An American descendant of Chinese Zen Buddhism: I meditate and grow vegetables every day, and my heart is calm

More than 30 years ago,

Sinologists Bill Porter went deep into Zhongnan Mountain,

Visited more than 30 hermits in the mountains,

He wrote this experience into a book "Hollow Valley Orchid", which was a sensation.

Only then did people discover that in contemporary China,

There are still a group of people who live in the mountains and forests, farming and eating by themselves,

Live a life of transcendence, spiritual abundance.

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Bill Porter is an American sinologist and translator

Claiming to be "Chinese in my last life"

He was also the first Westerner to explore the hermits of China

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In recent years, "going to the mountains to live in seclusion" has become a popular way of life among young people

Nowadays, Zhongnan Mountain has become a popular "secluded" place,

Rents have skyrocketed, and young people have piled up.

Bill Porter is very accommodating,

"The mountains do not belong only to hermits",

But at the same time, he also broke the illusion of young people living in seclusion in the mountains and forests.

"You can go back to the fields and live a simple life,

But the true hermit practice is very hard,

You may not survive a winter. ”

In early January, a film crew was in Shanghai

I met this wise and kind old man who was over eighty years old.

He gives a glimpse of the wisdom of another way of living:

Do the work you love,

Poor, but spiritually free.

Editor: Han Jiaqi

Editor-in-charge: Chen Ziwen

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At the end of 2023, Bill Porter will be in China for the 25th time

Bill Porter is 80 years old and has reached the age of faltering. But in the past two months, he has traveled nearly 8,000 kilometers on his own.

For this trip, he borrowed a smartphone from a friend and learned to use QR codes for the first time. Before that, he didn't use mobile phones or social media, and his greatest joy every day was reading poetry, translating Buddhist scriptures and poems, meditating, and growing vegetables, for decades.

In 1972, Bill Porter dropped out of the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University in the United States. Rather than studying for a PhD at a university, he wanted to educate himself about Chinese culture. Subsequently, he went to Taiwan, China alone with more than 200 US dollars, and lived there for more than ten years.

He practiced for three years in a temple in Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan, and later translated "Poems of the Cold Mountain" and "Poems of the Stone House Mountain Dwelling", both of which were written by famous hermits in Chinese history. He was inspired by the life in the book, and he wanted to know if such a way of life still exists in contemporary China.

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Left: Bill Porter asks in the mountains

Right: The mountain road is steep, and there is an abyss behind it

Since 1989, Bill Porter has taken photographers to visit Zhongnan Mountain several times. At that time, Zhongnan Mountain was inaccessible, the narrowest mountain road was only a palm wide, many places were not allowed to enter foreigners, and they had to deal with unexpected police inspections; in the hotel, there was no hot water for bathing, and the villagers had to rely on the help of villagers to eat along the way.

But even so, he found more than 30 hermits one after another. He showed the world that in the era of consumerism and hedonism, there are still a group of people who live a very simple material life - "in the clouds, under the Panasonic, outside the dust, living by moonlight and taro".

Since then, he has visited Chinese mainland almost every two or three years, visiting almost every province in China.

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In 2014, Bill Porter revisited Zhongnan Mountain

Documentary "The Hermit"

In 2014, Bill Porter revisited Zhongnan Mountain, although the life of the hermits has improved significantly compared to the end of the last century, but it is still not the same as city life, there is no direct drinking water in the mountain, drinking water must be filtered with a white cloth, food is limited, usually only boiled vegetables, drink white rice porridge, in winter, there is no warmth in the cave, rely on ginger to warm the body.

More important than physical asceticism is spiritual enlightenment. Bill Porter likened the practice of a hermit to "a doctor of spiritual awakening", who must have a foundation in Taoism, Buddhism, or Confucianism before he can "advance" in the mountains.

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Bill Porter talking to a hermit in the mountains

In the '40s, Bill Porter was born into a wealthy family, and his father was in charge of 52 hotels in the United States. He studied at a boarding school in Hollywood, and some of his classmates were Marilyn Monroe's stepsons, and some of his parents were on the cover of Time magazine. He described his father's money as "as much as a money printing machine", but he was not happy, and the upper class was so deceitful that "everyone lived with a mask".

In middle school, his father went bankrupt and his siblings fell into depression, but he felt relieved.

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In addition to a simple three meals a day, tea and wine are consumed while writing

He had few other material needs

He has very little desire. His current backpack has followed him for 20 years, and is a gift from a Buddhist association; when he climbs the mountain, he always carries a banyan branch that he picked up at Feilai Peak 20 years ago, and he is reluctant to throw it away; and the yellow coat he has worn for more than ten years is almost unable to wrap his body, which is getting richer and more prosperous due to old age.

Although he was materially poor, his heart was free. He only did what he was interested in all his life, and even though the Buddhist scriptures and poems he translated were once unattended in the United States, he enjoyed himself, comparing each translation to "dance", and the poets were his "girlfriends", and what he did was to dance with them—living, dancing, and translating.

Here's an interview with Bill Porter.

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The road to Jungnam Mountain

Article: Young people read your "Hollow Valley Orchid" and want to go into seclusion, what do you think?

