In the time of the Buddha, Buddhist monks lived in a wandering way. The three clothes and one bowl, one meal during the day, and one night under the tree established in the precepts are the symbols of Buddhist monks.The main purpose of formulating such a lifestyle is to combat the greed of ordinary people for the five desires.A monk's personal property is three robes and one bowl, and nothing else.In terms of diet, eating only one meal a day can give you more time to concentrate on Taoism, which is also conducive to deep meditation.Under the tree, you can get rid of the attachment to the living environment, and truly renounce the world, abandon the sahara, and seek the pure land.So far, the Theravada countries, such as Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka... Buddhist monks still follow this way of life.

After the Buddhist Dharma was officially introduced into China during the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the different national conditions, people could not be respectful to the form of begging for alms, which would hinder the happy pursuit of Dharma by all living beings. Therefore, it gradually changed to a mode of offering by the masses. The monks who became monks often lived in one place to live and conduct Taoism.The first Buddhist temple in China was the White Horse Temple in Luoyang. At that time, it was the place where the emperor set up to house two eminent monks from India, Shemo Teng and Zhu Flan. Since then, any place where monks live in China is called a temple. .The monks in the early days were all supported by the emperor. They were national teachers and often explained their doubts to the emperor. They were very noble and lofty. For maintenance and support, each has a door.However, because China has always been based on agriculture since ancient times, and attached great importance to labor production, it was difficult to understand the value of monks' respect for the Dharma and the practice of Dharma. Unlike today's southern countries, believers still make offerings to the Three Treasures. Therefore, there will gradually be some people who do not study the Buddhadharma. They are ridiculed and misunderstood by the monks who seem to be incapable of worldly production and have no contribution to society, and they will commit various crimes of disrespecting the Three Jewels. He committed the sin of disrespecting the Three Jewels, and also broke the good karma for the spread of Buddhism. Therefore, some monks began to advocate self-sufficiency, not working or eating for a day. The unique jungle system of China, in order to establish believers' understanding of the Three Jewels of Buddhism. Respectful, since then, relying on the support and support of believers is no longer the only way to survive.

The emergence of the Chinese jungle system has gone through five or six hundred years of evolution in the Han, Wei, and Northern and Southern Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, all aspects have integrated the ideology and culture of Chinese Confucianism and Taoism, and transformed into a very mature Chinese localized Mahayana Buddhism.For example, in terms of clothing, it has been changed to the round-neck square robes seen today. The Haiqing we wear is actually the style of official uniforms of the Tang Dynasty. The short hangings inside are also Chinese-style clothing. The cassock still maintains the shawl of India at that time, but it is also a slightly improved style.In the establishment of the Chinese jungle system, the most representative figure is the great virtue of Zen Buddhism, Ma Zu Daoyi and his proud disciple Baizhang Huaihai, so there is a saying that "Mazu created the jungle, and a hundred zhang established clear rules".Since then, Chinese monks have lived a self-sufficient way of cultivating the Way, and at the same time they can take into account the Buddha's precepts, accept the active offerings of believers according to circumstances, and enable sentient beings in the ten directions to widely plant the fields of blessing and cultivate the roots of goodness born in the world.Up to now, the monks of many large Buddhist temples in China and Taiwan are mostly still following the rules of the patriarch in the Chinese jungle and the precepts for ordination made by the Buddha.This is a monk cultivating mode that combines the precepts of Indian primitive Buddhism and Chinese characteristics.

In form, the Chinese jungle belongs to the Buddhist sangha, but in spirit, it also realizes the Confucian ideal of the world for the common good in the Confucian "Liyun Datong", and truly shows the dignity of the teacher and Taoism in the collective life. Etiquette-ready style.Cheng Yichuan, a great Confucian in the Song Dynasty, saw the solemnity of the jungle monks, and could not help but sigh: "Three generations of ritual and music are all there!" Especially in the Chinese jungle system, there is a spirit of equality that most corresponds to the Buddhist Six Harmonies and Reverence. It is the precepts of the ten directions of the jungle. All the monks who have been ordained in the sangha according to the Dharma and received full ordination, no matter which jungle sangha in the ten directions, they can live and use it as if they have returned home. Common views and living patterns, all benefits have equal and reasonable norms, all aspects are to help monks to get rid of greed, hatred and delusion, to get rid of the two attachments to my law, and to achieve the karma of the world.At the beginning of this year (XNUMX), I went to the lower house of a monk in a thousand-year-old temple in Fujian to place an order. When I first arrived, I went to the living room managed by the monk to wait for the order. At that time, I happened to see a monk also coming to place an order. As soon as he entered the living room, he indicated to the guest that he was here to place an order, that he was passing by here, and wanted to place an order for one night.The acquaintance replied: OK.Then, without saying a word, I directly took the registration plate. The whole process was completed in less than a minute. In my eyes, it was easier than going to the hotel to go through the formalities. It was as if the monks had returned home. I know each other, but I don’t bargain, I ask questions, and I just follow the rules.That scene really impressed me.

