Temples in Guangzhou - Guangxiao Si (光孝寺)

Guangxiao Si is the oldest temple in Guangzhou. As the saying goes, "Before there is Guangzhou, there is already Guangxiao." The 1,700 over yrs old temple existed even there was a city here. However, the temple was most famous for being the place Huineng replied to the wind-banner koan after coming out of hiding, as well as ordaining as a Bhikku later. Above is the main entrance of the temple.

The laughing Maitreya Buddha inside the Hall of Heavenly Kings.

Heavenly Kings Virulhaka and Dhataratta.

Heavenly Kings Virupakka and Vessavana.

Behind the Hall of Heavenly Kings is always an image of Dharmapala Skandha (Weituo).

The Hall of Dharmapala Guan Gong.

The Grand Hall. At the time the monks were doing their late afternoon chanting.

The Buddha Shakyamuni statue in the Grand Hall, flanked by Ven Maha Kassapa and Ananda.

The Guanyin statue at the back of the Grand Hall. The Hall of Ksitigarbha.

The Bowl-washing Well. This is the well where Bodhidharma washed the Buddha's bowl. Besides staying at Hualin Si, Bodhidharma also came here to stay and teach for a period. More than 150 years later, Huineng also washed the same bowl at this well when he ordained here. So it has become a holy well ever since.

The Phra Buddha Chinaraj statue inside the temple shop. We can find the influences of Thai Buddhism here in the temples of Guangzhou.

The Patriarch Hall venerating Huineng. Unfortunately the entrance was blocked so I could not go in for a closer look. The Bodhi Tree, where Huineng shaved his hair and took the Bhikku precepts under the witness of 10 venerated elders.

The stone tablet chronicling the historical events that occurred under it.

This is the ancient pagoda marking the spot where Huineng's hair relics were buried after his ordination.

The stone tablet chronicling the hair burial under the pagoda.

This ancient Iron Pagoda was built in 963 CE during the Southern Han dynasty, but all that is left now is the bottom 3 layers. The top 4 layers collapsed during the last days of the Qing dynasty about 100 yrs ago.

The Hall of the Reclining Buddha, a Burmese Jade Buddha image. Burmese Jade Buddha images seem to be popular in China as well. It is also called the Wind-banner Pavilion as it was outside this hall where the 2 monks argued over whether it was the wind moving or banner moving. Huineng ended their argument by telling them it was their mind moving, awe-striking the assembly with his profound wisdom.

The Lotus Pond at the back of the temple.

Tourists feeding the large number of Koi fish being reared in the pond. Guangxiao Si is indeed a very impressive temple with the longest history in Guangzhou. I recommend everyone to visit it if you happen to go on a tour there.

Temples in Guangzhou - Hualin Si (华林寺)

Hi readers I just came back from a tour to Guangdong province in China. One of the first temples I visited there was Hualin Si, an temple more than 1,400 yrs old. It is one of the four great temples of Guangzhou, the provincial capital. Hualin Si used to be called Xilai An, as it is a temple dedicated to Bodhidharma, the 1st Patriarch of Zen in China. Legend has it that this is the place that Bodhidharma resided when he first arrived in Guangzhou from India in the year 526 CE. Above we see the entrance of the temple.

A peach tree sculpture beside the entrance.

The Chamber of Bodhidharma. Perhaps the chamber where he stayed in at that time?

A closer look at the bronze statue of Bodhidharma holding a bowl. Notice a hexagon-shaped orb on the right side of the picture near his shoulder.

The Chamber of 500 Arahants.

General 'Ha' guarding the Arahant Chamber.

General 'Hum' on the other side.

The main altar inside the chamber venerating the Buddhas of the 3 Worlds.

The altar to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.

The Patriarch Hall venerating Bodhidharma. Hualin Si has no grand hall, and this Patriarch Hall is the largest hall in the temple.

A huge wooden statue of Bodhidharma in the meditation posture sits inside the hall. The board above writes "One Flower Five Petals" - signifying Bodhidharma and the 5 Patriarchs of Zen descending from him. Again I noticed a hexagon-shaped orb above the head of Bodhidharma. What could it be?

A closer view of Bodhidharma.

At the side of the Patriarch Hall is this curtain with the words "Namo Amitofo".

This 300 over yrs old white stone pagoda in the northern corner of the temple used to house the Buddha's relics, but it was moved away from the temple in 1965 and the relics confiscated by the government. The pagoda was only returned to the temple in 1994 and the relics in 1996.

