I love all the Nature references

[Tao of Buttercup]

In my reading, I'm enjoying Taoist authors infusing their writings with references to wildlife, seasons, flowers, trees, stars and planets, etc.

 

That goes without saying, I know, but: What reading in (European) Paganism I'd done prior is rather poor by comparison.

 

Really FEEL these descriptions, being "in" the One, etc.

 

Refreshing and revitalizing.

[dawei]

Returning to my Farm:

In my youth I was out of tune with the world of man.
My nature inclined me to mountains and streams.
By mistake I fell into the web of the dusty world.
And thirty years of my life have been wasted.

The captive bird longs for its home in the grove.
The fish in the tank craves for its former abode.
So I have cleaned up the wilderness south of the village;
Remaining rustic, I have returned to my farms.
…………………..
…………………..
Elms and willows lend shades to my rear eaves;
Peach and plum trees decorate my front hall.
Distance blurs the village from sight,
Wrapt in mist and smoke rising from the chimneys.
Dogs bark in the narrow lanes;
Cocks crow atop the mulberry trees.
No dust or turmoil in this homestead;
Plenty of freedom in the unadorned rooms.
Long, long was I confined in a cage;
Now I have returned to nature once more

 

Ref: The Taoist Vision: A Study of T'ao Yuan-ming's Nature Poetry

 

 

I have a book of his poems by David Hinton, The Selected Poems of T'ao Ch'ien

 

 

also check out another I have: The Mountain Poems of Hsieh Ling-Yun

[Vitalii]

When your nature is stable, energy naturally returns.
When energy returns, Elixir spontaneously crystallizes,
In the pot pairing water and fire.
Yin and yang arise, alternating over and over again,
Everywhere producing the sound of thunder.
White clouds assemble on the summit,
Sweet dew bathes the polar mountain.
Having drunk the wine of longevity,
You wander free; who can know you?
You sit and listen to the stringless tune,
You clearly understand the mechanism of creation
__
Lu Dongbin

[soaring crane]

Nature roolz!

[Tao of Buttercup]

Thank you for those lovely poems, and reading recommendations. I'll check with local used bookstore and library.

[GrandmasterP]

Cold Mountain Path...

 

Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,

The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:

The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,

The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass.

The moss is slippery, though theres been no rain

The pine sings, but theres no wind.

Who can leap the worlds ties

And sit with me among the white clouds?

 

(Hanshan)

Edited July 24, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[soaring crane]

Thank you for those lovely poems, and reading recommendations. I'll check with local used bookstore and library.

 

I'm pretty nature-bound:

 

http://thetaobums.com/topic/33926-tales-from-the-meadow/#entry527855

 

[4bsolute]

In my reading, I'm enjoying Taoist authors infusing their writings with references to wildlife, seasons, flowers, trees, stars and planets, etc.

 

That goes without saying, I know, but: What reading in (European) Paganism I'd done prior is rather poor by comparison.

 

Really FEEL these descriptions, being "in" the One, etc.

 

Refreshing and revitalizing.

 

Nature is everything. We are in Nature, Nature is in us. We are Nature & Nature is us.

 

and through such holistic concepts like Taoism, we in this age learn fast, that "Nature" is far more than green plants and lakes. The term Nature refers to everything as a whole. Exactly.

[soaring crane]

It's true. But green trees and blue lakes are beautiful.

[Grigory]

At some point in the future, humans will colonize space and live in environments so different from our own that they're impossible to imagine here and now... I often wonder what those space colonists would think of such nature metaphors, when they'd have to look up every other word and watch videos just to understand what mist is, or dew, or what's so special about hawks. (Or what birds are/were.)

 

I do wonder how well these metaphors will hold up in space...

[Kajenx]

The rocky path sings rumbling melodies beneath the feet, and the wind whispers sweetly in the ear. The mosquitoes bite the arms with greedy abandon, and the golden sun burns with ruthless rays.

 

Nature is not just frameable pictures, which is why I'm glad nature made me as a god among animals. Here I sit, in the air conditioned house, in the corpses of a fallen forest - in nature - aligning pixels on a screen to communicate telepathically with lightning in a bottle and vibrations through the very depths of matter. Here I sit - in nature - unnaturally.

 

Nature kills too many bunnies. Trees are pretty, though.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Kajenx