A Pilgrimage to Chinese Zen Temples

My Pilgrimage to Chinese Zen Temples–Paying My Respects to the Zen Masters Who Made Zen

Staying at Tong Bo Yan Si (translation: Monk’s Copper Bowl Temple)

 

I’ve written about previous stays at temples in China, and had returned in March 2013, for a two month stay at Tong Bo Yan Si. While there, the traditional Buddha’s Birthday celebration took place.

Entrance to the Dharma Hall at Tong Bo Yan Si

 

Here is a picture of the Baby Buddha, set up under the statue of the 1000 armed Kuan Yin.

 

 

Tong Bo Yan Si was the place where Jing Wu, the abbot of the temple, stayed when he had finished his three year solitary retreat at the famous training temple, Bailin Si, the Tang Dynasty monk, Zhao Zhou’s (Japanese: Joshu) temple, rebuilt in the 1980’s. The picture here shows me at the entrance to a small cave, where hermits sometimes lived. The original Tong Bo Yan Si was reportedly 800 years old. Jing Wu was discovered by some lay people and his vow to start his own temple was realized in 2007.

 

Travel to Xue Feng’s Temple

Following my stay at Tong Bo Yan Si, I went with some Chinese friends to the temple of Xue Feng, about a 4 hour drive from Xiamen, in western Fujian Province. I have special affinity because  Xue Feng (822-908) practiced meditation diligently for 25 years. While traveling with his monk friend, Yan Tou, his brother monk finally blurted out to him, “Haven’t you heard that, that what comes through the front gate is not the family treasure!”   Haven’t you heard that what comes in through the front gate (your senses) is not Your Family Treasure? Here is a statue of the old man himself.

Statue of Master Xue Feng (Seppo)

 

The best meditator at Xue Feng Si. When I asked him for some truth of Buddhism, he said something, which I didn’t understand, but then, just laughed, said, Meditate More!, turned and walked away.

 

Here, Guoji, my monk friend, and I stand on the ‘highway’ between Fujian and Jiangxi Province.

 

After Xue Feng had his insight, he left Jiangxi province, and went to Fujian. He took up sitting in this old semipetrified tree trunk. The building you see was built around it only recently. A statue of him sits inside.

 

Of course, Chan people (Chan is the Chinese pronunciation of Zen) have great respect for Arhats, and what you see here, is the footprint of a flying arhat, in the side of the large boulder.  Some of the old Buddhist literature describes some feats of Arhats or of others who have very high powers of Samatha or Concentration Meditation. (Walking on water being another)

 

 

Traveling into “Zen Country”

 

From XueFeng Si, I went on the main part of the trip, to Jiangxi Province. First, I went to the capital of Jiangxi, but no one knew anything about where these temples are located. Fortunately, a friend I had met at a temple two years earlier, gave me directions to my next stop, Yang Shan Xi Yin Si.It took about two days to get here, and when I arrived, there was a Buddhist summer camp. These are some of the campers who stayed at the temple for a week, learning to meditate and study Buddhism.

This is a flat bell outside the kitchen where they cook meals. You see this type of bell everywhere in China and even in Japan. My home temple in the US has one like this, too.

Yangshan was one of the most important early teachers of Chan. His school was one of the five schools of Chan, and this bell, with its five shapes, circle, half circle, triangle, oblong and square represent the five schools.. Also, notice the 8 spoked wheel of the Dharma on the wall of the Dharma Hall.

 

Here is the rebuilt tomb of Yang Shan. The temple had been completely destroyed by fire in the 19^th century but has been rebuilt in recent years.

 

Note the placement of the temple nestled against the mountainside. This is typical of Chan temples.

 

Like temples in Thailand, we can often see a pond where fish swim happily with out fear of being caught for food.

The Abbot of YangShan Temple and Myself

The abbot of Yang Shan Si Yin Si, was very surprised to see a foreigner come to his temple. I may have been the first ever! So he offered to help me on my pilgrimage. Pictured here are two students who speak English, along with their university professor. The Abbot then personally drove me to see two temples, both famous in the history of Chan/Zen Buddhism.

 

Visiting the Spot Where Dong Shan Was Enlightened

The first was Dong Shan Liang Jie (Japanese, Tozan Ryokai), and the second was Baofeng Si, where I stayed for a week. Here we are at the site of one of Yang Shan contemporaries, Dong Shan Liang Jie (807-869). He had a big question whether non sentient beings are enlightened or not. Finally while on pilgrimage, he saw his reflection in the water and got his answer!

