Today is the third day that I have come to Donglin Monastery, and I have caught up with the seventh phase of the 7749-day Buddha period held by the monastery, and today is the first day of the 7th period, and I will live a seven-day monastic life here.
Before the start of the seventh period, I accepted the "Eight Precepts" and the Buddha beating period officially began.
At 3:30 a.m. that morning, my brothers, who lived in the same dormitory as me, got up and began to wash, make their beds, and put on their vestments. I also followed them up to get up and get ready. Before half past four, I walked into the "Qinglian Buddha Hall" and began a day's practice activities. The temple is large and is said to be able to accommodate about 3,000 people. But now because the end of the year is approaching, there are not so many people, but they are almost full. The hall was neatly arranged with yellow prayer mats, and all of them were wearing dark brown robes, that is, Haiqing, except for the monks, who wore orange monk's robes.
People are divided into several areas according to the level of their practice, with the monks who preside over the Dharma in one area, and the lay people who have undergone the three refuges and the five precepts in one area, and they usually go out of the hall from morning to night only during the lunch break. The "little white" type who just came to experience the monk is concentrated in one area, and I am in this group of people. When entering the gate of the chanting hall, there are volunteers holding signs at the door, which read, "Turn off your mobile phone" and "stop talking".
Under the guidance of volunteers, people sat neatly on the mats from front to back, waiting for the event to begin. At 4:40, with the thought of a high-pitched and melodious Sanskrit chant "Nam no Amitabha", the day's Buddhist activities officially began.
The Buddhist activities performed are called "sutras", which are the practice of reciting the Buddha's name while walking. People are spaced about half a meter apart, lined up in rows, walking in a straight line and then turning back regularly, chanting the Buddha name "Nam no Amitabha" repeatedly as they walk, at a very slow pace, and walking four steps with a Buddha name. With the crisp and pleasant sound of the chime, people step out of the right foot, the mouth is reciting the word "Nanwu", the second step is the left foot, the mouth is reciting "Ami", another chime, the third step is the right foot is the word "Tuo", the fourth step is the left foot, the mouth is "Buddha". There is a pause between each Buddha name. And so on and so forth. It starts at 4:30 a.m. and ends at 1:40 a.m. and ends at 1:30 p.m. in the afternoon. At the end of the day, the people who were able to persevere from beginning to end were the elite, that is, lay people who had taken refuge in Buddhism for a long time, and they only ate one meal at noon, and after 12 o'clock, they stopped eating any food. Although they only ate one meal and traveled all day, they did not show any signs of fatigue when they were finished.
What struck me the most was the extreme self-discipline of these practitioners. Because after this long day of activities, after the end of the event, there will be no garbage at all, not even a little saliva, not to mention bubble gum and the like, everything is as clean as ever. What kind of team would be so disciplined?
I thought, if everybody could be so disciplined and so coordinated, wouldn't our society be a better place?