Slow Living at Hupao Spring — a meditative note on Hong Yi and Chinese Buddhism

I wandered through Hupao Park last week and paused at Master Hong Yi’s stupa by the spring. The place stretched time thin — like a book opening gently in your hands. Walking slowly there felt like the simplest practice: breathe, listen, and be present.

“To slow is to see what hurries hide.”
“Presence is the simplest pilgrimage.”

These short lines can sit as pull-quotes or Instagram cards — small anchors for a slower mind.

About Hupao Spring in Hangzhou

Hupao Spring (Tiger-Running Spring) lies at the foot of Daci Mountain in Hangzhou — a cool, shaded pocket of water and willow where tea-growers have drawn spring water for centuries to brew Longjing tea. The spring’s clear, steady flow and the legends around it (tigers, sages, and Buddhist hermits) have made Hupao one of the West Lake area’s most beloved scenes.

Li Shutong (Hong Yi): artist, teacher, monk

Li Shutong, who later became Master Hong Yi, passed through many public lives before he entered monastic seclusion. Born in the late Qing era, he was first celebrated as an artist, musician, playwright, and teacher. In 1918 he received ordination at Hupao Temple and devoted the rest of his life to Chinese Buddhism, calligraphy, and Vinaya study, earning a place among the most influential Buddhist figures of the early 20th century.

What Hupao and Hong Yi teach about slow living

 

Passing the hupao spring in hangzhou, I thought about Hong Yi (Li Shutong) and how Chinese Buddhism shapes a life that turns inward without losing the world. His three lives — artist, teacher, monk — read like chapters of someone learning to trade noise for clarity. The stupa by Hupao Spring felt less like an object and more like an invitation: slow down, notice the ordinary, begin again.

We live in an era of “alive but half-asleep” — senses dulled by constant motion. Hupao Spring offered a counter-rhythm: the hush of water, the sway of willows, the unhurried footsteps of visitors. The power I felt there was not dramatic. It was quiet courage — the kind that knows sorrow and still chooses a steady path.

Slow living is not a luxury; it’s a small discipline. Start with tiny experiments: leave your phone in your bag for one walk, try a hobby that has no performance metric, read one paragraph of a biography of Hong Yi and let it sit. These are the gestures that revive desire — not instant fixes but seeds of intention.

Tiny practices to begin today

• Leave your phone in your bag for one walk.
• Try a hobby with no performance metric.
• Read a single paragraph of Hong Yi’s biography and let it sit.
• light a natural incense and have a meditation time.

These small experiments are not instant fixes but seeds of intention. Desire and meaning grow quietly, through repeated, gentle acts.

 

Meaning grows, quietly, from these repeated small acts. If you spend this summer without watching a single sunset, you lose a simple teacher. Go see one. Let the colors keep you awake for a little longer.

 

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