On the top of the Golden Mountain, on the sunshine rock

Li Rong'er, who was dressed in a goose yellow shirt, stood on the rock, looking at the river flowing under her feet, a line of tears silently slipped down her thin and beautiful cheeks, and the crystal tears fell to the smooth rock surface......

And not too far away, Jiang Liu'er, who was dressed in a monk's robe and had a layer of cyan oil on his head, was looking at Li Rong'er from outside the temple gate, seeing Li Rong'er's single figure and slender back, Jiang Liu'er's heart also had a faint sadness and inexplicable sentimentality, and he secretly said in his heart: "Sister Rong'er, how can I not know your intentions? It's just that Jiang Liu'er's brother became a monk when he was a child, took the temple as his home, and served the Buddha and purified all sentient beings as the most comforting thing in his life. Your brother Jiang Liu'er is used to hardship and loneliness, and he is destined to not be able to bear a love in the world. ”

"I'm sorry, Sister Rong'er. Brother Jiang Liuer can't give you the happiness and future you want, may you do it yourself in the future, I will pray for you in front of the Buddha. Jiang Liu'er silently bowed her head, and after a long time, she turned around and left.

The work and rest time in Jinshan Temple has always been very regular, and every day in accordance with the perennial rules of the temple to do homework, basically thunder can not move.

At 4 o'clock in the morning, the "night watch" (equivalent to a husband) in the monastery knocked on the planks four times to wake up the monks of the whole monastery, and then the monks got up to wash and dress, and lined up in order to prepare to go to the temple. This is followed by the morning hall (morning class), where all the monks gather in the main hall to attend the morning class. Everyone stands in their own position, the abbot of Faming stands on the left side of the temple gate, and the monk stands on the right side of the temple gate. In front of the Buddha statue stands "Vena", who rings the chime and leads the monks to chant the scriptures. Standing behind him were the Yue people on duty, holding chimes, and three monks on duty, holding wooden fish, bells, drums, bells, etc., and this group formed a small band. In the center of the main hall, divided into two rows, stand hundreds of monks of Jinshan Temple. The procedures for reciting the scriptures in the morning class are "Lengyan Mantra", "Great Compassion Mantra", "Small Mantras", "Praise Buddha Sutra", etc. After the "Praise of the Buddha", the monks lined up to walk around the Buddha statue and chanted "Nan Wu Amitabha" hundreds of times. Then return to the original position and kneel down to recite the names of the three bodhisattvas, the vows, the three refuges, etc., and finally recite the "Veda Zan", bow to the Buddha, and the morning service is over.

At half past six o'clock, the sound of the wooden fish bang sounds, and the monks go to the dining hall to eat "morning porridge", in the dining hall, as in the main hall, the monks sit behind the long and narrow tables in the east-west direction according to their positions, and everyone has their own seat. In the morning porridge, the monks not only have pure elements, but also concentrate their thoughts on the "five views", that is, the five thoughts. These five views are: first, contemplating food, contemplating the hard-won food; second, contemplating the body, contemplating one's own virtue and how to make up for deficiencies; third, contemplating the mind, i.e., visualizing how to prevent greed from making mistakes; fourth, facing up to good medicine, that is, treating eating as medicine, which is to nourish the body; fifth, attaining enlightenment, regarding eating as spiritual practice, and eating as achieving Taoism. After eating, the monks recite the "Fasting Verse", and the monks arrange the day's work, and then line up to leave the hall and go back to their residences.

In the morning (9 o'clock) chanting, each monk will have different arrangements according to the time of serving as different deacons in the temple, generally chanting and handling affairs.

At noon (11 o'clock), after the monks sat in meditation and ran incense, they went to the dining hall for lunch. Lunch is often a "Luohan porridge" made with various vegetables and tofu boiled together. After lunch, go back to the meditation room to rest for an hour, clean and wash and start to make incense. During this incense zazen period, tea was delivered to their seats three times (which shows the close connection between Zen and tea).

The afternoon (15 o'clock) is basically the same as the morning, and the chanting is the main thing. In the evening (17 o'clock), go to the evening hall (evening class) to do Buddhist things, and the evening class has three lessons: one is to recite the "Amitabha Sutra" and the name of the Buddha, so as to pray for oneself to be reborn in the Western Pure Land; one is to worship the 88 Buddhas and recite the "Great Confession", 88 Buddhas are the 53 Buddhas in the world and the current 35 Buddhas, and to repent to them to extinguish sins; the other is to give food to the Mengshan Mountain and recite the "Mantra of Breaking Hell" and so on.

