Wisdom Path

A row of tall wooden columns stands on the open hillside. The wind moves around them and through the gaps between. Each column is carved from top to bottom with Chinese characters. They lean at slight angles, like trees that have grown up together over time. This is the Wisdom Path, a quiet place on the slopes below the peak on Lantau Island, away from the busier sites nearby.

The path sits near the great bronze Buddha at Ngong Ping. From there, a short walk leads down and along toward the foot of Lantau Peak. The columns come into view across the open grass. There are thirty-eight of them in all. They are made of wood and set firmly into the earth, following a long, curving line across the hillside.

The columns are arranged in the shape of a figure eight. Seen from above, the line loops around and crosses over itself in the middle. The figure eight is also the old sign for infinity, for something that has no end. The layout was chosen with care. As you walk along the loop, the path gives you no clear beginning and no clear place to stop.

The carved characters form a famous Buddhist text. It is called the Heart Sutra. The Heart Sutra is one of the best known scriptures in all of Buddhism. It is very short, only a few lines, but its words are studied closely by monks and scholars. They speak about emptiness, and about seeing the world clearly, without holding on too tightly to things.

The writing on the columns is a copy of work by Professor Jao Tsung-I. He was a respected scholar and artist in Hong Kong, known for his deep learning and his skill with the brush. He offered his version of the Heart Sutra for this hillside. Skilled craftsmen then cut his flowing characters carefully into the standing wood, line after line, column after column.

Walk slowly along the line of columns. Run your eyes up and down the carved text as you pass. You do not need to read Chinese to feel the rhythm and weight of it. The characters were cut deep into the grain, and the natural lines of the wood show through. Rain, sun, and wind have darkened the surface over the years, giving each column a worn, settled look.

Look for one column that stands completely bare. Near the turn of the loop, a single column carries no words at all. This was done on purpose, and it is easy to miss. In the teaching of the Heart Sutra, emptiness is not a lack or an absence. It is openness, and a kind of freedom. The blank column stands for that idea, plain and silent against the sky.

The setting gives the place much of its calm. Behind the columns rises Lantau Peak, green and steep, the second highest hill in Hong Kong. Mist often hangs along its slopes and drifts down toward the path. There are no walls here and no roof overhead. The Wisdom Path is open to all weather, and the wind passes freely between the tall pieces of standing wood.

This is a younger site than the monastery and the Buddha that sit nearby. It was opened in the early years of this century, in 2005. Yet it draws on words that are many centuries old, carried down through generations of teaching. New wood and old teaching meet here on the quiet hillside, a little apart from the main flow of visitors to Ngong Ping.

Few people hurry along this path. Some walk the full loop in silence, reading as they go. Others simply sit on the grass nearby and look at the columns from a distance. The path is free to enter and open to everyone. It asks only one thing of you: that you slow down. The reward is a kind of stillness, held between the wood and the green hill.

From the columns you can turn and look back the way you came. The roofs of the monastery show through the trees below. Above them, the bronze Buddha sits on its own hill, grown small with distance. The whole plateau spreads out around you, a place that people built for thought and prayer, with this quiet looping path set carefully at its edge.

The path changes with the light and the season. On bright days the wood glows warm and the characters stand out sharp. On grey days the columns fade softly into the mist, and the loop seems to vanish into cloud. In every weather the words stay the same, cut deep and patient, waiting for whoever walks the figure eight next.

Before you leave, walk the figure eight one more time, without hurrying. Let your hand rest for a moment on the cool, carved wood. The words around you are about letting go, about not holding too tightly to anything at all. The columns will stand here in the wind long after you have gone, saying the same quiet thing, over and over, to everyone who comes.