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White Enlightening
by Jennifer Rauch
Beijing's White Cloud Temple (Baiyunguan) has changed very little since poet Cha described this scene. In winter, the temple's quiet gardens and solemn statuary still offer a welcome escape from the hustle and bustle of the capital.
During Spring Festival, however, the Taoist monks at Baiyunguan host a lively temple fair and the courtyards are inundated with people, sights and sounds. The most important day on the temple calendar is the 19th day of the first lunar month --March 6 this year --when a special festival marks the birth of Qiu Changchun. Qiu founded the important Longmen subsect of the Quan Zhen sect --the Taoist group that calls this home.
Baiyunguan is the largest and most popular Taoist site in Beijing, serving as an active place of worship, an ancestral shrine, a reliquary, and as headquarters for the Chinese Taoism Association. The existing temple buildings date back as far as 1706. Until its recent restoration, the site had been used as a barracks for some years.
Like a phoenix, the temple has risen from the ashes of destruction --not once, but twice. The original structure, where an early Taoist priest once impressed Genghis Khan with his wisdom, was established on this site in 1192, but burnt down just 11 years later. Taoist monks soon rebuilt the temple, but it went up in flames again during the Ming Dynasty.
Today's buildings are laid out in a manner familiar to any temple hound. Visitors walk through a front gate, over a bridge, and past several shrines, bell and drum towers before reaching the two-tiered Siyu Hall, which houses "the four major deities" downstairs and "the three pure gods" upstairs. More shrines and courtyards lie to the west. Especially charming are the beautifully wrought censers, the 12 Animals Wall, and the lucky fountain under the bridge.
But the true gem of Baiyunguan is at the rear: the Yunji garden, where a series of covered walkways, painted pavilions and bizarre rockeries surround an ordination altar. Surely this is the fairyland Cha Shenxing wrote of.
Here, Taoist monks and initiates in traditional garb wander among the shady trees clutching books or chatting amiably, giving the courtyard a campus-like ambience. For those so inclined, this is a wonderful place to learn about the day-to-day practice of Taoism, a philosophy that, by nature, tends to resist definition.
Taoism, or Daoism, --one of the three main
spiritual teachings of China, along with Confucianism and Chan Buddhism --traces its
origins to Lao Tzu. Over 2,000 years ago, Lao Tzu composed the "Tao Te Ching," a
timeless book that is the origin of the yin-yang concept.
The relationship between opposites, the dark yin and the light yang, is not static. It's a dance, a constant flux. Neither can exist without the other. Taoism stresses that all people, places and things are connected; in a way, Taoism is the spiritual counterpart of the Internet. Or, to paraphrase the comedian Steven Wright, Taoism is like the dictionary: it's a poem about everything.
Tao, pu and qi are three vital concepts. Tao, roughly translated as "the way" or "the path," is the stuff of which everything is made, a kind of universal matter. For many, Tao symbolizes personal, social and ecological harmony. "Going with the flow" is another apt phrase.
Pu means "uncarved block" and refers to a person's inner nature or instinct. This philosophy praises looking inward and accepting what you find there. That the word pu bears a resemblance to A. A. Milne's honey-loving character is not a coincidence, Taoism suggests, but evidence of the interconnectedness of things.
Qi is the universal energy that flows through everything, which exercises like qigong circulate for the benefit of mind and body. Based on the holistic attitude that mental and physical well-being are interdependent, many Taoists seek health through discipline, diet, medicinal herbs that balance yin and yang, and a lifestyle that minimizes stress. Health is an on-going process, not an end result.
Living in tune with Taoist principles means being both thoughtful and carefree. (These aren't contradictory; think of them as two opposites seeking balance.) One goal of practicing Taoism is to experience life and nature directly, by meditating, traveling, wandering and, especially, playing.
Anyone with a special interest, whether spiritual or intellectual, in Eastern philosophies will enjoy soaking up Taoist insight in one of the many quiet crannies of the White Cloud Temple. Suggested activities: sitting, looking, thinking, talking, breathing, reading.
A few excellent introductions to Taoist thought, such as the poetic
"Tao Te Ching" or humorous "Chuang Tzu" are available in English at
the bookstore just inside the main gate.
Fans of Benjamin Hoff's "The Tao of Pooh" --the somewhat Westernized, but enlightened, interpretation of Taoism that helped spread its popularity outside of China --must BYOB (Bring Your Own Bear). But at White Cloud Temple, of course, you don't need a book to study your pu.
The White Cloud Temple, open from 8:30 am to 5:30pm daily, is tucked away within a block near Baiyun Lu, in Xiabianmen, southwest of Fuxingmen subway station.
Getting there by foot from the subway takes about 20 minutes; buses 19, 387, and trolley 114 run near.