As we all know, Seda is famous all over the world for its five Ming Buddhist colleges in Larong, where the red houses all over the mountains are inhabited by practitioners. Practice is the whole life of people there. What is practice? This is not only burning incense and worshipping Buddha, kowtowing and chanting, but more importantly, Wen Hughes. In listening and thinking, the Buddhist College has a very systematic course for everyone to learn, and there are exams during the study, which is as strict as secular universities. In fact, monks who live in the Red Mansion have to solve their own problems, and life is a Dojo. In many beautiful photos, rows of red houses are actually small and dark. There is no running water, no bathroom or even a bed in the house, only a mat on the ground. At first, I thought Kampo (a degree, equivalent to a professor in a university) would live in a very modern house, but after going there, I found that Kampo, who has many believers, still lives in such a red house. I even heard that Kampo's home was so humble that believers couldn't stand it, so they renovated it. After the renovation, Kampo felt that there were too many boards outside the new house, so he removed them again. Generally speaking, every monk has 500 yuan from the college as living expenses every month. For me, the monthly food expenses are not limited to 500 yuan, let alone 500 yuan, where I live for one month. People there have reduced their dependence on material life to a minimum.
At the Buddhist College, the first Kampo I met was Sodaki Kampo, and I arrived just in time for him to speak a Buddhist sutra (Mahayana Solemn Sutra). Before that, I knew nothing about Sodagi Kampo except that he was a famous Tibetan Buddhist leader. At first, I didn't listen to his enlightenment with admiration like some of his followers, just regarded it as an ordinary lecture. However, with listening, I have to be impressed by Sodaki Kampo's extensive knowledge. Not only can he know Buddhist classics like the back of his hand, but he can also quote a passage from a classic at will. Secular knowledge is not a problem for Kampo. One day, he gave a speech with the theme of "How Buddhists keep pace with the times". At the beginning of his speech, he quoted Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities: "This is the best time and the worst time; This is an era of wisdom and stupidity; This is a period of faith and a period of doubt. " At the same time, he also listed all the periods in the process of human civilization in detail, and even listed the landmark events at the beginning of each period, and was able to accurately determine the dates of these events. As a college student majoring in humanities, I feel very ashamed. Besides being knowledgeable, humor is another characteristic of him. In the process of his speech, he can always improvise and make everyone present laugh with some interesting words. After several contacts, you will not think of him as a high-ranking religious leader, but as a very knowledgeable and good teacher.
At noon one day, my sisters and I visited Luozhu Kampo in Cicheng, which is another famous Kampo in the Buddhist College. Before that, I read two books by Kampo, one is The Truth of Life, and the other is Why Are We Unhappy. I haven't finished reading these two books, I'm just dabbling in them. The reason is that I regard these two books as chicken soup for the soul and have no interest in reading them. But when I went to Kampo, he gave me another book called Buddhism: Superstition or Wisdom? ! I was fascinated when I opened the first chapter of this book. In his book, Kampo demonstrated with strong logic what Buddhism is and what it is not, and summed up the connotation of Buddhism with the word "compassion and wisdom", breaking the previous prejudice that Buddhism is idealism, Buddhism is religion and Buddhism is superstition. Kampo also knocked me on the head and said to me: Listen more and think more, don't be superstitious. For a person who really begins to learn Buddhism, he will not waste his enthusiasm on praying for Buddha and Bodhisattva's blessing for promotion and wealth or anything else, and he will not hope that Buddha and Bodhisattva will help him escape impermanence. He will gradually accept impermanence as the truth of the world and have a strong heart to face it when impermanence comes. Buddhism will not promise to give you any sense of security, on the contrary, it will break your sense of security. Buddha is not a god who can decide or rewrite fate. He is just a teacher with distinctive personality, teaching you various ways to face the troubles in life, expanding the bright side of life, and making everyone become a harmonious, intelligent and compassionate person like him.
Another mage who impressed me deeply was Guru Tashi (Guru probably means distinguished teacher in Tibetan Buddhism, so I call him Guru here because I don't know Guru Tashi's name). He is just in his early thirties, but he is very energetic. A few friends and I followed the guru to banma county, Qinghai, the birthplace of King Ruyibao Jinmei Pengcuo, near Seda. On the way back, the master parked the car by the side of the road, and our party had a picnic on the wide grass. There is no one around the grassland. There are mountains under the flowing white clouds. The strong sunshine on the plateau shines on us, and the breeze blows from time to time, bringing coolness. Although I only ate fruits such as watermelons and plums and nuts such as melon seeds and pine nuts, the only staple food was Shanxi bean jelly, but this was the most unforgettable lunch I had in my life. Even the sky is the clearest blue sky I have ever seen. "If you stay in a cage for a long time, you can return to nature" is probably the case. At that moment, I was thinking, what are we pursuing after being poor all our lives? The peace and freedom of this moment is not based on any material enjoyment, or even on my relationship with anyone, but simply enjoying the present state of that moment. Maybe a lot of pain is just because I want too much, but in fact, life really doesn't need much.
