mandarin of somesort sitting in a chair reading a book, something to remind me i made it to the top of qinchen mountain, by this time its just me and iron john, my wildman running buddy
the others have wandered off looking for a better view, we make it back down w/o incident, the cable car
is even more impressive because the rain has misted the mountain and you can only see so far down into
the mist as the cablecar descended, felt like something out of avatar, even more beautiful and spiritual than the ascent, the cable car might have been the most spiritual moment, every other moment required too much effort to focus on anything but the doing,
back at the gate, thank god, we waited until the different sets of folk, the subgroups who had formed depending on when you turned around, gathered up together and we bused on back to chengdu
iron john still wants to do shaolin, but i believe ima pass, only real reason im into it is to take bonnie when she gets here, she kinda into buddhism and i got her all excited when i told her we were trying to hook it up
but i think she will be satisfied with qinchen, which saves me a two days of transporation and about $500 dollar cash money - part of draw was that you can stay overnight and watch the sunrise, but i realized as we did the temples of qinchen that it wasnt going to be resort accommodations, its going to be a monks cell w/a squat toilet
i believe ima pass, if i can get bonnie to the top of qinchen i believe that will suffice
im out, going to pick her up at the airport, last i heard she was sitting on a tarmac somewhere
and i realized i had not given her emergency info, only contact info she has is the old hotel
i might have to sit at that airport forever tonight because i cant afford to have her
get here, no me, and no contact info, that wont do, not by a long shot
my holybook has frustrated me so i have not been able to work on it, hopefully i will get some work done today, but i got to prepare for midterm today, and probably wont get much work done when bonnie here
im kinda down, that wouldbe holybook is breaking my heart
all my love
rdoc
PS: just googled qinchen, saw a map of the complex, i see there actually two mountains, the little mountain and the big mountain, needless to say we made it to the top of the little mountain, the big mountain twice as big, that was very disappointing to see - ohwell, go with the flow rick, go with the flow - i think when i take bonnie i will take her up the small mountain, you get that sense of accomplishment, but since ima be here another 3 weeks, ima go back and try for the summit, climb a little, commune a little, climb a little, commune a little, i suspect its an all day effort, might even stay over one of those 'resort' accommodations, i just dont want to pay $500 dollars and 2 days of travel for the priviledge of a monks cell and a squat toilet, but a 2 hour bus ride and less than a $100 i will consider if thats what it takes to get to the top
ima take my little mandarin figure with me, hook it up with some blessings, so it can remind me when i need reminding, when you reaching for those spiritual heights sometime you got to work at it
all my love
rdoc
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