Dinner is at 6 p.m., after which the drums are beaten.

At the end of the day (after 21 o'clock), the monks went back to the meditation room to rest. If there is a puja or a Buddhist service, the monks of Jinshan Temple will also change the schedule slightly.

At night, Jiang Liu'er returned to his meditation room, undressed and rested, and he soon fell asleep when he was a little tired, only to hear a soft, regular snoring sound from the bedside......

Outside the window, silver-white moonlight poured through the screen window into the meditation room.

The next day, in the Daxiong Hall of Jinshan Temple.

Elder Fa Ming, who had a white beard and long hair, was dressed in a blue robe, sitting in front of the Buddha, facing south, his eyes slightly closed, one hand constantly moving the Buddha beads, and chanting words in his mouth.

There are two rows of tables on both sides of the main hall, and the monks in the temple sit on both sides, and the sound of chanting, bells and drums, chimes and the percussion of wooden fish come and go, and it is still a daily morning class.

After finishing the morning class, Elder Fa Ming's eyes glanced at the monks and asked, "That's all for today's morning class, do you have anything else to do?" All the monks in the hall shook their heads.

At this time, Jiang Liu'er rushed to the Fa Ming Elder above and suddenly asked, "Master, our monks chant the Buddha day and night, which can be described as devout, but I don't know when we will be able to become Buddhas? ”

Hearing such a question from Jiang Liu'er, a young monk who had only been a monk for a month and whose legal name was Xuanzang, some old monks with considerable qualifications shook their heads and sneered secretly.

Seeing the expressions of the monks under his seat one by one, Elder Fa Ming smiled indifferently, and did not directly answer Jiang Liu'er's question, so he said, "Today, we will only do the simplest and easiest thing. ”

All the monks looked at each other, and their eyes were fixed on Elder Fa Ming on the seat, not knowing what kind of medicine was sold in the old monk's gourd.

"Listen, everyone, throw their arms as far forward as possible, and then throw them back as far as possible, that's ......," said Elder Fa Ming, who picked up his monk's robe and demonstrated it himself. All the monks followed suit, and after they were done, they all looked at Elder Fa Ming with a puzzled look.

Old Monk Fa Ming nodded, and said, "From today onwards, everyone will do it 200 times a day. Can you do it?" the monks asked suspiciously, "Master, why do you want to do such a thing?"

Fa Ming smiled slightly, plucked a string of Buddha beads with his left hand, stroked his white beard with his right hand, and said, "After doing this, you will know how to become a Buddha in less than a year." After speaking, a ray of light in Elder Fa Ming's eyes glanced in Jiang Liu'er's direction and smiled. At this time, all the monks in the hall were thinking, "What can't be done with such a simple thing?"

A month later, Elder Fa Ming saw that all the monks in the hall were gathered, so he asked, "What I asked you to do a month ago, who insisted on doing it?" Most of the monks replied proudly: "I did it!" Elder Fa Ming nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay!"

After another month, Elder Fa Ming asked, "How many people are doing it now?" and only about half of the monks replied, "I did!"

Half a year later, Elder Fa Ming summoned all the monks in the temple and solemnly asked the monks again: "The monks don't speak, please tell me, how many people are still insisting on doing the simplest hand-shaking exercise?" At this time, only one monk came forward and responded: "Master, the disciple has done it." ”

This monk is eight feet long, with a white face and broad ears, eyes like stars, a faint heroic spirit between his eyebrows, twelve ring scars on his head, and a brown robe obliquely draped on his body, which is the young monk ---- Xuanzang, who has been a monk for less than a year.

Elder Fa Ming nodded in satisfaction, called all the monks to him, and said, "The old man once said that after doing this simple thing, you will know how to become a Buddha. Now I want to tell you that the easiest things in the world are often the hardest things to do, and the hardest things are also the easiest things. ”

"It's easy because everyone can do it if they're willing to do it, and it's hard because it's only a handful of people who can really do it and persevere. After that, Elder Fa Ming stroked the white beard under his chin with his hand, and said with emotion.