bodhi tree
Original Chen Yanping
Yanhua called and said that she had changed the large basin and fertilized the Bodhi tree. It grew tall and stout again. The palm-sized blades, green and secluded, are getting better and better. She then sent a video, tested the size of the leaf with her palm, and plucked the leaf open to show me its thick branches.
Many years ago, I lived in Guangzhou for a year. After work, explore the scenery of Guangzhou alone. After visiting the ancient village of Daling that day, I wrote a travelogue, and Sister Yang in her hometown read it, and she also longed for the style of the ancient village for no reason. We made an appointment, and when Sister Yang came to Shunde in the summer to reunite with her husband, I accompanied her for a swim.
The closer I got, the more uneasy I became. The benevolent see the benevolent, and the wise see the wise. The description of words belongs to the product of the senses and the mind, focusing on appearances, but often detached from appearances. Nominally writing about what you see and hear is actually mixed with too much personal experience and intuition. In other words, the so-called scenery is actually caused by the experience of the individual. I was worried that I had portrayed the ancient village too much, and that Sister Yang would be lost after she came.
And the text lyrically writes impressions, and once the pen is dropped, it is higher than reality, which is well known. I don't know whether the text enriches the impression, or whether the impression itself enriches the text. But the impression is in the front, and the text is positive in the back. However, after it was written, it was the words that determined everything. The more I think about it, the more my heart becomes weak.
When I saw Sister Yang, I realized that I was worried about it. "The drunkard's intention is not in the wine, but also in the mountains and rivers." The joy of the landscape, the heart and the wine of the apartment. Sister Yang is well aware of this.
Visiting the century-old Bodhi tree in the ancient village was our first stop.
There are many big trees in nature, but Bodhi alone will give us different feelings. Legend has it that thousands of years ago, Shakyamuni had an epiphany of truth under a large Bodhi tree. Therefore, in India, the Bodhi tree is a national treasure.
Later, Buddhism was brought back to China by Xuanzang. In that year, the Five Patriarchs wanted to seek the Dharma Heir, and ordered the disciples and monks to each give a hand. The Theravada said, "The body is a Bodhi tree, and the heart is like a mirror platform." Always wipe diligently, do not cause dust. Hui Neng took rice in the kitchen and listened to this and said, "Beauty is beautiful, but it is not over." Thus he said to himself, "Bodhi has no tree, nor is the mirror a platform." Originally there was nothing, where to stir up dust. When the Five Patriarchs heard this, they passed on the mantle to Hui Neng. Two Bodhi poems, which are known at first reading. It also makes the Bodhi tree have far-reaching significance in China.
Bodhi tree belongs to the banyan genus, afraid of cold, in China, mainly distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan, mostly cultivated. Where there is a Bodhi tree, there will be more understanding and more blessings. When people approach the Bodhi tree, they feel solemn and solemn, thinking that it may come from Bodh Gaya. The Buddha is the evidence of the practice of life, and the Bodhi tree is the carrier. The leaves of the Bodhi tree still happen to resemble a heart.
There is an old house next to the 100-year-old Bodhi tree, and there is an ancient well in front of the door. In the old house lived the seventy-year-old uncle and his wife. The old partner was a year older than the old uncle, and his gray hair was tied with a red-headed rope, and he shook the fan quietly.
Maybe it's our smiles that infect the old man who drinks tea. He came over and spoke in a dialect he didn't understand. But his posture does not prevent us from understanding what he means, and it is to let him go.
It turned out that the old man wanted to take us to see the oyster shell house left by his ancestors. This is a Lingnan characteristic pot ear house, three into the courtyard, dragon boat ridge roof, green brick stone pillar stone slab house structure, with daughter wall, Qingyun Lane, relief figures, wood grain panes. The old man pointed to the three-walled yak house and proudly said that this house had a total of ten tons of oyster shells, which was nearly seven hundred years old.
The yak shell is the poplar in the sea, which will not be broken for a thousand years and will not be destroyed for ten thousand years. Such a house sits on the earth, has long been beyond the outside of the house, and has become a pure and beautiful handicraft. I approached the wall, approached a yak with my ear, and listened to the sea breeze and the waves of seven hundred years ago. Washed by the years, the yak shell still has the smell of the sea, which is the original fragrance of its life.
