A journey through time and space led me to the mysterious Buddhist holy place of Lumbini. Walking on an unfamiliar journey, the scene in front of me made me feel like I had traveled back in time and space to the era of more than 2,000 years ago.
Nepal is the home of the Buddha, and many Buddhist practitioners are eager to go to Nepal and see the Buddha's ruins.
One year I had a long vacation, so I thought about going to Nepal. At that time, I found a tour guide, the guide was called "Fo Sheng" (his Chinese name, he had studied in China), a young bearded man with a relatively fluent Chinese, after picking me up at the airport, he took me to eat first, helped me check in, and the next morning, he was waiting for me in front of the hotel, we went out to wander the streets of Kathmandu, and after a few days of playing in Kathmandu, I asked the Buddha to take me to see the Buddha's ruins.
He said yes and drove with me. After a seven-hour drive from Kathmandu, we finally arrived at Lumbini, a famous World Heritage site of Buddha.
In 623 BC, Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Buddha, was born in a famous garden in Lumbini. This garden was later built as a memorial center by Ashoka of India. It has always been a pilgrimage site for Buddhists.
When we arrived at Lumbini, we found that the site was actually a park. The ground floor in front of the door is full of red floor tiles. Unlike the rest of Nepal, it is very clean.
We walked in and saw a wide lawn and a white building. Then inside the lawn there are some remains of red bricks. Buddha Sheng introduced me to these ruins, what kind of buildings are they originally, and what is the history? These red bricks are basically the ruins of stupas and temples, probably excavated and cleared by Western scholars after the 20th century.
We probably looked around and saw a very large tree. "Shuluo Tree" translates as "Carefree Tree". It is said that it was in this worry-free tree that the Buddha was born and perished under the two carefree trees, and what the Buddha did in his carefree life was to make all sentient beings worry-free.
I have never seen a carefree tree this big. There were about seven or eight monks sitting under the tree, looking very reverent and relaxed, using some blue cloth on the stone steps under the Bodhi tree, and then sitting cross-legged on it, reading scriptures.
At that moment, I seemed to see the Buddha and his disciples sitting under the Bodhi tree, and probably the same scene was back then.
The tree faces a boxy pool of holy water. The water in the pool is clean and clean.
I looked at the Sanssouci tree and couldn't help but want to worship it, so I knelt down and bowed to the tree three times. At this time, there was an older monk under the tree. Greeting me to speak. I asked the Buddha what did he tell me?
Fosheng said: He asked you if you were from China?
So I walked over to the monk and said, yes, I'm coming from China to see the Buddha's relics.
So Buddha Sheng helped us translate.
The monk said: I heard that in China, the Buddha's teachings have been passed down very well.
I said: Indeed, the teachings of the Buddha have combined our culture in China to form a set of methods that suit our practice. Therefore, in history, there have been many, many people in China who have practiced the Tao.
I asked him if as a person in the Buddha's birthplace had more strength and blessings when he practiced.
He smiled and said: To say that the power of the heart should be the same everywhere in the world. I have never been superstitious about Buddha, I sit under this tree because it has a lot of shade and sits here to avoid exposure to the sun.
To talk about blessings, of course I believe there are, but I easily do not ask for blessings, you know, what Buddha wants most is that you understand life as he did, not where to wait for his blessings.
The best way to convert to Him is to learn His way of understanding life.
When I heard this, I agreed with it, and I said: You are very good, but how can you be able to face the prestige of the Buddha and be where he used to be, without being moved?
He said: I am not unmoved, my heart may respect the Buddha more than many people, all believe in the Buddha, but I deeply know that this respect and belief is not around this name and image of constant prayer and asking for anything, but to truly understand the inner meaning of the name Buddha.
In Sanskrit, Buddha means enlightened being. He told us that all of us can become enlightened beings. This enlightenment is the realization of the truth of life, and this enlightenment actually requires us to treat everything with the utmost rationality.
When we always think that we want something and what we want to take, we are actually hoping to get lucky and get better and more than others.
Although this seems normal in secular society, in the realm of the mind, it is not something worth advocating, you know, the habit of taking, let us unconsciously, we are led by the greed of our own heart.