 

 

 

 

Here is a new building at Dong Shan’s temple. It had probably hundreds of monks when it was active 1000 years ago, but much of it fell into disrepair, and also, during the Cultural Revolution, many temples were destroyed. They are now being rebuilt.

 

This is one of the few surviving buildings from the Ming Dynasty, at least 400 years old.

 

 

Here is Dong Shan’s tomb, which has been rebuilt

 

 

Dong Shan’s school is one of the two surviving schools of Chan. And I first trained in a temple  (San Francisco Zen Center) that came from his line of teaching.   Here are some rice buckets, used to serve rice at the second temple, where Yang Hang took me to stay. It’s told in one of the old Zen stories that a teacher used to serve his monks from buckets like these, and before doing so, would dance and say, “Come eat, little Bodhisattvas!”.

A bodhisattva is a being training to become enlightened. So he was encouraging the monks, as he served them from the rice buckets. The temple where these old style buckets are used is Bao Feng Si, where the great Chan Master Mazu  (709-88)lived.

He was enlightened when his teacher chided him for being attached to doing sitting meditation. More about that later.

 

In the Reception Hall at Baofeng si, is a statue of Xu Yun.

 

 

Hitting the wooden fish signaling meal time

 

 

The meditation Hall at Baofeng Si. During Kinhin, walking meditation, the monks and laypeople circle the Buddha image in a fast, unstructured pace

 

 

Standing in front of the Chan Hall with two regular Chan sitters. The monk on the left is the head of the Chan Hall.

 

 

Yunju Daoying, Now a Major Training Temple

At the next temple I visited, which was founded by Yunju Daoying (Ungan Donjo d. 902),a successor to Dong Shan, we see many pictures and artifacts of Xu Yun, who is said to have lived or maybe died there. To understand the importance of Xu Yun, it is important to understand what happened to China, and its effects on Buddhism. The opium wars and the Qing Dynasty’s own corruption destroyed China’s defenses against colonial powers.

The forced importation of opium resulted in ¼ of Chinese people addicted to opium, which resulted in virtual collapse of the society. In the mid 1800’s, another import was Christianity. A Chinese man who was converted to Christianity believed he was the younger brother of Jesus. He garnered an army to fight the corrupt and oppressive Qing Dynasty.

Taiping Rebellion, a Horrible Chapter in China’s Century of Humiliation

 

Called the Taiping Rebellion, it resulted in chaos and civil war, lost food production, all resulting in between 20 and 100 million people dying between 1850-65. By contrast, the US Civil war lasted from 1861-65, and resulted in massive destruction in the US South, and perhaps 800,000 dead of a population of 32 million. China lost its amount of dead in a population of about 350 million. Perhaps up to 20% or more of China was killed outright or died of disease or starvation.

Then WWII happened, with the Japanese invasion, which is said to have resulted in the death of another 20 million. Xu Yun lived from 1840-1959. Thus, he lived through not just one, but TWO Holocausts!

 

Here is a picture of the elderly Xu Yun, surrounded by his disciples. Including a young Jing Hui Lao Hesheng (“Jing Hui, the Old Monk [an honorific title]”). After the Communists took power, from about 1960-75, Jing Hui was imprisoned for 15 years, but on his release, followed Xu Yun’s example and rebuilt many temples in China, including Lao Zu Si, Si Zu Si, Bailin Si, and Yu Quan Si, all of which I visited and or stayed at.

Here is a picture of Jing Hui and myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting Baizhang Temple

Yan Zhen, the abbot of Baofeng Si, sent me on a tour with one of his young lay students, to see Yunju Shan, and I also to Baizhang Temple, one of the most important temples in Chan history. The founder, Baizhang, had a saying, “A day of no work is a day of no eating.” This goes against the rules laid down by the Buddha, but because Chan monks grew their own food, when Buddhism was almost destroyed by a Chinese Emperor in 843-5, the Chan temples survived, while others who were not independent, did not.

This inscription marks the site of a famous story in Chan. The story of the monk reborn as a fox. This is the actual cave where his dead fox body could be found.

 

Yan Zhen is the abbot of Baofeng Si. He speaks English and visited Burma last year.