Behind the Patriarch Hall is this board which writes "Meaning of Coming from the West", the subject of many Zen koans. The answers of Zen Masters to that question are of completely varied, but they all aim to point the finger back to your own Buddha-nature. I like this answer to the question "what is the meaning of the patriarch coming from the west?" The reply, "An arrow flying across the sky." Do you understand?

The Tallest Standing Buddha in the World

On 29.9.2008, 108 eminent monks and thousands of lay devotees from the mainland and overseas gathered at Foquan Si monastery of Lushan, Henan province to consecrate the 108m tall Lushan Great Buddha - the tallest standing Buddha image in the world today. If we include the 20m tall lotus pedestal, the image would stand at an awesome 128m!

The monastery where the Buddha is located - Foquan Si also boasts a thousand-year old history, one of the oldest in the province. It has the Yuzhen mountain behind as support and Sha river in front as its courtyard water source, forming its excellent Fengshui and making it into a unsurpassed site of pilgrimage for local and overseas Buddhists.

Above is the entrance of Foquan Si, flanked by 2 fierce Dharma protectors. The grand consecration ceremony was led by famous masters such as Elder Yicheng, chairman of the China Buddhist Association; Elder Jueguang, chairman of the HK Buddhist Federation; Elder Xingyun, Founder of Foguang Shan in Taiwan; Ven Yongxin, Abbot of Shaolin temple; Ven Yanfo, Abbot of Foquan Si as well as Ven Shenghui, Xuecheng, Jingxiong and Haitao. Everyone present prayed for peace and prosperity for the whole nation. Celebrity singers from China and Taiwan were also invited to sing in praise of the auspicious occasion.

A distant view of Foquan Si and the Lushan Great Buddha. Such a huge image is constructed with 2,700 tons of yellow & purple copper, 100kg of gold as well as 3,700 tons of steel columns to support it from within! No other image in the world can match it in terms of height and size. At 108m tall it dwarfs even the 88m Lingshan Great Buddha in Wuxi (a similar standing image), as well as the 71m Leshan Great Buddha in Sichuan. But the Leshan Buddha is a seated image, so it should not be compared to standing images in terms of height.

The Abbot of Foquan Si, Ven Yanfo. He spent 12 long years garnering support for the Buddha image to be built for the benefit of all beings. It was in 1997 that he got the support of donor Mr Li Liufa, a prominent corporation head in Henan to start with the construction. 10 years later, after spending a whopping 280 million RMB, the Great Buddha was finally completed last year in 2007. It was not until September this year that the monastery decided to conduct a grand consecration ceremony for their Buddha image. Now that it has been properly consecrated, everyone hopes that the light of the Buddha's wisdom will shine on the whole of China for a long long time to come, sadhu.

New Thai Amulet Magazine from Malaysia

I was walking past a news stand a couple of days ago, and I saw this new Thai amulet magazine from Malaysia titled "The Legend of Thai Amulet" or 泰佛传奇 on sale. This should be the third one after "Siam Horse" 暹马 and "Siam Buddha Manual" 暹佛秘笈. It looked quite attractive on the outside, but priced at $7.50 I thought it was a little expensive.

Upon reading it, I found that it had quite a no of misleading info and pictures. For example, on the above article about Somdej Toh, they ripped off my Wat Ampawan, Singburi photo (top left corner) and tried to pass it off as a photo of Wat Rakhang in Bangkok. Look, I don't mind if people use photos from this blog, but at least have the courtesy to inform me please. It is one thing to rip off my photos; even worse, they mislead readers with wrong info about them.

On the next page, they again used my photo of female devotees praying at the Somdej Toh shrine in Wat Ampawan (lower left corner). But this time I don't know whether they are trying to pass it off as Wat Inn or Wat Rakhang. There are other blatant mistakes in the magazine, but I shall not point them out here. Overall this new magazine does have some good info, but they are all quite general in nature. It is undeniably ruined by the rubbish editing they did inside. My verdict - 3/10. Don't waste your money buying it.

Poison Milk & Poison Rice

The Sutra of Limitless Life says:

"But this world is filled with evil, such that good no longer occurs naturally. Beings seek hard to fulfill their desires, resorting to mutual deception; their minds and bodies are strained and troubled, drinking suffering and eating poison - these evil works never come to rest."