However, the spread of Buddhism has reached the stage of the end of the XNUMX-XNUMX-year period, and most of the monasteries named Shifang Jungle have been reduced to the temples of descendants controlled by a few individuals intentionally or unintentionally, and no longer pay attention to the jungle style of Liu Hejing. This makes it very difficult for monks who have the will to become a monk and run Taoism in a basic way to live in Taoism and participate in school. Not to mention monks who want to live in the ten directions of the monks, even if they want to place an order to visit good teachers, they still have to rely on relationships. If there is a chance, the offerings of the believers in the ten directions have almost become the family property of a few people who compete for power and profits, and are used for public and private use. They can no longer be equally offered to the monks in the ten directions.

In fact, although there are monks with specific predestined relationships in the offerings of believers in the ten directions, their fundamental intention is to make offerings to a certain monastery and a certain monk based on the overall splendor and solemnity of the Three Jewels. Due to factors, it is only necessary to protect a certain monastery. If this is the case, then what is the difference between a mutually beneficial relationship between lay people?Therefore, even if the believers regard the net money offered by themselves or in the temple, they should be regarded as their intention to make offerings to the Three Jewels of the Ten Directions, and not as personal possessions. Besides, monks should always hold the precept of not holding money. What is the difference between private and public property?In addition to the convenient use of the deacon to catch the gold, the property you hold should also be purified. It is only used for the protection of the Dharma to protect the Three Jewels. How can it be considered as personal property?Some monks have not been able to deeply cultivate the precepts, and they even take the money they get from building a temple as an offering to the believers. Therefore, after the temple is built, they insist on thinking that it is a private temple. This is because the directors are unknown. Misunderstanding phenomenon.

Although on the surface it is true that believers are making offerings to a certain monastery, or that it is also true that you personally lead people to hold activities and practice meetings, it is not wrong to "earn" hard work, but in terms of the overall intention of the believers to make offerings, it is also because you look at the whole. The solemn virtues of the Three Jewels of Buddhism are the only ones who are motivated to protect you. Therefore, no matter from the perspective of the precepts of Liuhejing or from the believers’ inner fundamental offering intentions, monasteries and temples should not be regarded as personal things. The ten directions of the jungle and the standards of the monks' precepts are the principles to provide the monks of the ten directions with equal benefits.Even if a person's property at home, once offered to the permanent residence, it belongs to the permanent residence, and can no longer be taken as personal belongings. The sentient beings who were reborn as the gatekeepers of the monastery.To go further, the ordinary monks and monks who have not yet attained the fruit of the Dharma at the end of the dharma have all the means to do the Dao, and they all rely on the identity of the Sakyamuni, the twenty years of the Buddha's stay, and the blessings of the ancestors and great virtues. How can the monk himself feel such a great blessing?If monks and monks can't raise such vigilance and act according to the law, I am afraid that there are many monks and Taoists in front of the gate of hell, and these people will really have to pay back in the next life.

The formation of the Descendants Temple also has a blind spot derived from the main cultural background factor. There is a very lovely feature in the national character of the Chinese nation, that is, it attaches great importance to "loyalty". People should be loyal to their own country, and believers should be loyal to themselves. The Dharma line of the people should be loyal, and even family members should be loyal to their own family.But this kind of one-sided loyalty actually has its opposites. The more single this kind of loyalty is, the more opposition and exclusion will occur to the other party. Rong's Dharma Realm goes against the grain, and what's worse is that it is inevitable to create boundless karma.Therefore, if you want to further reach the Dharma Realm of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in your practice, you must also follow the teachings of the Buddhadharma, and further improve on this standard of loyalty to humanity. According to this vast mind and vision to make good use of the perfect wisdom, only then can there be no opposition and no imperfection.

