Chapter 53 Aoyama Yuan Fudo

I never deliberately find a temple to worship. But every time I pass a temple, I will go in and burn incense, and then carefully look at the buildings in the temple, read the couplets that are written everywhere, sometimes beautiful and unexpectedly beautiful, and look at the gods who are extremely solemn and dressed in gold.Probably a habit developed in childhood!Every time I go back to my natal home with my mother, I always have to walk a long way. There are many small temples magically built on that road. No matter how anxious my mother is on the road, she must go in to burn incense or have a cup of tea when passing by. , and then hurry.

In the early morning when my father went out to plant, he would burn a stick of incense in the pot and then hoe the field.When relaxing at night, I often drink tea and play chess with friends in front of the temple, and I don’t go home until the stars are full. My impression of the temple cannot be said to be very strong, but it is very profound.I can feel a kind of warm feeling in many of the ends. When burning incense, it is like putting my heart on the altar, and the whole person will be at peace after burning the incense. Maybe it can’t be said that it’s just an end, sometimes it’s a temple, sometimes it’s a hall, sometimes it’s an altar, anyway, it’s a place with solemn gods, not so much that I fear the gods, it’s better to say that it’s a voice from the heart, its light playing It's like listening to the Nanguan played by the villagers at night in front of the temple. I don't know how to appreciate it at all, but when I listen to it on a summer night, I feel like I see a cloud passing by in the sky, and the cloud flashes. With a few shining stars, Nanguan is so beautiful in the temple on a silent night.

The newly built temples are also very vulgar, tangled with completely out of tune colors, and covered with colorful art tiles of flowers and plants. At this time, I feel bored; but when I think of seeing such brightly colored temples in my childhood, I can't help but be happy The jump, the mood accepts them, just as thirsty people do not pick up tea sets, only those who are not thirsty care about utensils. My temple experience can be said to be not purely religious, but emotional. It seems that I have prepared a large open space in my heart at any time to build each temple one by one, so the temple itself is meaningless.I remember that when I was a student, I often wandered into the temple at the back of the mountain without any special reason or preparation, and sat there alone for an afternoon. When I came back, I felt like a different person. Submerged, sad and calm.

Usually, the temples on the mountain or by the sea are more attractive to me than those in the city, because although the temples on the mountain or by the sea have few incense sticks, they often have an open landscape and land.Those temples often occupy the best terrain on a mountain or a seashore, allowing people to see the best scenery. The most touching thing is that most of the people who come to burn incense do not come here for anything, they just come to burn incense, and there are very few When people draw lots, the lottery paper is often spotted or covered with dust. Temples in cities are different. They are often cramped in a corner. In recent years, due to the construction of buildings, they have been surrounded by no skylight at all; places where incense is flourishing are overcrowded, and sometimes when incense is burned, shoulders on both sides are tightly clamped by crowded pilgrims. The most frightening thing is that the people who come to burn incense are full of utilitarianism. They want to have a smooth family, a fortune, a long life, and a son who is the number one scholar. In a temple I know, it will be a few days. Printing a new lottery, or supplying it. If a temple is only used to seek fame and fortune, then those of us who have nothing to seek but burn incense, what else is worth going to?

Going to temples sometimes has unexpected fun.Some temples were built just by picking up a statue of a god on the road, some were built because a strange tree grew, and some people paid to build a temple because the area was not safe.In Taiwan, most of the built-up characters in the mountains or on the seaside are not planned and designed in advance, but there is a statue of a god, which is slowly enshrined one by one; most of the time, only one main house is built first, and then extended to both sides. Then there are wing rooms and backyards; most of them are planted with a few small trees first, and then there are flowers and plants everywhere; the macroscopic view of a temple has not been finalized after a hundred years and is still growing.Therefore, I have a special sense of time, and its growth in space also confirms its time.

It is not enough to watch the temple and burn incense, or enjoy the scenery of the temple; the best temple is where there is a person who has attained the Tao. A humble old man. When he was free, we sat opposite him and listened to him talk about the wisdom gained in peace, just like sitting and listening to the breeze blowing across the earth, our hearts were waking up like poetry in that earth. If there is no one who attains the Tao in the temple, no matter how good or beautiful the temple is, it will not be enough, just like the most beautiful flowers and plants in the mid-autumn night without the bright moon.

I have seen such people in many unknown temples, and these people became the biggest motivation for me to go to temples in my adulthood.Of course, we don’t need to place too much hope on this kind of chance, because maybe we can only see one in dozens of temples, that’s just luck! Recently, I passed by the Three Gorges and heard that there was a temple with beautiful scenery nearby, so I put aside my mundane affairs and went to that temple.The name of the temple is "Yuanhengtang". The thousands of steps are all paved with thick and strong stone slabs. It takes a few sticks of incense just to climb the stone steps.

The entire front of the temple court is paved with neat bluestone slabs, on which are planted several thin and tall phoenix trees, and several clumps of bamboo; from the arrangement and shape of the trees, it is known that ordinary people cannot plant them, and the design of the temple is also the same. The few simple bungalows are all made of simple and elegant red bricks. I believe that temple has the best terrain in the Sanjia area. Standing in front of the temple courtyard, you can see the vast green fields, blue sky and mountains, and a delicate Dahan River runs across the green fields and mountains.The temple is not old. For being able to build such a beautiful temple now, I have the greatest respect for the people who built the temple.

Later, I inquired about the woman who cleaned the temple, and finally found out who built the temple.It is said that he is the only son of a rich family from a foreign country. He was born unable to eat the elders. When he was twenty years old, he swore to cultivate his nature. He traveled all over the north with his huge family property and found the current place. He held a hoe by himself. To open up this mountain, every stone slab was laid by himself, and every tree was planted by himself. It took more than 60 years to achieve the current scale; as for which distant country he came from, he really His first and last name, as well as his legendary past, are unknown, and the local people heard him call him "Master Wanzai".

"Is he still there?" I asked anxiously. "Still taking a nap and will wake up in about an hour," the woman said.And invited me to have a delicious vegetarian meal in the temple. I finally met Master Wanzai. He is a man who knows almost everything. He is still healthy and funny in his 80s.I asked him what made him wish to build a temple in the Three Gorges when he was young, and he said flatly: "If you want to build it, then come and build it." Talking about his attainment of Taoism. He smiled: "Can you get it?" After nagging for a long time, I sighed and said, "It's a pity that no one knows about such a good temple!"

Master Wanzai was still smiling, and he told me to look at the couplet at the mountain gate when I went down the mountain. When I went down the mountain, I saw the couplet on the mountain gate that read: Aoyama Yuan Fudo white clouds come and go At that time, I stood in front of the couplets to truly understand the mind of a Taoist and how solemn a good temple is. They are always like green mountains, and white clouds float by in front of my eyes.We can't be green hills, let us occasionally be a white cloud, visit the green hills, let the green hills tell us the beauty of the earth and the soul! I don't deliberately look for a temple to worship, but when I pass the temple, I can't help but think: Maybe there is a green hill in the world, and then I step into it, looking forward to a new reunion. ——May 18, 1983