Chapter 18 The winding path leads to a secluded place, and the flowers and trees in the meditation room are deep

Entering the ancient temple in the early morning, the first sun shines on the high forest. Sometimes, I also want to learn from a certain monk and meditate in the world of mortals.When you wake up in the morning, make a pot of tea, light a burner of incense, and sit quietly in the classroom with bright and clean windows.Looking at a pot of asparagus bamboo calms the heart, a bird perches by the window and does not sing, as if thinking of an old friend far away.When the tea cools down and the incense burns out, my mood remains the same as it was at the beginning, and I have not experienced anything, but I know that there is no disturbance in this process, and no thoughts of dust and dust, which is a kind of meditation.

You don't have to be a Buddhist or a layman to practice Zen and enlightenment.Life is originally a Zen book, every simple chapter contains profound mystery, and every complicated process is just some simple combination.We always like to complain about our mediocrity, but we don't know that only an ordinary heart can penetrate the profound and difficult life.The real Zen books can be read by all living beings, and a simple sentence can inspire profound truths.Life is like Zen, and if you tolerate everything with a Zen mind, the depression will inevitably decrease, and the idleness will linger around you.

I remember reading a poem when I was young: "The winding path leads to a secluded place, and the Zen room has deep flowers and trees." At that time, the yearning for Zen was a kind of detachment from the world.I just feel that staying away from the world of mortals and avoiding the troubles of the world is the heart of a Zen master.People in the world should live in the downtown area, while monks should live in temples deep in the mountains.If you want to find it, you must go through a deep and winding path. The meditation room is hidden in the jungle of flowers and trees, so that it will not be disturbed by the world.Ancient temples and temples have always been built on the top of cliffs in deep mountains, so that monks can sit quietly and meditate in nature, practice with the breeze and white clouds, and realize Bodhi with flowers, trees, insects and ants.Yellow scrolls and green lanterns are confidants, morning bells and evening drums are good friends. Only those who can endure poverty and loneliness will know the joys and sorrows of life.

Since ancient times, many eminent monks have tasted the loneliness of the Zen forest, and chose to leave the world and enter the world, and practice Zen in the deepest world of mortals.The Qinlou Chu Pavilion can also become a bodhi ashram, singing and dancing are Sanskrit sounds, and wine and meat are vegetarian.That's because their hearts have already been as pure as water, and there is no longer any desire to trouble them.Life is like flowing water, the heart is above the flowing water, and the body is under the flowing water.The years go by and never come back, but the thoughts accumulate with time and accumulate deeper and deeper.Only a person who is not bound by material desires can transcend himself and save others.

Many monks practice sitting meditation at the beginning, perhaps in order to seek self-liberation, escape from the world, and inevitably have negative thoughts.In the end, being influenced by the Zen principles in the scriptures, I forget the existence of myself, and I only want to rescue all living beings from the dust net of suffering, so that they can understand that any nostalgia and difficulty in giving up are just looking for troubles .The so-called self-compensation of cause and effect means that in the dust net, there are thorns everywhere. If you don’t move, you may not be hurt. If you struggle, you will be scarred.Quietness can get rid of all obsessions; kindness can dissolve all evils.

In fact, "the winding path leads to a secluded place, and the meditation room has deep flowers and trees" is just a quiet artistic conception for those who are deeply trapped in the secular world.They used to believe in prosperity, but they will definitely look at mediocrity in the future.That's it, you didn't regret being attached to your emotions at the beginning, but in the end, you will find that all the deep feelings that are desperate for life and death are not worth mentioning.The more the book of life is filled, the more empty the heart will be.The days are like this, seeing off today, thinking about yesterday, and still looking forward to the Ming Dynasty.The destination we always thought was just a post station, so many hasty gatherings and departures, like flowing clouds, coming and going, without stability.

Later I learned that the person who wrote this poem was called Chang Jian.A poet in the Tang Dynasty, but his name and year of birth and death are unknown.He has passed Jinshi, but he has been sinking and frustrated all his life. He travels between mountains and rivers. His poetic mood is clear, his language is concise and natural, and his attainments are unique.This song "Tipo Mountain Temple Back Zen Courtyard" is deeply loved by the world because of its deep Zen meaning and super far-reaching realm.Imagine a cool morning, the poet walks to the ancient temple, watching the sunlight flow leisurely from the forest, the winding path leads to secluded places, the meditation room is covered with flowers, trees and vines, the dark green time blooms quietly, and the smart birds play in the forest Singing, the heart gradually becomes empty in a pool of still water.It was an undisturbed Zen world, so quiet that only the faint Sanskrit sound could be heard, whispering a piece of heartfelt words from the previous life.

Just like me at this time, alone, with a cup of tea, from the dawn of late autumn to the afternoon.The sunlight came in from the window lattice and fell on an open thread-bound book, disturbing my unfinished dream.Dreaming back to the Tang Dynasty, the city of Chang'an thousands of years ago, is a dream shared by many literati.Qiu Yan's article, Chrysanthemum's heart, under the same time, everyone leads a different life of their own.Some people, thousands of years apart, can confide in each other; some people, close at hand, are strangers.It is the same Tang poem, but different people are moved by different words and sentences.Emotion is the fatal weakness of human nature. The person you like may be ordinary, but you will never forget it; the sentence you like may be ordinary, but you can't put it down.

Sometimes I wonder what fate is that makes Zen people trust and attach so much.Many people carry their fate behind their backs and work tirelessly, only to find that going round and round, they still can't match the arrangement of fate.Those who are destined, even if they go against the road, they will still come together in the end.Those without fate, entangled and clinging like vines, will die and separate.Another name I used to like for peonies was Jiangli.This name has a kind of sad beauty, like a sad ancient song, sung to the end, it gradually drifts away, making people feel sad. The most feared thing in life is separation, and the most painful and reluctant thing is to leave.The hands with interlocking fingers were slowly released, and the eyes that looked at each other affectionately couldn't catch the charm of each other in an instant; the moment they turned around, even tears were powerless, this was the helplessness of leaving.It's even hard for me to imagine that the big peony flower, which blooms so brightly and to the extreme, can have such a sad name.Any deep love will disturb the time, and the memory will brew disasters. All we can do is to compensate ourselves with sorrow and joy.

The reality is too heavy, so heavy that a fallen autumn leaf is enough to injure a pedestrian.The hasty change of seasons makes us no longer dare to go our own way.Collecting fallen leaves and folding memories is to revisit the past when it is thin.In front of life, we were once rich enough to spend as much as we wanted, but one day we were poor enough to have nothing.At that time, you and I didn't even have the qualifications to choose. We could only stand under a dead tree, watching the ups and downs of the world, and couldn't bear to see it. Perhaps this poet named Chang Jian has already experienced the helplessness of leaving and the cruelty of losing.He didn't want to have too much entanglement with reality, so he let himself go from the downtown to the ancient temple, from the hustle and bustle to the calm.He practiced Zen in the mountains and rivers, and infected thousands of people in the world with his faint mood.After reading this poem, my mind seems to have stopped wandering. I would rather re-edit the chapters of the stories that have been arranged in my life than live up to any quiet time.