Oyster Shell House, let my heart cross thousands of mountains and rivers, back to my hometown. In those years, there was also a scenery in my hometown. On the walls of the earthen house, in order to be strong, in order to be waterproof, people wrapped a piece of clothing in straw. From a distance, it looks like a fisherman's coat. On snowy days, sparrows hide in the wall to overwinter. At night, mischievous children play flashlights to catch sparrows. Straw is not as good as oyster shells that have withstood the erosion of time, and now they are gone.
The old man was happy to help me and Sister Yang take a group photo next to the oyster shell wall, but his eyes were not good, and he took several shots before he succeeded. At first glance, it was blurry. The old man asked if the shooting was good? We laughed and said yes.
When I returned to the Bodhi tree, I chatted with the old man about home. He speaks the old Cantonese, we speak Mandarin, and we only understand it with a little thought. It doesn't matter if we don't understand, we respond with laughter, and the old man will believe that we understand his words, and we enjoy listening to him.
The Bodhi tree is from the old uncle's family, more than a hundred years old, the tree is thick, and three or four people may not be able to hold it. Not far from the village, the old man's family built a tall building, but he was reluctant to have ancient trees, old houses, and oyster shell houses that were six or seven hundred years old. He did not move into a new house, but chose to stay in the old house with his wife and guard all this from his ancestors. I also look at the tourists who come and go, and when they meet the right time, they tell people the story of the oyster shell house and the story of the Bodhi tree.
Looking up, the Bodhi tree was deep and deep, covering half of the sky. We climbed the big tree and chatted and took pictures, and the old man was happy like a child, circling around us and laughing around us. Seeing us wandering around this big tree, he said that he would like to bring back a Bodhi sapling?
Then he began to explain it again. We stared at him, carefully discerning, still not condensing the meaning. Just then, two little girls passed by with school bags. The old man pointed to one of them and said, "This is my granddaughter." Sister Yang hurriedly pulled the girl over as an interpreter. Originally, what Lao Bo said was that many tourists from Taiwan and Hong Kong would buy some Bodhi seedlings to go back when they arrived here. The old man had a special garden and bred the branches that had fallen from this century-old bodhi tree.
Jiang Xun's language is lonely, saying that the common language is the beginning of misunderstanding. I don't understand it, but it makes the conversation between us full of happiness. Emotionally, the old naughty old man suddenly picked up my face, rubbed it a few times, and then xi zizi instructed: "Stand here and don't go, I'll go get the Bodhi sapling." ”
This scene, like the plot of the movie, was not expected. Some were surprised, but did not dare to withdraw the smiley face, for fear that the old uncle would be embarrassed. We love a child and usually hold up their faces like this and rub it. At this moment, he must have thought of me as his daughter. Or maybe he hadn't been so happy in a long time. In short, I understand the old man's affection and am willing to be the best of myself in the pure relationship with him for ten minutes.
After about ten minutes, the old man returned with a Bodhi sapling. A pencil was the length of a thin branch dotted with tiny leaves. After thanking the old uncle, we toured the entire Daling Ancient Village with the saplings.
That day, it wasn't until the afternoon that The Bodhi Tree came home. Seeing that the leaves had been pulled, he hurriedly found a pot to insert. In the days that followed, day by day, they became more and more haggard, and withered day by day. I thought I was afraid that I would not be able to live, but I still held out hope. Because the old man said that this tree must be alive.
Plants are different from animals, their breath is silent, the path of life is hidden, and they should not be judged by the standard of animal death.
That year, without waiting for the Bodhi tree to come alive, I left Guangzhou. A month later, I received a picture from Yanhua: The Bodhi Tree is alive, strong, straight.
Goethe said: In every page of nature we read the most profound message about life. Months of struggle, what it went through, only it knew for itself. A small sapling is related to the grand theme of life.
Nowadays, the Bodhi tree remains in the south, and when I think of it, I naturally think of my old uncle in a foreign land. People, old, cute and respectable is easy, cute but difficult, it is related to character and temperament. The relationship with the old man did not remember his appearance. Looking back, there is a lovely story in my heart and a lively close-up in my eyes.
At this point, Niukou did not think of an ancient poem, Jin Changxu's "Spring Complaint": "Fight the yellow warbler, Mo Jiaozhi cries on the branch." When crying, the concubine dreams, and does not get Liaoxi. "There is no way to understand the author and the woman. But from the works, I felt their spontaneity and cuteness.
Chen Yanping, pen name Xinran, now living in Wuhan, is a national second-level psychological counselor and freelance writer, and published the essay collection "Daughter of hometown".