Although the formation of the temple of the descendants of the Chinese Sangha today can be said to be an expression of loyalty to traditional Chinese culture, it is naturally formed due to the loyalty of one's own family to teachers and permanent residents. In terms of human relations, he also has its virtues and The role of existence can condense the centripetal force of the whole team, but the fly in the ointment is that there is still a big difference with the Buddhist teaching method of measuring the sand world. It is inevitable that there will be a self-limited opposition between painting and land, and the dilemma of being imprisoned, so the Taoist style of revitalizing China's ten directions of the jungle is a good way to break this limited situation.Whether a sangha's style of Taoism and study can correspond to the Dharma is fundamentally very important. If all the pretences in the sangha run counter to the doctrine of selflessness and selflessness, and focus on self-interest, the more it develops, the better it will be in the future. It is far from the Tao.Of course, for ordinary people, it is not easy to strike a balance between a broad-mindedness, selflessness, and loyalty to one's own family, but if you can generally follow the rules, you will naturally be able to develop towards a benign development.

The so-called monks are outsiders, they should leave all the worldly homes, not the people who came to the temple after leaving the worldly homes. If the concept of this family still does not change in the slightest, it will be the same as being born in the world. Dao does not correspond at all, no matter how great the future achievement is, it is nothing more than cultivating some worldly blessings, not the achievement of true monks and virtues.The so-called saying that the Buddhadharma is inseparable from the worldly Dharma must first be fully let go of the world of mind and body, and then be brought up according to circumstances. If a monk does not go through such a process of true cultivation and let go of the world, then he will directly enter another master, and accumulate more knowledge. If you practice with each other, it will be difficult to have a day when you can enter into the emptiness of reality.As a monk, at least in the first five, ten or even twenty years of becoming a monk, you must hand over your body and mind to the permanent residents. You must give up your internal and external wealth to the fullest. Today you can be an abbot, and tomorrow you can freely enter the Daliao as the head of the rice bowl to cook a large pot of rice, and the merits and virtues are completely equal.An individual has no personal property at all, and all the offerings are given to him for permanent residence. He integrates his life, wisdom, and the Three Jewels into one, and experiences the situation where he has nothing to worry about and has nothing. Only because of this can the spirit of renunciation and cultivating arise and feel. A great blessing.I once gave up nothing, and all my belongings and belongings were as much as a suitcase. Then, many years later, without deliberate pursuit, I naturally inspired the great blessing and did more things for the convenience of all living beings. It is also a Dharma benefit that everyone can obtain, and this is actually not difficult. As long as there is a Dao-mindedness and willingness to practice according to the teachings, coupled with the system of the ten directions of the jungle, everyone with a Dao-mindedness can hope to practice it. Taste the French.

All in all, if we want to greatly improve the ills of the temples of their descendants, truly cultivate monks and cultivate morality, we should take the revitalization of Chinese jungle precepts as a relatively ideal solution.If according to the Taoism unique to the jungles of the ten directions of China, all residents must abide by the rules, be willing to keep indifference, conduct Taoism wholeheartedly, observe precepts and cultivate meditation, inspire Prajna, and regard fame and fortune as floating clouds, and the deacons and even the abbots will be elected by rotation. If you are truly talented and virtuous, you will naturally be able to attract people widely, and will be respected and followed by the people for many years. There is no need to deliberately pursue them, and you will naturally be blessed with good karma.The educational facilities of the jungle sangha should firstly focus on the practice of the world, and secondly, if the conditions are met, then consider meeting the needs of the times, with the addition of strengthening scientific and humanistic education, and learning the common sense of the way to enter the world. After completion, enter the world to practice the Bodhisattva Dao and altruistic tools and resources, and this can become the best nurturing environment for cultivating the monks of the ten directions to achieve the Tathagata's family business.

Next, let’s talk about the unique characteristics of practice in the jungle, that is, listening to greetings. No matter where the person is, if he becomes a monk, he must completely let go of his knowledge and posture when he lives in the sangha, and give his body and mind to the permanent residents. The greeting arrangement of the Great Deacon, it is the most direct and direct way to get rid of the second attachment to my law in daily practice.No matter how shrewd you are, as long as you can stay in the Dharma jungle for more than ten or twenty years, there will definitely be news in Taoism.First of all, the habits and problems of secular work and rest must be transformed, and it can really be instilled into the temperament of people outside the party, and then the inner Dao Qi will also be strong, and truly become a model of behavior that can be regarded as a model for human beings and heavenly teachers.

