Seal Connections
Yutang Lin
Guru Chen's Dharma poems carved into seals for posterity.
Ideas of Dharma seals were mostly carved by Seong Yeow.
Disciple Wang Hao had offered all his calligraphy and seals.
My humble study is rich in connections with carved words.
Comments:
Guru Chen's work "Short Flute Collection" contains several thousand poems. He used to have experts carved some of his favorite lines from his poems. Since he bequeathed all of them to me, I began to have deep connections with seals. Upasaka Tan Seong Yeow learned to carve seals on his own, and enjoyed doing it. Whenever I had some ideas of a Dharma seal, I asked him to draw it up and carve it. He also offered me many fine seals carved by him. Consequently, my collection of seals grew. Disciple Wang Hao used to do calligraphy and seal-carving as hobby, and even after he started on the path to enlightenment he continued to do calligraphy and seal-carving as Dharma practices and services. Time and again he offered his fine works to me, and even offered me the fine works of his late master in seal-carving. Besides, occasionally some Buddhists had offered me seals containing a Dharma sentence or my personal name. Therefore, even though I am not preoccupied by seals, nevertheless I have had deep connections with seals. In my humble study, a Study for the Cultivation of Harmony, seals are scattered everywhere to be seen.
Written in Chinese and translated on April 6, 2007
El Cerrito, California
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Seal Connections
----- Original Message -----
From: "Yutang Lin"
To: "Dharma Friends"
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 5:41 AM
Subject: Samples of Seals
I had stamped two seals and scanned them for you.
The one above was from Guru Chen, and it says, "High wild geese speaks (in
or about) empty sky." And its significance is that practitioners of high
attainment acts and speaks in and about empty space (Sunyata).
The one below was carved and then given to me by Upasaka Tan Seong Yeow. It
says, "A hall full of gold and jade." It is a Chinese idiom, used to express
admiration or well-wishing. And it is well-connected to my name Yu Tang
because the Chinese caracter Yu in my name consists of the charaters Jin
(gold) and Yu (jade), while the character Tang is the word for "hall" in the
seal.
I am adding this to the work Seal Connections (F1390, Jin Shi Yuan) to
enhance readers' feeling to my descriptions.
Detong, please add this to the posted file, and add a link to Wang Hao's seal "Ji" so that all three main sources of my seals are each represented by a seal.
Attain Enlightenment Soon!
Yutang
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