Bill: They may be mistaken, being a hermit is a practice, they don't understand what a practice is. You can go back to the land, in the '60s, '70s, and a lot of young Americans did that, but it was just a different way of life. To be a hermit, you must first practice Confucianism, Taoism, or Buddhism. Otherwise, life in the mountains is very hard, and they will not survive the first winter, and they may go down the mountain.

One article: Young people are too tired, can they not work?

Bill: Gotta work. Where does the money come from? Where does the food come from? You have parents and you have to help them. You live in a society, not alone. If your heart is unhappy, it's not good, but there are a lot of good jobs that will make you happy, so you have to find a job that you like.

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A reported girl leaf living in seclusion in a barren mountain

A: What are you usually busy with?

Bill: I've written books, translated Buddhist scriptures, translated poems, almost 3,000 in total. I've just finished my collection, and I'm going to write a book about Su Shi, who and Tao Yuanming are my favorite poets.

In the U.S., I live in a small rural village that takes a ferry from Seattle and is about 3 hours by car. I rarely see people, sometimes I see eagles or birds. Every morning I get up at 6 o'clock to meditate, translate, and write books, and go for a walk on the beach at noon. Then we helped my wife pick vegetables in the garden, and we planted tomatoes and beans.

Now my friend and I have built a meditation hall in the United States, where meditation allows Americans to understand themselves.

One: How can you spend less money and get more happiness?

Bill: Read Tao Yuanming's poems. In the poem, he wants to "begging", begging for food. If you want to live a very simple life, it is hard, not simple. Since ancient times, the life of farmers has been the hardest.

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比尔·波特，笔名赤松（Red Pine）

On the left is his translation of "Hanshan Poems", and on the right is "Diamond Sutra"

One article: Have you ever worried about money?

Bill: I have troubles, but less. In the United States, I translate Buddhist scriptures and no one buys my books, so I'm poor. I used to work in a bakery and deliver food, but I still didn't have enough money. So the U.S. government gave me a low-security credit card, and I was given $300 a month to use for my two children.

In '96, I owed $32,000 to my credit card, and in '99, I owed $24,000, and I mortgaged my house at one point. When Hong Kong returned to China in '98, the person in charge of the Hong Kong Tourism Board called me and asked me if I could come back and do 20 programs about the Yellow River culture. So my house is still there (laughs).

It wasn't until my book was translated into Chinese that more people bought my book and my financial situation improved.

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Bill Porter's event sharing in Shanghai

One Strip: Have you ever wanted to make more money in the past?

Bill: Of course I could have found a [more lucrative] job, but it would hurt my heart. Going to work is so restrictive that I don't like to hear people tell me what to do. When I was in the military, my colonel told me that I was the worst soldier he had ever seen in 30 years.

I'm a freer person, and what I do by myself is not necessarily right, but I have to do it myself.

A: We will say today that "only financial freedom can lead to spiritual freedom", what do you think?

Bill: That's nonsense. In the mountains, I have never met a single rich person, but they are the happiest and freest people. The heroes of Chinese culture are not rich people.

If you make money, you're going to run into people who are making money too, and everybody is going to take advantege of others, and you've always had that habit until the end of the day you're going to forget why you're making money.

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Bill Porter in an interview with Ichijo

Article 1: What is the goal of meditation?

Bill: A goal is no goal. Cultivation becomes a thing, that's a delusion. Meditating, working hard, and living life every day is when Zen begins. Zen becomes your life, and it is Zen.

One: How can you set your heart free?

Bill: If you've been living in one place, you're used to clinging to some delusions, like fish living in water. But once you leave this place, you will have the opportunity to see what your own behavior is, what is necessary and what is not.

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Bill Porter as a young man (center)

One sentence: What does one sentence describe your philosophy of life?

Bill: Help people when you can. We're all alive, we all breathe the same way, so why can't we help each other?

When I was in Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan, I walked through that gate, and I asked the old monk, why is it not two? Isn't "no two" just "one"? He said oh no, no two means no difference. Class, money, these are all determined by our delusions, in fact, there is no real difference between us.

If we bury a line, I draw a line around us, the world will be in a war.

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Bill Porter said that Chinese hermits ate very little and wore very shabby

But he was the wisest and freest man he had ever met

One strip: Do you feel happy?

Bill: I should be seen as a happy person, but I'm not. Because I see so many people working hard, watching one country invade another, it seems that human beings have never improved.

There is only one way to be happy, and that is to help others, and Chinese hermits actually love society the most. They have a deeper consciousness, so they have wisdom, and the ancient emperors would ask them to come down the mountain to help. And the hermits of the United States are not part of society, they are disconnected from society.

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University professor Cheng Qing practices meditation with students

Strip: Young people are too anxious, what can you do to help them?

Bill: The best way to do this is to learn to meditate, to breathe. Because when we are born, we start with the breath and return to the source. If you find yourself, you will find that you are gone.

There is a method of transcedental mediation. You can meditate for 5 minutes a day when you go to work, and ask yourself, what is the most important thing?

Some pictures are authorized from Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House, documentary "Hermit"