Remembering Gordon Hu

This afternoon Bro. Simon discovered a corked wine bottle and what is interesting is that he found it on a little used trail that meanders through the desert about two miles away. When he came upon the bottle, he said it appeared as a bottle bobbing atop the surface of a great ocean, then as he walked toward the bottle he said his eyes seemed to be playing tricks, the noon sun hit the bottle at such an angle that suddenly Bro. Simon had to raise his hand to shield his eyes from the bright glare. And it was only when he reached down to pick up that bottle that he saw the rolled paper inside. Holding the corked bottle at the dining table he raised it up for all to see, and sure enough, inside was a tight roll of paper, "A treasure map!" shouted Bro. Juniper, which only got the rest of us more excited, even I was urging Bro. Simon to cut with the theatrics and uncork the "blasted bottle" ... which he did, admitting that he held back from uncorking the bottle until we could all see that this was indeed an artifact, though it seemed not very old to me, for normally something found in the desert is bleached and pitted by sun and sand. Using Bro. Cecil's corkscrew, Bro. Simon uncorked the bottle and spent a good minute attempting to fish the rolled paper from the bottle, but at last he had it out and unrolled and with a broad smile he said, "A treasure it is ... a message from our guest of last year, Gordon Hu!" With that most of us turned to one another and the expressions on our faces revealed that we indeed still remember Gordon Hu, the young gentleman traveling the outback of America, finding our humble monastery in the middle of the Mojave Desert, and as he said, about as far from China as one can travel. Bro. Simon held up the curled paper while saying, quotations from Lao Tzu. That brought more than a few nods of our heads, with delight I recalled the many evenings discussion Jesus and Lao Tzu, and it was then that I presented Gordon Hu with an old leather-bound King James, a book he had never read, yet was eager to begin.

The message:

To see things in the seed, that is genius.

Nature is not human hearted.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

Dear brothers, if you discover this bottle floating on this sea of sand, I tell you that these words of Lao Tzu are true. But I have a new book in my hand (that you know well) and this one I will not throw into the ocean until the words I have read and are with my heart, Gordon Hu.