Nowadays, the academic research atmosphere in Taiwanese Buddhist circles is very prosperous. In some places, it is possible to deliberately take into account both study and study, that is, Buddhist academies and jungle life are nurtured at the same time, while others are purely based on teaching. Weak people tend to become Buddhist scholars who are more subjective and profound in my opinion, rather than practitioners. I once studied in a Buddhist research institute, and the teachers there are top-notch, but most of the teachers and professors are worldly scholars of Buddhist studies. It is rare to meet a Buddhist disciple who truly has traditional religious sentiments and beliefs. The relationship between teachers and students is almost always based on the worldly law. It seems normal and reasonable, but the ethical norms unique to the monks and laypeople have been lost, and the virtues of monks who do not offer the world have completely lost their effect.

If a monk is sent to a Buddhist academy by the master as soon as he leaves the home, even after finishing the graduate school, he has obtained a doctorate degree, the qualifications of a professor, and his attitude will be very different from that of the monks in the past. , If the roots of the four kinds of ethics and morality unique to Buddhism are broken, even if a strong Buddhist is cultivated, it will not be a truly delicious monk.I have heard such a saying; if a monk does not begin to undergo several years of training in the jungle and the ordination precepts at the stage of being a small group, he will become a monk who is born in the world, then he will be like a male who has not Like being a soldier, there will always be a little less flavor.This metaphor is really vivid, and vividly contrasts the differences in the spirit of the monks outside Fangwai.The jungle is the place where the Holy Womb is cultivated. When you go there to practice, you must first prepare to be peeled off, completely smooth out the false and impure body and mind of the world, and forcefully let go of the glory, wealth, and honor that you have in the world. Get rid of your worldly desire to pursue fame and fortune one by one, and then the innocence and natural Buddha-nature can be revealed one by one.All values ​​and ways of life are completely contrary to the world, so it is inevitable to feel uncomfortable in the early days of becoming a monk. Soon I can adapt and experience this priceless dharma.

The first jungle I came into contact with was the Po Lam Chan Monastery on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It was an ascetic jungle that inherited the Taoism of the old monk Xuyun. His mentor, Shang Sheng Xia Lao monk, was the ninth generation descendant of the Wei Yang School of Zen.Before I went there, I had been studying and teaching under the blessing of the old monk Shangjingxiakong of the Jingzong Institute. Basically, I had never really suffered in life. Everything was protected by the old monk. Just focus on studying.I am very fortunate and have the opportunity to meet Master Holy One when I was a small group of novice nuns, and exercise in a jungle where living conditions can no longer be hard, and we slept on a thin wooden board less than three feet. There are at least a dozen or XNUMX people living in each dormitory. Three generations live in the same house. If there is something wrong with dignity, rules, or even a wrong attitude in one's eyes, masters will come to train you immediately, prompting you not to. It is not advisable to mention the Dao mind all the time during the XNUMX o'clock.Although the living conditions are very difficult, hundreds of monks live together in a large thatched jungle that occupies a small area, but when I recall the days of cultivating, it is really full of taste, and I want to try to find the bitter taste in my heart. , I really can't find it. Even after being deliberately repaired and trained by my teacher several times, my heart is the highest moment of Dharma joy and the most extraordinary achievement of merit, and there is no worldly people's grievances and grievances left in my memory.

Now, the teacher, the old monk, the sage, and the next old monk, has reported in peace on August XNUMX, XNUMX. He has an eighty-ninth birthday and sixty-seven abstinence.In the future, if I want to see such a brilliant teacher and great virtue again, and I can inspire countless disciples at home and abroad to inspire Taoism, follow their admiration, and willingly live with the jungle in the deep mountains and mountains, I am afraid it is very difficult.And the achievement of this extraordinary cultivation path, if not for the strength and blessing of Master's example and teaching of great virtue, even if the disciples are willing to cultivate hard, it is difficult to achieve it with the basic nature of today's people.And how to cultivate a monk with great virtue, great compassion and wisdom like Master?It had to be cultivated for many years in the jungle of the abbot of great virtue. Now, seeing the retribution of the masters and great virtues of the older generation, sentient beings are hard to rely on, like orphans, wandering the rivers and lakes all day long, wandering in the red dust, beautiful. In the name of participating in learning to save sentient beings, in fact, there is simply no good cause for cultivation.And how to save all this situation?Only by fundamentally revitalizing the Dharma-like jungle and reproducing the unique jungle style of the Chinese can we reproduce the life of the great practitioners.