(a)

One year, I stayed in Japan for a little longer because of business. The daily schedule of the pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info is airtight, and even going to the toilet is arranged by the other party at a fixed and limited time.

After more than ten days of running, I feel that my brain is full of stuff, and there are no gaps at all. I feel tired both physically and mentally.

So, I finally broke my politeness and proposed to the other party, hoping to set aside at least one day on the weekend for us to take a breath according to the normal work rules.

The other party was stunned for a moment, as if he couldn't understand our indulgence, and then there was a series of apologies.

We spent more time appeasing the other party's apology than we did with the reason.

After some twists and turns, I finally got a day to let the wind go.

So, I called Nakamura and asked him where he could go on the weekend to calm down.

Nakamura first mentioned some famous SHOPPING spots, and I didn't squeak. So, he laughed over there. "I know where you want to go," he said. Yokokawa has a place you'll love. ”

(b)

I spent the weekend in a temple in Yokogawa.

The temple is not big, there are not many people, the surrounding scenery is very good, and the tea is delicious.

In the monastery, when a monk was drinking tea with us, the metal ritual vessel sounded pleasantly somewhere.

During the conversation, I realized where I was.

It turned out that this was the place where Genshin finally lived in seclusion.

Genshin was an important figure in Japanese Buddhism before the Middle Ages. It is said that the Pure Land sect of Japanese Buddhism is directly derived from his lineage and advocacy.

He was the first person to combine the concepts of hell and bliss in the process of spreading Buddhism in Japan, and he was an important religious scholar and practitioner who had a very important influence on the development of Japanese culture as a whole.

During that day's conversation, Nakamura was the translator, and we talked about a lot of topics.

The monks first thanked Nakamura's trading company for its many years of worship and support for the temple. After the politeness, the conversation gradually focused on Genshin Mage.

In the past, I only knew the name of Genshin Mage, and I didn't know anything else.

From the conversation, I knew that Genshin had been a monk since he was a child and had studied at Mt. Hiei for a long time.

He turned out to be a disciple of the Tiantai Sect, with a pure spirit and noble taste. After becoming a monk, he also witnessed many vile and filthy acts in society. With the improvement of virtue and knowledge, he began to become famous all over the world, but this made him firm in his ambition to retreat.

So, in his later years, he lived in seclusion in Yokokawa and wrote the famous "Collection of Past Lives".

I hadn't read that book in its entirety at the time, but I kept seeing some references to it in other books.

It is because I often come across references to Japanese culture in various books that I feel that it has had a great impact on Japanese culture from ancient times to the Middle Ages.

Nakamura said that in that book, Gen-la wrote a lot about Genshin's own religious feelings and religious experiences, and wrote a lot about his understanding and thinking about the world and life. He said, "Be sure to come and read it respectfully when you have time."

I nodded respectfully and made a mental note of the matter.

(c)

Later, the topic shifted from Genshin to the development of Buddhism in Japan. Then it shifted to the content of "The Essentials of the Past". Then, naturally, it moved on to the topic of death.

On that day, the monk at the Yokokawa temple said something very interesting.

He said that the situation of religion in Japan right now is interesting. When people are born, they celebrate the birth of new life with Shinto rituals; When people get married, they go to Christian churches to receive God's blessings; And when they're going to die, they come to Buddhism.

This situation is very different from that of the Middle Ages.

After he finished speaking, Nakamura and I both laughed.

When I laughed, I thought to myself that this phenomenon was really meaningful.

I said, it's a lot like Nepal's habits.

In Nepal, Tibetan Buddhism interferes with people's daily lives relatively little. Birth, marriage, at such times, the lama is just present on the scene and will soon leave, and when someone is about to die, the lama's work becomes very numerous and important.

According to the monk, this shows that Buddhism is the most sober and profound religion of all religions about death. It is this radical calmness that gives Buddhism its penetrating power in solving the problem of death.

After he said this, he looked at me and then spoke to Nakamura.

I asked Nakamura what he was talking about.

Nakamura said that he asked me if you were an atheist.

He said that if the benefactor was an atheist, the above words could easily cause disputes.

He said that if you don't agree with him, then he agrees with you first.

He said that the heart without dispute is far more important than the outcome of the dispute.

I laughed.

I said, "I guess it's not going to be noisy." I don't know what a theorist is. Perhaps, not at all. Perhaps, all kinds of commentators. ”

After listening to Nakamura's translation, the monk also smiled.

