"If a successful novelist is one who tells us something new about the human spirit and a successful novel transports us to another world, then Gao and Soul Mountain have succeeded spectacularly." -- Washington Post Book World An extraordinary work of immense wisdom and profound beauty by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature In 1983 Chinese playwright, critic, fiction writer, and painter Gao Xingjian was diagnosed with lung cancer and faced imminent death. But six weeks later, a second examination revealed ...
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"If a successful novelist is one who tells us something new about the human spirit and a successful novel transports us to another world, then Gao and Soul Mountain have succeeded spectacularly." -- Washington Post Book World An extraordinary work of immense wisdom and profound beauty by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature In 1983 Chinese playwright, critic, fiction writer, and painter Gao Xingjian was diagnosed with lung cancer and faced imminent death. But six weeks later, a second examination revealed the cancer was gone, and he was thrown back into the world of the living. Faced with a repressive cultural environment and the threat of a spell in a prison farm, Gao fled Beijing and began a journey of 15,000 kilometers over a period of five months. The result of this epic voyage of discovery is Soul Mountain . A bold, lyrical, prodigious novel, Soul Mountain probes the human soul with an uncommon directness and candor. Interwoven with a myriad of stories and countless memorable characters--from venerable Daoist masters and Buddhist nuns to mythical Wild Men, deadly Qichun snakes, and farting buses--is the narrator's poignant inner journey and search for freedom.
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Very Good. Very Good condition. Very Good dust jacket. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp. Bundled media such as CDs, DVDs, floppy disks or access codes may not be included.
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Good. Good condition. Good dust jacket. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains. Bundled media such as CDs, DVDs, floppy disks or access codes may not be included.
Here is a story I find helpful in illustrating this complex, insightful book. It is taken from Rickard and Thuan's book, titled "The Quantum and the Lotus"(p232)
A 19th Century Tibetan hermit named Patrul had a disciple named Lungtok. Lngtok was having difficulty learning to meditate. One evening while they were outside the monastery overlooking the mountains, Patrul caqlled Lungtok to him and said "Didn't you tell me you don't understand the nature of the mind?" "Yes", Lungtok replied.Patrul asked Lungtok to lie next to him and asked "Can you hear the monastery dogs barking"? "Yes" "Can you see the stars shining?" "Yes", "Well" said Patrul, "that's meditation." Shortly after receiving this lesson Luntok received understanding and enlightenment.
This novel, "Soul Mountain", is the story of a spiritual quest. After the narrator learns that he had been wrongly diagnosed with lung cancer, and following prosecution by the Chinese communist authorities as a "rightist", the narrator leaves Peking -- destination and purpose obscure. He decides to try to find an obscure mountain called Lingshan or soul mountain. In the process of his lengthy journey, he travels through remote areas of China where he meets a variety of people, hears Chinese folk, songs, sees archaeological sites, learns about Chinese animals and searches. The search motive is common in religion and literature. The goal is not set out at the beginning but the narrator seeks to come to a degree of self-understanding and to remove sorrow through reflection and the loosening of attachments.
In the process of his lonely journey the narrator develops personnae, or alter egos. He begins to refer to himself at times as "he" and then there is a young woman lover, a "she". This does not make for clear, easy reading, but it is an appropriate technique for a book which tries to teach about the self.
The narrator does not claim to be religious. Nevertheless, the book for me has a strong Buddhist background. Gao has obviously thought deeply about and been influenced by Buddhism. This influence pervades the book and its reflections. It is most pronounced, however, in the visits to the Buddhist and Daoist monasteries of the narrator and in his discussions with Buddhist and Daoist monks and nuns.
For all the virtues of the search the narrator finds he needs companionship and human society. In particular he needs the society of women and he craves sexual relationships. We hear of many of the narrator's sexual relationships along his way together with his reflections on "he" and "she". This is a book that talks eloquently of the force of human erotic passion and of the centrality of that passion to the relationship between men and women. The Buddha would understand. In a famous text he observes:
"Monks, I don't know of even one other form that stays in a man's mind and consumes it like the form of a woman... The touch of a woman stays in a man's mind and consumes it. Monks, I don't know of even one other form that stays in a woman's mind and consumes it like the form of a man. ... The touch of a man stays in a woman's mind and consumes it."
Our narrator finds he cannot abandon his sexuality and opts for human society over the life of a recluse. This decision does not to me indicate a rejection of spiritual (or Buddhist) values but rather a placement of them in the context of ongoing human reality. Also the narrator's decision to live without meaning seems to me to indicate an agreement with Buddhist teachings of dispassion, selflessness and non-attachment. It is, in the words of Meister Eckhart which many find parallel to Buddhist teachings, "Living without a Why." There is some acceptance of the spiritual values of the Buddhist recluse brought to bear upon living in the everyday. This, I think, is a teaching the book shares with the Tibetan story with which this review begins.
Many people in the West who for whatever reason find themselves unable to accept western theistic religions have explored Buddhism and other eastern religions for whatever guidance they may provide in living a spiritual life outside the boundaries of a traditional Western faith. In his books, the Dalai Lama, for example, speaks of a "secular spirituality" which uses insights of self-reflection, compassion, and self-knowledge as a means which may be open to many people independently of their religious belief or lack of religious belief. I think "Soul Mountain" is a book with many of the same themes. People who have thought about spirituality and who are not afraid to experiment with the unfamiliar will feel at home with this difficult but highly worthwhile book.