Indeed, these verses of the Buddha accurately describe the times that we are in now. Because of our tireless pursuit of desires, the world we live in is turning more and more turbid; so much so that even the water we drink and the food we eat become poisonous.

Which brings us to the latest news, focusing on the growing scandal of China's famous Sanlu brand milk products, which was discovered to be contaminated with melamine for months. Melamine is a toxic chemical used to create the illusion of extra protein in milk, but causes kidney stones or kidney failure when ingested by the body. Above we see packets of the toxic baby milk formula sold widely by Sanlu.

So far 3 babies had died of kidney failure, 158 in critical condition and more than 6,000 sick with kidney stones. The nationwide outrage has caused heads to roll, including Sanlu chairwoman Tian Wenhua and party officials in Shijiazhuang (provincial capital of Hebei), who did not report the contamination even though they have learned of it on August 2nd. Individual dairy farmers were also arrested for adding melamine into fresh milk. However these guys are just the henchmen; the real culprits are the unethical factory bosses and the corrupt officials.

And the effects of this scandal can be felt not only in China. Besides Sanlu, related Chinese dairy brands like Yili, Mengniu, Yashili and Suncare have exported their tainted milk products overseas to places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Yemen, Bangladesh and Myanmar. This caused all the affected countries to stop importing all Chinese milk products and test all existing stock for melamine content. Most of those belonging to Sanlu are found to be unsafe and were disposed of. But for those already sold into the market and taken by consumers, nothing much could be done. Fortunately enough, there are no reports of poisoning in the affected foreign countries so far.

Who would have thought that Japan, a country with a reputation of cleanliness and efficiency would also be struck with a similar food scandal at the same time? Unscrupulous rice traders in Japan were found to have imported industrial rice tainted with mould and pesticide and sold them to food companies as edible rice. These tainted rice from China, Vietnam and the US had since been made into all sorts of food like rice cakes, rice biscuits and rice wine. Shockingly, thousands of Japanese already consumed these rice products, but with no reported ill-effects. Authorities say that was because the concentration of pesticide in the rice was too low to harm people, even though it exceeded government regulations. Still, the Japanese could not believe such a thing could happen again to them so soon after the contaminated Chinese dumplings scandal.

Well this has caused a rice distributor to commit suicide as well as the newly appointed agriculture minister Ota Seiichi (above) to resign in shame. What does the current episode of poison milk and poison rice in East Asia tell us? It tells us that that even though contaminated food can harm many innocent people, it cannot harm as many people as a "contaminated" mind. A mind poisoned by greed, imprisoned by craving transforms the world into a sorry place. Those greedy milk merchants and officials in China, as well as the dirty rice merchants in Japan only care about earning money and expanding their business beyond their means; they don't care about how much harm they would cause the people in their own country. But what goes around comes around. The worldly law had caught up with them and they must now pay for their crimes. In the future, the fruits of Karma will also ripen and great torments await them in the lower realms. The real poison is not melamine or pesticide; the real poison is greed. Greed seeks to benefit deluded individuals at the expanse of the masses, but in the end the greatest harm is bore by those individuals themselves. Therefore we must purify the mind with Dharma and let it be free from greed. Let us pray for those who drink suffering and eat poison; may they come to their senses and follow the Buddha's path, sadhu.

Outrageous monks in Shenzhen

The Dhammapada says:

"Many who wear the yellow robe,
who are unrestrained in evil things,
these evil ones by their evil deeds,
in hell do they arise.
Better to eat a ball of iron,
glowing as flame of fire;
than to eat the people’s alms,
immoral and unrestrained."

Last week there was a report in one of the HK paparazzi magazines on a bunch of errant monks' misbehaving in neighbouring Shenzhen. Apparently this group of monks come from the Mainland, from Jiangsu province to "work" in HK. They were staying at Xi Fang monastery while they were there. A pious lay devotee, Mr Yang, CEO of Xun Ri Corporation had invited monks from the monastery to perform Sutra chanting sessions at his HQ office on a regular basis to bless his business. However, the monastery had very few resident monks. This group of mainland monks, being "professional chanters", volunteered themselves for the task with the approval of the Abbot, who did not suspect anything at first. Above we see the group reporting to Mr Yang's office for "work" in the morning. Mr Yang pays each monk a handsome fee of 1,000 HKD for their services daily. The leader of the pack, Ven Changsheng, who brought the group to HK from Suzhou district to earn money. In the day, he and his pack are in neat yellow Sangha robes, looking solemn and dignified. But once the night sets, these guys change into their savvy civilian outfits before crossing over to Shenzhen for some "rest and recreation". The wayward activities of these monks were first noticed by Mr Yang's employees when they went over to Shenzhen for food during the weekends.
The pack shopping for luxury watches at Shatin Mall after work.