He said, "That's because I had a discriminating mind." ”

(iv)

Later, when talking about Gen-la Gen-la's discourse, the monk spoke of a layer of hell called "Zhonghe".

Inside this hell, there is a forest called the Knife Leaf Forest. It's a place where a certain type of man goes.

When a person enters this hell, the evil spirits will put the man under this wood.

When a man occasionally looks at a tree, he will see the woman he loves the most.

When a man sees the woman he loves the most crying for help in a tree, he will desperately climb up.

At this point, all the leaves will turn into sharp blades, and they will sharply cut through the flesh of the man.

But a man is a woman who is bent on saving himself and wants to hold her safely in his arms.

Finally, she climbed to the top of the tree in blood, but the woman fell from the top of the tree.

She said to the man in a sad and earnest manner on the earth, "I fell into Hell for You." I think you've been thinking about it for years. Come and hug me. ”

The man loves the woman so much that he forgets everything and climbs under the tree.

At this moment, all the blades on the tree turned upwards again, cutting the body of the man who climbed down.

When the man reached the ground in blood, the woman didn't know when she was watching him from the tree again.

So, the man could not turn a deaf ear to her cries for help and climbed up the tree again.

In this way, countless trillions of years have passed. Deeply tormented by love, unable to extricate himself.

When the monk and Nakamura were talking about this hell, my face suddenly turned pale.

When Nakamura saw my face, he said, "It's just a layer of hell with less pain." There are many more layers of pain behind it. ”

I said, "It's not a big difference." It's nothing more than the eternal pain of being killed. ”

Listening to me, the monk asked Nakamura what I was talking about.

After Nakamura translated, he looked at me.

We were silent for a long time.

Then, he said, "Please have tea." ”

(5)

In the Essentials of the Past Lives, Gen-la explained in detail the rules of how to take care of the dying patient. Many of these rules are still customarily used today. However, there are not many people who truly believe and do it with a solemn and sincere heart.

Gen-la Genshin said that when a person is about to die, put him in a strange place and let him lie quietly. If it is a place where the patient usually lives, the patient will feel nostalgic when he sees all kinds of familiar clothes and furniture. This nostalgia can make the journey of having to leave even more painful.

Gen-la said that in order for the patient to lie in the direction of the Pure Land to the west, a statue of Amitabha Buddha should be placed in front of the patient, also facing the west. The right hand of the Buddha statue should be held high, and the left hand should hold a five-colored strip of cloth, and the other end of the strip of cloth can be placed in the patient's hand and let him hold it, so that the patient will have the idea of following the Buddha to the Pure Land.

If the patient has saliva, vomit or urine and urine at this time, he should be cleaned up in time. It is necessary to take care of the sick in this way, and finally to persuade the sick in this way: "You have been practicing in the Pure Land for a long time, and it is all for the sake of this moment of bliss. Now is the time to turn your heart to the West. ”

"Please forget everything in this world and think about the Amitabha Buddha who will come to greet you."

"Believe that His light is infinite, and that any sinner of any kind will surely be saved by Him to the Pure Land of Bliss."

"You are a person who has been practicing for a long time, and now is the critical moment for whether or not you can be reborn in the Pure Land. Please quietly think about the Pure Land of Bliss. ”

During the discussion that day, the monk said that in the "Collection of Past Lives", there are many quotations from scriptures, and in this large paragraph, it is completely the words of Gen-la Genshin himself.

He believes that this is what Gen-la actually said in a Pure Land practice organization called the Twenty-Five Samadhi Society.

Nakamura said, "It's like seeing a very tragic scene. ”

He said, "The more Gen-la Genshin talks about the beautiful Pure Land, the more sad the echoes permeate these words. ”

Hearing this, I finally couldn't support it anymore.

I stood up.

Nakamura looked up at me. He said, "What's wrong with you?" ”

I said, "I'm sorry, but where is the restroom here?" ”

As I was leaving, I heard the monks talking to Nakamura.

(f)

On the way back, I asked Nakamura what they said behind me.

Nakamura hesitated for a moment, then said, "He said that someone close to you must have died." And it was very uneasy at the time. ”

After he finished speaking, he looked at me in the rearview mirror.

After a while, he said, "The tissue is in the back seat." ”

I said, "Thank you." ”

The car drove for another while, and Nakamura said, "Where do you want to go now?" ”

I said, "Let's go to the commercial center and buy something." ”