It is not until we lose ourselves that we realize that we think we are pursuing Buddha-nature attainment with light, when in fact we are just greedy for a little satisfaction.
Life does not actually need to fill anything to be complete, on the contrary, life needs to unload the excess load in order to appear complete.
I asked: Lao Tzu, a sage in China, once said: For the sake of the Tao, it means that practice is not to increase what to gain, but to let go and be simple. Do you agree with this view?
He said, "Yes, your culture and Buddha's path are the same. Simplicity is because our life as a long history is inherently simple. We are pure life, originally such a perfect life, but we have become complex and cumbersome for a long time, and our physiological system and psychological system have become unprecedentedly cumbersome.
We have an extremely complex and keen mental awareness function, so we cannot be simple for a while. We cannot understand why taking and receiving is not the best way for the heart.
But as long as you try to unload the excess burden of the mind with ease and ease, you will be convinced of this view. When you find a way to unload all the burdens, stresses, worries and anxieties in your heart, even a tenth of it, you can feel the light spirit of your heart like a flying feather.
Light spirit, it is precisely because of simplicity and simplification, the ultimate of simplification, can bathe the heart, and when you wash the lead, you will find that with a light and silky heart, you can not be afraid of anything in this world, because nothing can contaminate your heart and drag down your heart.
When your heart is light, your body will follow suit. Your world will also be light. This is exactly what Buddha wanted us to experience.
I said: You are very right, let me understand that the light spirit of the heart is the quality of life that we should value.
He said: Yes, Buddha taught us countless wisdoms throughout his life, all pointing to the quality of our life, and if there is quality in life, then it must not be the name of money and power, nor will it be disturbing attachment and worry, the so-called quality should be courage, kindness, strength, purity, infectious power and assimilation.
Therefore, the peace of mind as I understand it is not a dead silence.
A dead silence is a pool of stagnant water, there are no waves, and it cannot rise.
You look at the waterfalls and streams in the mountains, you look at the sea, these are all the magic of the quality of life in inner peace.
That's life, not sitting there in a pool of stagnant water.
However, we must know that the rushing sea, the cascading waterfall, the babbling stream, their essence is precisely this tranquility.
Therefore, we don't need to go to a place where no one disturbs us to close ourselves for a lifetime, we can try to let go of ourselves, let the inner melody of life sound, and let the original power of life rush.
As long as you grasp one precondition, it is that you must always guard the peace of your heart. Use your tranquility to fulfill everything you have. This includes the rough sea and the babbling stream.
Therefore, those who practice correctly according to the Buddha's teachings will not lose the joy of life, nor will they lose their original characteristics, they will not become a template printed from a mold.
You see that the disciples of the Buddha are like this, each of them has their own characteristics, some are lively and open, some are quiet and composed, some are loyal and simple, and some are light and wise.
In the course of Buddha's education, we have never seen him ask anyone to change their temperament, change their way of life, abandon their wealth and status, and so on. He always taught them to understand and accept everything about themselves. And on this basis, let your twisted heart, stretch, not ask for something outward, but in turn, embrace and understand life itself inward.
Therefore, we know that the key to spirituality, or ascension of the heart, lies in your attitude towards things happening, and your mentality of participating in things, whether you have the power to consciously automatically simplify and simplify.
At this point, the monk began to chant a song. The song sings:
We are silent under the carefree tree of the Holy One,
The lake opposite reflects the shadows of the trees.
All clear and clear manifestations,
The flight of birds, the flight of butterflies,
People are walking by, clouds are drifting by,
And the shaking of the shadow of the tree
It's all skimming through the lake mirror
O heaven and earth, O all living beings,
It seems that it has never moved, nor has it ever been still,
What is worry-free, my esteemed Holy One?
I will not ask such questions again
Just sit quietly here!
His singing voice is very long and rhyming in Nepali language and tunes, and I listened to the Buddhist translation and became even more fascinated.
Standing in Lumbini, I understood the power of precipitation. Let us explore our true selves in the footsteps of life.
(This article is a story, please do not take it seriously)