Amongst White Clouds
Amongst White Clouds
Buddhist Hermit Masters of China’s Zhongnan Mountains
Written and produced by Edward A Burger • Produced by Chad Pankewitz • 2005
Filmed on location in China.
Inspired by the book: Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Bill Porter.
of China’s hermit monks and nuns
depicting the yearning that is the heart of the human spiritual journey.
Amongst White Clouds is an intimate insider's look at masters and students living in scattered retreats dotting China's Zhongnan Mountain range. These peaks have reputedly been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some five thousand years ago. It was widely thought that the tradition was all but wiped out, but this film emphatically and beautifully shows us otherwise. One of only a few foreigners to have lived and studied with these elusive practitioners, American director Edward Burger is able to present their wisdom, their joyful minds and their humility despite the hardships of their everyday lives among the clouds. With magnificent cinematography taking you sensitively onto those mountain slopes.
Having stepped out of society that is concerned with, “Busy, busy, mine, mine – busy a whole lifetime for Me”, these hermits dedicate their lives to attain liberation or enlightenment. One hermit smilingly admits that a person has to be very courageous to tread the path of monk or nun: it is so difficult to let go of the seduction of the world. “No fear of hardship, no fear of suffering, physical or mental. Meditation, discipline, wisdom.”
Throughout Chinese history, there have always been people who preferred to spend their lives in the mountains, getting by on less, wearing old clothes, working the higher slopes, not talking much, writing even less – maybe a few poems, a recipe or two. Out of touch with the times but not with the seasons, they cultivated roots of the spirit, trading flatland dust for mountain mist. Distant and insignificant, they were the most respected men and women in the world’s oldest society. - from The Road to Heaven by Bill Porter: the book that inspired this film.
I’ve lived on cold mountain so many years
following the way of forest and springs.
No one will visit.
Just clouds floating by . . .
Grass for a bed
blue sky for a quilt
. . . happy with a rock for a pillow.
Let the world go by with its changes.
-Hanshan, Tang Dynasty
Interesting Reviews of this Film:
5 out of 5 stars Amongst White Clouds is down to earth: Amongst White Clouds is the DVD of one man's search for enlightenment among China's hermit monks. It is really more than a documentary. If you are patient, there is real teaching offered in each vignette that gives someone who might be interested in a path of spiritual practice true insight into the benefits as well as the difficulties in such an endeavour. Yet, throughout there is a real sense of this very rich tradition and community. The chanting and musical track overlays are well timed and communicate that ineffable longing and completion that are the matrix of a spiritual journey. I give this one 5 stars. --- By Nyghtingale (Gilroy, CA USA)
I just viewed this film in a local theatre. I plan to purchase the DVD and pass it on to others. The hermit monks in this video are authentic and some or all of them are very, very far along the path to enlightenment. The close-ups of their faces, their eyes, the clear translation of what they say, their openness, the quiet peace of the mountains in which they live, the attention to small detail - everything about this film exudes an awareness of a deeply spiritual reality which is at the heart of Buddhist practice. This one is the real McCoy. --- By M. Childs
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