Amongst White Clouds

“I’ve lived on cold mountain so many years,
following the way of forests 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 about its changes.”

—Hanshan, Tang Dynasty

I WOULD NEVER have really thought that it were possible for the mind literally to stop churning after watching a humble video and yet, Amongst White Clouds has the capacity to do exactly that. Equalled only by the similarly outstanding visual documentary on the eremitic life, Philip Gröning’s Into Great Silence, Edward A. Burger’s powerful meditation on the recluses of the Zhongnan Mountains has the effect of bringing us utterly and completely into presence long after the fading of the final frame.

Inspired by Bill Porter’s seminal book, Road to Heaven, documenting his encounters with living Chinese hermits, Edward A. Burger decided to make his own pilgrimage in search of those who embodied the message of the Buddha. Arriving in Beijing in 1999, he would find in a remote mountain monastery a master, with whom he would study and practise the nondual teachings for the next five years.

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