Anthony,
There are many characters for these Westernized spellings, all with
different pronunciations and meaning - but scanning them, and other uses
of this name, perhaps it is the same iteration as the ancient Taoist of
same name? If so then:
郭象
"Guo", written in Chinese: 郭, is one of the most common Chinese
surnames and means "the wall that surrounds outside a city"
"Xiang" 象 means "elephant", and is a stylized sketch of an elephant.
The elephant reference is interesting here:
"The passage from the elephant <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/elephant>
meaning to the likeness <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/likeness> meaning
is explained like this in the Han Feizi
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Feizi_%28book%29> (around 221 BCE
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/BCE>): /Men rarely see living elephants.
As they come by the skeleton of a dead elephant, they imagine its living
form according to its features. Therefore it comes to pass that whatever
people use for imagining the real is called 象./ "
Imagining the real! Priceless. Together, can mean behind the veil of
delusion, so to speak - or one who realizes this.
A wonderful Dharma name indeed!
The characters of Joe's Master's name I can be more sure of, Sheng Yen -
聖嚴
Sheng 聖 - Holy, sacred, sage
Yen 嚴 - Strict, rigorous
K
PS - above, largely courtesy of Wikipedia/Wiktionary
On 6/16/2012 11:57 PM, Anthony Wu wrote:
Joe,
Can you give me the Chinese characters of Guo Xiang? Sheng Yen was a
southerner, had trouble making a difference between 'se' (another word
for form) and 'shi' (consciousness).
Anthony
*From:* Joe <[email protected]>
*To:* [email protected]
*Sent:* Sunday, 17 June 2012, 5:37
*Subject:* Re: [Zen] Speaking of Compassion
Dear Anthony,
YOU are a funny man. I don't care WHAT they all say about you!! ;-)
Your brother,
--Joe / in the desert
PS Sheng Yen called me "Guo-Xiang". Result-Form. The same "Xiang",
"Form", as in the Heart Sutra: "Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form".
That is my Dharma name from him. I never use it, except with him, and
since he has passed, you are the first other person to know.
Prostrations to the Old Man, and to all beings: it's a good Yoga.
Strong practice, --J.
> Anthony Wu <wuasg@...> wrote:
>
> Joe,
> Â
> Thank you for your compliments.
> Â
> Anthony
