The Buddha's teachings during his lifetime can be divided into five periods and eight teachings. The five periods are: (1) Avatamsaka Sutra (milk); (2) Agama Sutra (yogurt); (3) Mahayana Sutra (raw butter); (4) Prajna Sutra (cooked butter); and (5) Lotus Sutra Nirvana (the oil condensed on the butter and cheese). After attaining enlightenment, the Buddha first taught the Avatamsaka Sutra within 21 days. This was the Avatamsaka period, which was like the sun just rising and the sunlight shining on a high mountain. The high mountain is a metaphor for the great bodhisattvas. The shravakas and pratyekabuddhas did not understand it, so they said: "Those with eyes cannot see the Vairocana body, and those with ears cannot hear the perfect teaching." When the Buddha taught the Avatamsaka Sutra, he manifested the Vairocana body of a thousand feet. The shravakas and pratyekabuddhas could not see it, but still saw the Buddha as a golden body of six feet. The Avatamsaka Sutra is the perfect teaching, so the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas could not understand it. The milk of the perfect teaching is like cow's milk, which is too thick and a newborn baby cannot drink it. The second period was the Agama Sutra, also known as the Abhidhamma Sutra, which is translated as the incomparable sutra. The teachings of the outsiders cannot compare to it. This is when the sun shines on the mountainside, and can also shine on the lowlands. This is a metaphor for the production of curd from milk, which is not too thick and easy to digest, and can be drunk by children. The third is the Fangdeng period, when the sun is approaching the ground, and it is also the time when curd produces butter. The fourth is the Prajna period, when raw butter turns into cooked butter. The fifth is the Lotus Nirvana period, which is likened to the essence of the milk, which has the supreme and wonderful taste. At this time, the sun shines in the middle of the sky, and can shine on both high mountains and lowlands. Therefore, the Lotus Sutra is the most important in Buddhism. The Shurangama Sutra is about opening up wisdom and showing the path of practice. The Lotus Sutra is the sutra for becoming a Buddha. As the saying goes, "If you chant Namo Buddha once, you will all achieve the path of Buddhahood together." All sentient beings can become Buddhas if they practice according to the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is about revealing the truth through the expedient means, speaking the real Dharma, and eliminating falsehood. Therefore, the principles of the Lotus Sutra are the most mysterious.
My late mother, Mrs. Zhang's wet nurse, Ms. Liao, said: In Ma Luopo, southeast of Cangzhou, there was a woman who made a living by selling noodles. She used the surplus noodles to support her elderly mother-in-law. Because her family was poor and could not afford a donkey, she had been grinding noodles by herself, working until the fourth watch every night.
Later, her mother-in-law passed away. Once, when she came back from visiting the grave, she met two girls on the road and said to her with a smile: "We have lived together for more than 20 years. Do you still recognize us?" She was panicked and surprised for a moment, not knowing what to say. The two girls said: "Sister-in-law, don't be surprised. We are both fox girls. Because we are very moved by your filial piety, we come to help you grind the mill every night. Unexpectedly, we are rewarded by God for this. It is because of this merit that we have achieved the right result. Now that your filial piety to your mother-in-law has been fulfilled, we sisters should also ascend to heaven. Therefore, we come to say goodbye to you, sister-in-law, and we also want to thank you for your support." After that, like a gust of wind, they disappeared in the blink of an eye.
When the woman went back home and tried to push the millstone, she found it extremely heavy and a little powerless, and it could no longer rotate as smoothly as before.
- Ji Xiaolan
There is a temple in Cangzhou called the Flower Arrangement Temple. There is a nun named Dong. It was the birthday of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva Mahasattva, so she prepared offerings and presented them to the Buddha. After she finished arranging the offerings, she suddenly felt a little tired, so she leaned on the offering table to rest for a while. In a trance, she dreamed that the Bodhisattva said to her: "If you don't offer me offerings, I won't be hungry. If you offer me offerings, I won't be full. There are four or five refugees outside the temple gate. They can't beg for food and are about to starve to death. I hope you can give these offerings to them. Saving their lives is ten times more meritorious than offering to me!" The nun suddenly woke up, she opened the temple door and saw that there were indeed four or five hungry people, so she gave the offerings to these refugees to fill their stomachs.
From then on, after offering every year, she gave these offerings to beggars to eat. She said: "This is the will of the Bodhisattva!"