The employees spotted these monks wearing civilian attire gorging on meat and alcohol with their female companions in one of the restaurants. One of them tipped off the HK paparazzi and immediately reporters were sent to tail the monks. Above we see Ven Facheng (2nd from left) with his young "girlfriend" having a hearty feast. They were accompanied by 2 other monks.

Another monk, Ven Miaolian, was photographed bargaining with a lady pimp for the sex services of her girls. The reporter also found out that they were regulars there and the pimps had no idea they were "real monks".

On the way up to the love motel, Ven Miaolian also eagerly checks out another attractive lass in the lobby, scanning her from head to toe. Unfortunately, the practice of Kayanussati is hardly on the mind of this monk.

Inside the whorehouse, Ven Miaolian lit a cigarette while the lady pimp parades her girls before him for selection. This monk is said to prefer the fleshy types, and at times threesomes. Woe betide him.. Now, just before you dismiss these guys as fake monks, think again. They are real monks with ordination booklets and proper training in chanting. When the reporter went back to HK and reveal this scandal to the Abbot, Ven Kuanyun, he was outraged. He said it was unfortunate that there are black sheep in the monastery, but it was also inevitable because many monks from different places come and go in this place. Ven Kuanyun promised to kick these monks out, but whether they would be expelled from the Order or not would depend on the Mainland Sangha. It was always difficult to control who gets ordained and where as China is such a vast country. As one insider pointed out, among the countless monasteries in China, many are those who ordain for a living rather than cultivating the Dharma. If they work as an ordinary worker, at most they could earn 1,000 plus RMB per month. But as professional chanting monks, they could earn up to 10 - 20,000 RMB per month! This is due to the increasing demand for religious services among the urban Chinese populace, not just in HK, but also on the Mainland. Herein lies the crux of the problem - the commercialization of Buddhism. Many more fools like Ven Changsheng and gang will grow, attracted by the rich rewards that being a chanting monk offer. They can then spend that money enjoying food, alcohol, smoke and women. But these fools have no idea that the price to pay for those fleeting sensual pleasures is immensely severe indeed. Engaging in those vices as members of the Sangha is a terrible karma that they cannot begin to imagine. Unspeakable torment awaits them in the hells after the dissolution of their human bodies. They are going to stay in there for a very very long time. I believe the practice of paying money to monks to chant Sutras should be abolished altogether. Monks who provide such services should be provided with only food, nothing more. This will turn off those who ordain just to make a living. Surely if the Mainland Chinese Sangha does not take some steps to enforce the Vinaya and cut down commercialization, the hells are going to become very crowded places soon.

Ghost Marriage

The Dhammapada says:
"Neither of iron nor wood nor hemp is bond so strong,
proclaim the wise, as passion’s yearn
for sons, for wives, for gems and ornaments."
On 23.8.2008 there was also another story about a Penang Chinese family who held a ghost marriage for a daughter who died of kidney failure 31 yrs ago. Apparently this "woman", Xie Mingying, had informed her family through a medium that she had found a suitable partner in the Peta (ghost) realm, and wished to get married. At first they were not very sure, but when they asked another unrelated fortune teller some time later, Xie possessed the man and repeated her wish to them. Only then they were convinced. Incidentally, the prospective husband, Xu Yuquan also informed his human relatives through the same medium of his desire to marry Xie. And so both families met up and a traditional Chinese marriage ceremony was arranged at the temple for the ghostly couple, with all the pomp and celebration of an actual human marriage. Paper effigies of the bride and bridegroom, held by their respective relatives, were used to represent them in the ceremony. All sorts of paper betrothal gifts including a new house were also presented to the bridegroom's family, to be burned for their use in the Peta realm. A wedding feast was also arranged for all the relatives present to witness the ceremony. Stories like these might sound amazing to foreigners, but they are not uncommon among the Chinese populace in this region. I myself had heard similar stories from people that I know. They tell us that death is not the end and ghosts desire love and happiness in the same way that human beings do.
This reminded me of a story told by LP Chob in the Forest Dhamma book "Patipada". At one time LP was meditating in a cave in Chiang Mai. Due to his past paramis, LP was able to perceive supernatural beings more so than any other teacher (except maybe LP Mun). As a result he was always visited by many Devadas, Nagas and Petas during his Dhutanga travels in the wild. When he was dwelling there he saw large groups of Petas moving house with their families from various districts in Isan (Northeast Thailand) to settle in the Chiang Mai hills. Like humans, some of them were seen riding on horses and cattle, holding their children and belongings in a big procession. When these groups of Petas moved passed LP Chob's cave, the leader of the group would always come to pay respect to him. So that gave LP an opportunity to inquire about the conditions of the Petas.

