{"id":2703,"date":"2014-08-21T18:33:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T18:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=2703"},"modified":"2014-08-21T18:33:05","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T18:33:05","slug":"dont-read-books-a-12th-century-zen-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/dont-read-books-a-12th-century-zen-poem","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDon\u2019t Read Books!\u201d A 12th-Century Zen Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 14px;color: #444444;line-height: 1.7\">by Maria Popova<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2014\/08\/zenpoems2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2704\" alt=\"zenpoems2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2014\/08\/zenpoems2-196x300.jpg\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2014\/08\/zenpoems2-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2014\/08\/zenpoems2.jpg 234w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s annoying for others to have to hear you.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>We live in a culture that often romanticizes books as the tender and exhilarating love-making to the \u201corgasm without release\u201d of Alan Watts\u2019s admonition against our media gluttony \u2014 an antidote to the frantic multitasking of modern media, refuge from the alleged evils of technology, an invitation for slow, reflective thinking in a fast-paced age obsessed with productivity. Books, Kafka memorably asserted, are \u201cthe axe for the frozen sea inside us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given I spend the majority of my waking hours reading and writing about books, I have certainly bought into that romantic notion. But everything, it turns out, is a matter of context: Imagine my amusement in chancing upon a poem titled \u201cDon\u2019t Read Books!\u201d in the altogether wonderful slim volume Zen Poems: Everyman\u2019s Library Pocket Poets (public library).<\/p>\n<p>Penned by Chinese poet Yang Wanli in the 12th century, the poem, translated by Jonathan Chaves, is a renunciation of books as a distraction from the core Buddhist virtue of mindful presence:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/index.php\/2014\/08\/19\/dont-read-books-zen-poems\/?utm_content=buffer4cfaa&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer\">For detail please visit here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Maria Popova \u201cIt\u2019s annoying for other &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/dont-read-books-a-12th-century-zen-poem\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[788,787],"views":3059,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2706,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions\/2706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}