Jack Li: The Forgotten Forest

Jack Li: The Forgotten Forest

http://www.ghandchi.com/461-ForgottenForestEng.htm

جک لی: جنگل فراموش شده

http://www.ghandchi.com/461-ForgottenForest.htm

P.S. 12/8/23: My late friend Jack Li passed away 30 years ago. Every time I listen to the 'Music Masterpiece of Tony Scott entitled Music for Zen Meditation,' I remember Jack's article entitled 'Zen Meditation.' SG

P.S. 08/6/18: Today this article is being republished with a few additional notes. S.G.

At dawn,

By the shore.

A gentle breeze brushes by,

Soft and under the feet.

Gazing at the horizon;

Waiting for the Sun to rise.

What would the new age bring?!

Would the lark still sing?!

Where the flowers bloom in spring?!

When our dreams will take to the wing?!

Will this time make the free spirit ring?!

Hope, Wait, And dream!

After the dawn,

I shall look for those stars left on the shore;

Stars that had flung on the beach

by the Star Gazer.

Whose heart is full of love and tender.

(He washes these stars with his tears.

Then he wipes them with his fingers.)

In the meadow of the forgotten forest,

The banquet is ready to start.

Little Rock (i.e. Jack Li), Published in 1989 in Mundus Novus

Editorial Note

The above poem was written by my late friend Jack Li in 1989. His pen name was *Littlerock*. Jack wrote this poem for Mundus Novus. Mundus Novus (meaning new world) was a science-oriented futuristic journal in Northern California, that I published for two years from 1988 in Sunnyvale of California, as the publication of Nova Bookstore (1).

Beside this poem, Jack wrote two other poems entitled The Life Phase and Time (2), and two articles entitled Zen Meditation (3) and Dreams (4), for Mundus Novus, and he also cooperated with me in the writing of "A Futurist Vision" (5) and signed it. Jack was a co-founder of Beyond War organization in Palo Alto of California in 1982 (6). Jack passed away on April 8, 1994.

Jack seldom wrote anything about spiritual matters and wrote the above noted articles at my request. He always thought there were others who had already written what needed to be written on these topics. He believed in practicing spiritually as his private matter.

The reason that meditation article is called *Zen* meditation, is not because of any religious reason. It was because Jack believed that one needed to stick with one tradition of meditation, to be able to focus on meditation itself rather than the tool, and he had chosen Zen as a tool, although he came from a Christian family. Jack had worked directly with Krishnamurti and Shunryu Suzuki, whom he highly respected. I have written about Suzuki in my article entitled "Toilet paper and Conference of the Birds" (7). Jack was an electrical engineer by profession but he liked many things including music and photography. The fuchsia flower photo that is attached was Jack's photography (8).

For Jack, the purpose of all this was not position and power and for him the school of meditation itself was nothing but a tool, a tool that could be used in one's journey to achieve self-consciousness.

If there are any questions about his articles and poems, I am afraid that I may not be able to answer. The reader may want to consult the books that Jack had recommended at the end of the articles, or may want to post questions or comments on public forums, and some people may be able to discuss them.

Hoping for a democratic and secular futurist republic in Iran,

Sam Ghandchi
IRANSCOPE.COM

http://www.ghandchi.com/index2.html

December 10, 2006

Footnotes:

1. About Nova Bookstore

http://www.ghandchi.com/05-My_ProfileEng.htm

2. Jack Li's Poems: The Life Phase, Time

http://www.ghandchi.com/iranscope/Anthology/Jack_Li-Poems.htm

3. Jack Li: Zen Meditation

http://www.ghandchi.com/iranscope/Anthology/Jack_Li-Zen.htm

4. Jack Li: Dreams