The leader explained to him that they were moving away from Isan because there were many immoral Petas committing all kinds of evil deeds in that region; robbing, plundering and killing one another, making it unsafe to live in. They heard from their ghostly relatives that the Petas in Chiang Mai were more moral in their behaviour, thus making it a more peaceful place to reside. When asked about all the possessions they were carrying, the leader replied:

"Those things that are useful to ghosts and those things that make up their wealth are bound to cause attachment in ghosts. Or to put it another way, there is no real difference between the results of karma in ghosts and in people, nor between those things that make up their wealth when either group have the results of karma inherent with them."

LP then asked how they were going to live in Chiang Mai. The leader explained further saying:

"We are bound to have houses, children, relatives and friends in the same way as people and other beings do. Though we are beings of one kind in the same way as others, our bodies are not visible to human eyes and the eyes of some other beings. However we are quite visible to those who have Deva bodies, and we all experience happiness and suffering in the same way. This is because the hearts of ghosts and the hearts of other beings have karma and its fruits in the same way. So wherever one is born, whatever type of birth one has and wherever one lives, one must experience the fruits of karma in the same way as all other beings."

After that conversation LP Chob realized that it was true that all beings were heirs of their own karma, no matter what realm they were reborn in. Everyone was trapped in this great mess of Dukkha together without exception. From the story of the ghost marriage to the story of the moving house ghosts, one can see that the conditions of the human and Peta realm are quite similar. One repeats the same cycle again and again in the wheel of existence, never quite getting tired of the never ending suffering. If one day we suddenly realize the true state of things, won't we also give rise to a sense of dispassion like all the Noble Ones of the past? Perhaps that is the dawn of the journey towards Nibbana!

Indonesian Black Magic

On 23.8.2008 there was an article talking about an Indonesian woman who had metal wires growing out of her stomach and chest for the past 17 yrs. Her relatives had tried to help her in the past by cutting away the protruding wires, but it was useless as they would quickly grow again at other spots. The government also sent 4 top medical experts to try to diagnose her problem, but none could tell what kind of disease it was, other than it being "very rare". X-rays done on her show 40 over wires around 10-20cm each inside her body, but how they got there and why they were growing were a total mystery. Medical science with all its technology became completely useless when dealing with this woman.
This strange case reminded me of the 2005 Thai movie "Art of the Devil 2", which at the beginning showed a male character having fishing hooks sprouting violently out of his body after he was put under a hex by a Cambodian black magician. That movie was one of the most gruesome horror movies I ever saw. Indeed, there are still many things in the world that could not be explained by science today. Black magic, as practiced in many parts of Southeast Asia, is one of them. It is more popularly known as "Gong Tao" by the Chinese. Basically there are 2 types of Gong Tao that is most feared in this region - the Thai-Khmer type and the Indonesian type. I've also seen in HK reporter Hu Huichong's documentary on black magic how both types of black magicians go about casting their hexes. These dark arts are real, and they've been around since time immemorial. Quite obviously, that Indonesian woman with wires growing out of her body had been hexed by a black magician. Yet she is still oblivious to it after 17 yrs, what a pity. This is a kind of flying needle hex (or in this case wires) in which the evil bomoh sends foreign objects into the victim's body through an incantation. The bomoh must have the victim's picture and perhaps a personal item to cast the hex. Once the hex succeeds, those foreign objects would be permanently lodged inside the victim's body until the person dies. Only the bomoh who casted the hex could remove it; it would be very difficult for other good bomohs to try to lift it. Not to mention ordinary doctors. I pray that whoever who requested for the hex to be put on the woman will let go of his or her grudges and get the bomoh to remove it. May they be freed from their enmity and suffering.