My late mother, Mrs. Zhang, said: There was a sedan chair bearer named Tian in Cangzhou. His mother was dying of bloating. He heard that there was a doctor in Jinghe Town who had a special medicine for this disease, but it was more than a hundred miles away from his hometown. Before dawn, he set out and ran to Jinghe Town. After getting the medicine, he ran back again at nightfall, panting and exhausted. But that night, the water level of Wei River surged, the wind was strong and the waves were high, and no boat dared to take him across the river. He was so anxious that he looked up to the sky and cried. The boatmen felt very sorry for him, but they could do nothing.
At this time, a boatman suddenly stood up, untied the rope that tied the boat, and called Tian, saying: "As long as God has eyes, you will not be drowned! Come! I will take you across the river!"
The boatman paddled hard, and the boat rushed across the white waves like an arrow from a string, and reached the east bank in a blink of an eye. Everyone present sighed and clasped their hands together to chant the Buddha's name.
My father Yao An said: "This boatman is a believer in filial piety, even more so than ordinary Confucian scholars."
-Ji Xiaolan
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Wandering in the world
Master Shijie - Su Dongpo - Master Hanshan - Monk Xuyun was originally one person
First transfer: Master Shijie - Su Dongpo
According to "Lengzhai Yehua" Volume 7 "Dream of Welcoming the Fifth Patriarch Master Jie":
When Su Dongpo's younger brother Su Che was exiled to Gao'an, Jiangxi, that is, on the Dragon Boat Festival when Su Dongpo was 49 years old, Su Dongpo went to Yunzhou to find his younger brother Su Che. But before the Dragon Boat Festival, Su Che, Monk Yun'an, and Zen Master Cong shared a bed, and the three of them dreamed of welcoming Master Shijie (who had passed away at that time). As a result, on the Dragon Boat Festival, the three of them welcomed Su Dongpo together. The three of them went out of the city to welcome him, just like in a dream. So the three told Su Dongpo about their dreams.
When Su Dongpo himself was seven or eight years old, he dreamed that he was a monk, traveling around Shaanxi. Master Shijie was also from Shaanxi. In his later years, he traveled to Gao'an and passed away in Dayu.
Su Dongpo was born exactly the year after Master Shijie passed away.
Second transfer: Su Dongpo - Master Hanshan
In the third year of Yuanfu in the Northern Song Dynasty (1100 AD), Su Dongpo left a seven-character quatrain on the wall of Baotuo Temple on Lingfeng Mountain in Huzhou:
Baotuo Temple on Lingfeng Mountain, white-haired Dongpo came again, Deyun in the previous life is me now, I still vaguely remember Miaogaotai.
"Deyun in the previous life is me now", who is Deyun? "Avatamsaka Sutra: Entering the Dharma Realm" says "Shancai boy asked the monk Deyun for the Dharma". "Deyun" is a monk who practiced in Miaogaotai and gave Shancai boy enlightenment. Dongpo's poem "Jinshan Miaogaotai" also said: "Why look for Deyun, this monk is Deyun."
Four hundred years later, in the twenty-fifth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1545 AD), a boy was born in Cai Yangao's family in Quanjiao County, Nanjing. He is Master Hanshan (1546-1623 AD), one of the four great monks in the late Ming Dynasty. His Dharma name was Deqing. He passed away at the age of 78 and was posthumously named Master Hongjue. He left behind a flesh-and-blood Buddha statue.
In his work "Dream Travel Collection", Master Hanshan mentioned that he once visited Haimen and climbed the Miaogao Peak (Miaogao Terrace) of Jinshan Temple. At this time, the master realized that his previous life was Su Dongpo. Master Hanshan's work "Dream Travel Collection to Show Master Lingjing": "With Master Jingxin, I passed by Dongpo Hall and read the poems of my previous life, and I felt lost."
Who am I? Who am I? Master Hanshan, or Dongpo, realized in his past and present lives: "The world is an illusion, all things are an illusion, appearance and disappearance are an illusion, death and life are an illusion, mountains and rivers are an illusion, scales and feathers are an illusion, saints and ordinary people are an illusion, and you and I are an illusion."
From Master Jie to Dongpo in this life, and then to Master Hanshan, hundreds of years of reincarnation.
