May 20th, 2020
Hua Shan Gazetteer, Han-shan chih
Pilgrims endure the climb and rest in the sanctuaries. Their strength and courage is renewed by the telluric powers of the great heights. Some pilgrims kept diaries and others wrote poems and essays which have been handed down to us though written long ago. On door and walls some scribbled their thoughts which have weathered away.
In our turn we climb the mountain in the tracks of those earlier pilgrims, recording what we heard of them and what they wrote. Some were great scholars but most were simple people. All bear witness to the beauty of the Mountain which filled their heart.