In addition to following the guru to Qinghai, we also went to the celestial burial platform in Seda. Celestial burial is a funeral custom of Tibetans. In their idea, the soul after the death of Tianzang can reach the pure land of bliss. The deceased was moved to the celestial burial platform by his family. After the ceremony, the celestial burial master will dissect and cut the body piece by piece, and then feed it to the vultures. Because tourists are not allowed to get too close, we can only stand on the distant platform and watch the whole process of celestial burial. I only saw part of the body and the scene of vultures flying to eat the body, but I didn't see the autopsy process, but it was enough to shock me. People's life comes from nature, and everything in people's life is inseparable from the giving of nature. When people die, whether it is celestial burial or other funeral methods, our bodies will return to nature. From this perspective, we have always been closely connected with everything in nature, especially between people. Before a hair of mine becomes my hair, it may be a small flower swaying in the wind. After withering, it melts into the land and breaks down into the basic elements that make up life. These elements have changed their way of existence and become a part of life again through the recoding of nature, a magical engineer. We are just a form of existence that occasionally appears in the great cycle of life. When we hurt other lives, we are actually hurting ourselves, because we are one.
In Seda, what I can't forget is not only a few tarpaulins, but also some people who moved me to tears. They are a group of Tibetan compatriots. My days in Seda coincided with the Dafa Conference, and many Han Chinese came here not far from Wan Li to attend the Dafa Conference. Some Tibetans came here with their families and their families. Without a place to live, they set up tents in the open space of the square. They can't go to the prayer hall, sit on the side of the road or kneel on the side of the road to recite scriptures. You know, this is the rainy season in Seda. It rained for several days, even hail for two or three days. At night, the temperature is below zero. You should wear warm clothes even during the day. Look at these Tibetans. They wear simple and even untidy clothes. They may only eat a ciba. They stayed here for seven or eight days just for faith. In their eyes, I can't see confusion and anxiety. On the contrary, I am so firm and so pious. In contrast, we enjoy much better material conditions, but often wander in luxurious buildings all our lives, unable to see the direction of life. They may have nothing, but they have spiritual power that material things can't shake.
In fact, before I came to Seda, I knew nothing about Tibetan Buddhism, and even had some prejudice that Tibetan Buddhism was too mysterious. Due to the limitation of cognition, we usually judge a thing based on the existing experience and concepts, and draw a conclusion that conforms to our cognitive logic according to the superficial connection of things. Breaking the existing knowledge will actually make us feel uneasy, so it is difficult for us to understand the thing itself with an empty mind and without any prejudice when we are in contact with a new thing. I dare not say how deep my understanding of Tibetan Buddhism has reached through this trip. I can only say that I dare not jump to conclusions about some things I have seen. I am willing to listen and feel before deciding whether to agree or not.
Tancheng is the tallest building in the Buddhist College and a sacred place in the eyes of many Buddhists. Before that, I heard many people say that if you go to Tancheng for a walk, you can get rid of it as long as you reach a certain number and will not be reincarnated. Sounds a little superstitious. Ajuemu (a female monk of Tibetan Buddhism) told me that Tancheng actually represents the true face of Buddhism, and the purpose of going around Tancheng is to discover my heart. At night, the altar city is particularly beautiful and solemn in a brightly lit glass. I took a large group of tourists and believers around the altar city. It happened to be the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, and the moon was high in the sky, round and bright. However, the moon has been shrouded in heavy clouds and can only show a little light. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew through the air and blew away the clouds that covered the moon. A bright moon slowly appeared in front of the world, and many people who had been hovering in the altar city stopped and looked at the beautiful scenery that suddenly appeared in front of them excitedly. I may have lived in the urban jungle for a long time, and even enjoying the moon has become a luxury and romantic thing, not to mention the plateau without high-rise buildings blocking my sight and smog. Looking at the night sky, I was stunned by what I saw. At that moment, I seemed to feel a little ecstasy of enlightenment, and I couldn't help but stare big eyes and open my mouth. I suddenly realized that the so-called self-sufficiency, the original pure self is like the bright and flawless moon, and the so-called troubles and complicated things are like layers of dark clouds, which flow all the time and can never cover the moon. However, we are immersed in the temporary darkness or wandering in the moonlight before us, clinging to it and refusing to let go, and pursuing eternity in constant change is futile. Huineng, the sixth ancestor, said, "Bodhi has no trees, and the mirror is not a stage. There was nothing, where did the dust come from? " At that moment, it is no longer a written language for me, but like a gentle petal falling in my heart.
The reason why this essay is called Tales of Buddhist Countries is because I think of Tao Yuanming's Peach Blossom Garden. Just like the fisherman who strayed into Taoyuan, I had many adventures and received too many gifts in a simple and uncontroversial country. When I left, it became a pure land in my heart. At the end of Peach Blossom Garden, the fisherman got nothing, and then no one was interested. Nowadays, Seda tourism is becoming more and more prosperous. I hope this Buddhist country can keep its original appearance and not disappear into the world in another way because there are too many buyers.