 

Maybe we can get him to come to Thailand, or even America.

 

 

Here is an image of old Mazu himself, who was a teacher for Baizhang, we will see that his students eventually produced Linji, who founded the second surviving school of Chan.

 

Climbing Chinese Sacred Mountains

 

Along with my vow to visit these famous temples of Jiangxi Province, I also wanted to climb two of the mountains in China sacred to Buddhists, which thousands of sincere pilgrims go to climb. The mountain shown here is Jiu Hua Shan, sacred to the Bodhisattava, Ksitigarbha, (English, “Earth Store”, Chinese “Dizhang”). It’s said that a Korean monk who was a manifestation of Dizhang, lived on the mountain for 75 years, back over 1000 years ago.

 

Fun Fact: Chinese People Have a Far Better Knowledge of US History Than We Do

It’s just amazing and astounding to me how profoundly ignorant Americans and Westerners in general know about their countries and cultures. As one US researcher, (now deceased) famously said, “People have NO IDEA WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IN THEIR NAME!”

 

Here is a stairway on the way to the top of Jiu Hua Shan. Yan Zhen sent me to his monk brother, Yan Hui, who was my guide at Jiu Hua Shan. I also spent time with Yan Hui and discussed issues of history and modern society.

Three steps one bow all the way up Jiu Hua Shan.

 

 

After climbing Jiu Hua Shan, Yan Hui took me to two other temples. This bell was placed at a temple with a sad history. During the Taiping Rebellion, 3000 people took refuge there, and were massacred. So the abbot of that temple brought the bell, to be rung in memory of the people killed, to help their ghosts rest in peace.

 

Visiting Wutai Shan, Home of Manjushri Bodhisattva

 

It took three tries to climb Wutai Shan, the legendary home of Manjusri Bodhisattva.The second sacred mountain  I visited was Wutai Shan, or 5 Terrace Mountain, home to the Bodhisattva, Manjusri. At one of the countless temples on Wutai Shan, I saw this classic statue of Manjusri (Chinese, Wencu Pusa). I stayed at Wutai Shan for three days, and will write about it later on, as it was not so relevant to my discussion with monks in Thailand.

I had a less than great experience traveling alone at Wutai Shan, because I perceived a more money oriented mindset of this famous tourist attraction. This seems to be a tendency pretty much everywhere in the world nowadays.

 

Visiting Zhao Zhou’s (Joshu’s) Temple, Bailin Si

 

Monks leaving the chanting hall at Bailin Si.

 

This was the very famous monk, Zhao Zhou, Chan Master’s temple. The temple was totally destroyed, save for a severely damaged pagoda, over the last 1000 years. Jing Hui asked Overseas Chinese  from different countries such as Singapore, Japan and Korea to donate money, and the temple was rebuilt 30+ years ago. It is a very active temple (Jing Wu, now at Tong Bo Yan Si did his solitary 3 year retreat here.) Zhao Zhou lived from 778-897.

It is said that after his teacher died when he was aged 60, he went on pilgrimage for 20 years, finally settling down at age 80, and he lived another 40 years after that.

 

The Pagoda honoring Zhao Zhou

 

Jing Hui’s successor, Ming Hai is the abbot of Bailin Si.

 

Visiting Yu Quan Si

He was not at that temple when I arrived, so he invited me to see him at this temple, which had also been rebuilt by Jing Hui. This temple, Yu Quan Si, was in the teaching line of Dong Shan, although it came 3 centuries later. It is the place where a monk in the Cao Dong (Soto, in Japanese) school of Chan wrote a book, The Record of Ease, or variously translated as The Book of Serenity, compiling stories of teachers of Chan told throughout several centuries, and is used in conjunction with meditation study.

Here is a garden outside the meditation hall.

 

Visiting Linji’s (Rinzai) Temple

 

The final two pictures were taken at Linji’s temple. Linji was the founder of the Linji School, one of the two major surviving schools of Chan, or Zen. The pagoda and the meditation hall are shown here. I was brought here by a monk I met at Bailin Si, who calls himself Peter. The young girl, a college student name Jessie, came along, and helped translate for Peter and me.  I used these pictures as a presentation to the monks in Chiang Mai, and a lively discussion followed.

See my other posts for my extended pilgrimage in China. But I wanted to include these pictures and a brief overview.