The third turn: Master Hanshan - Master Xuyun
During the Republic of China period, in 1934, a monk of high moral character reorganized the Nanhua Temple, the ancestral temple of Caoxi. He lit incense in front of the flesh-body statue of Master Hanshan and left a verse: "Today's Deqing, ancient Deqing, today and the past meet in a different form. The rise and fall of Buddhism depends on the season, and entering the forest and the grass never stops." The monk's Dharma name is the same as Master Hanshan, both are Deqing, which is what he said "Today's Deqing, ancient Deqing" reflects. This monk is Master Xuyun, a high monk in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China.
Master Hanshan's Dharma name is Deqing, and Master Xuyun's Dharma name is also Deqing. But the ancient and modern meeting is not a physical body, but a changed form. The flesh body of ancient Deqing is still there, and today's Deqing is a living person, so it is said that "the ancient and modern meeting has changed form." "The rise and fall of Buddhism depends on the season." Hundreds of years ago, when Master Hanshan went to revive Nanhua Temple, he was still a banished person. He went to revive Nanhua Temple as a "prisoner" and revitalized the Sixth Patriarch's temple. Hundreds of years later, when Master Xuyun went to revive Nanhua Temple, the Sixth Patriarch summoned him three times in his dreams.
At that time, Li Hanhun, the chairman of Guangdong Province, also invited the old monk again and again, insisting that he go to Nanhua Temple. So it is said that the rise and fall of Buddhism are different in terms of seasons and conditions. Buddhism is also a law of cause and condition, and its rise and fall are also controlled by seasons and conditions. Of course, people are an important part of many causes and conditions. "Entering the forest and the grass without stopping", coming and going from generation to generation, this is the spirit of Bodhisattva.
Master Xuyun was born in 1840 and passed away in 1959. He became a monk at the age of 19. He spent a full 100 years studying and spreading the Dharma.
The meaning of life is to cherish this human life form, learn the wisdom of the Buddha and the way to liberation within the limited life time, and do our best to help sentient beings, so as to realize the value of life and the brilliance of life.
The pure heart that everyone originally possesses is called "self-nature". Following "self-nature" can make one become a saint, which is called "the way". Cultivating "the way" can naturally influence other sentient beings, which is called "teaching". “The way” is omnipresent and cannot leave one's heart for a moment. If it can leave the heart, it is not the right way. - The first sentence of "The Doctrine of the Mean" (The Doctrine of the Mean was originally the 31st chapter of "Xiao Dai Li Ji". "Xiao Dai Li Ji", also known as "Xiao Dai Ji", is "Li Ji")
The murals in Cave 128 and Cave 254 of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang both prominently depict the story of Prince Sattva's previous life. Prince Sattva (the past incarnation of Buddha Sakyamuni) sacrificed his own flesh and blood to save a starving tigress and her seven cubs. In traditional Buddhism, "sacrificing one's body" is the highest form of charity, and Prince Sattva's sacrifice of his body to feed the tigers undoubtedly reflects the Buddha's greatest compassion. There are also many stories of "feeding tigers with one's body" in the history of Chinese Buddhism. The Biography of Eminent Monks - Biography of Shi Tancheng records: "In the early Song Dynasty, there was a tiger disaster at the foot of the mountain in Pengcheng. Villagers were killed, and one or two people were eaten by tigers every day. Shi Tancheng said to the villagers: If the tiger eats me, the disaster will be eliminated. The villagers tried to persuade him but he refused. That night, Shi Tancheng sat alone in the grass and prayed: I will use my body to satisfy your hunger and thirst, so that you will stop your resentment and harm from now on, and you will get supreme Dharma food in the future. The villagers knew that his intention was right, and they all wept and bowed and went back. At two o'clock in the night, they heard that the tiger had taken Shi Tancheng, so the villagers went to the South Mountain. The tiger ate his body until it was completely eaten, leaving only his head, so they built a pagoda for burial."
You monks, you should know that people with many desires, because they seek benefits, suffer a lot. People with few desires, without desire, will not have this problem. People should cultivate a righteous mind and have few desires, not to mention that having few desires can generate many merits. People with few desires will not flatter others to please them, nor will they be bound by their senses. Those who practice few desires will have a calm mind, without any worries or fears, and will have more than enough in everything they encounter, and will never be lacking. Those who have few desires will have Nirvana, and this is called having few desires. - Excerpt from "The Buddha's Last Teachings"