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In may 412 AD, in the Indian Ocean, strong winds were blowing and huge waves were fierce. A merchant ship navigates in the waves, and no one knows where this weak and windy boat will be pushed by the waves.
A strong-willed monk meditated on the trumpet of the Buddha in the bumps of a small boat, closed his eyes slightly, and calmed himself. And a demon's hand is creeping closer to him...
Many people may have heard the story of Tang Xuanzang's westward journey to learn the scriptures, but in China, the first person to travel west to seek the Dharma was a frail and sickly child born in an ordinary peasant family. In order to keep his child safe, his parents sent him to the monastery at the age of 3, and he was also the first commoner in Chinese history to be recorded as being sent to the monastery, and his name was Faxian.
When he was a teenager, Faxian's parents unfortunately died. At the age of twenty he received the full ordination of bhikkhus. In the temple, the Dharma Manifest is of good moral character, intelligent mind, and solemn etiquette, and is deeply admired by the monks and lay people in the four directions.
He was very studious, and in a few years he carefully studied the Buddhist scriptures collected in this monastery and other monasteries. At the age of fifty, in order to satisfy his strong desire for knowledge, he came to Chang'an, the place where Buddhism flourished at that time.
After coming to Chang'an, Faxian cherished the excellent situation in front of him and read a lot of books like a hunger. After a while, he became very worried, because he found that there were only two or three kinds of Vinaya on the issue of Buddhist precepts, and that the words did not make sense and did not meet their intentions (the Vinaya is the pure precepts that bind the monks).
Therefore, a great idea that shocked the Buddha's door arose in the mind of Fa Xian, and he wanted to go to Tianzhu himself to retrieve the true scriptures.
So under his inspiration, he and several of his brothers embarked on the road to the west with uncertain future paths.
This was almost impossible to complete in those days. Before, some people went west to learn the scriptures, even young people, some of them turned back halfway or died halfway. Moreover, the era in which Fa Xian lived was a period of chaos and chaos, coupled with the rampant bandits, the long road ahead without end, the continuous desert like the sea, and the cold and windy green mountains and snow mountains. The Fa Xian, who had passed the age of flower armor, embarked on a journey with great courage and perseverance.
Fa Xian was sad for the first time
The first difficulty experienced by Faxian and his party was the White Dragon Pile Desert. The Bailongdui Desert, also known as the Shahe River, has a radius of more than 300 kilometers and is also the main passage of the ancient Silk Road. There are no rivers, no lakes, no mountains, no trees, let alone grass, and the view is an endless, uneven sand dune, shining golden under the sun.
After a 17-day trip to the desert under harsh conditions, they walked 1500 miles to reach the first small country in the western region, the Country of Shanshan.
Shan Shan guo also has a well-known name called Lou Lan. Luckily, he arrived more than 100 years before Loulan disappeared completely, in its last glory. When Xuanzang arrived more than 200 years later, the country had ceased to exist under the onslaught of war and quicksand.
The spread of Buddhism to China was inextricably linked to the Kushan Dynasty, and the monks of the White Horse Sutra came from the Kushan Dynasty. Today, the Kushan Dynasty has completely collapsed, and when Fa Xian arrived, the former imperial capital was now just a small country called Fulousha.
Fa Xian saw that Lou Lan, one of the four ancient capitals that once possessed splendid Buddhism, was now dilapidated, and he had a strong and strong personality, never interfering with external objects, and in the face of this situation, he who had never shown his emotions was sad and wept for the first time. This only further inspired him to learn from the scriptures and vow to carry forward the Dharma.
Fa Xian's second sadness
Undaunted by hardships, they continued westward with firm conviction, and after crossing the great Taklamakan Desert, they continued to wade through mountains and rivers to the Green Ridge. This is a natural barrier formed by the Kunlun Mountains, the Himalayas, the Tianshan Mountains, and the Hindu Kush Mountains, with dangerous terrain, peaks, cold weather, and snow in winter and summer. In case of a strong wind, no one can cross it alive. Standing on a cliff, people will be dizzy, want to move forward but can not get down.
Fa Xian's disciple Hui Jing was physically exhausted when he crossed the Green Ridge. When I crossed the little snowy mountain again, I finally couldn't hold on to it, my mouth foamed, and my young life stayed on the little snowy mountain forever.
At this time, Fa Xian had been traveling west for four years, and the unfortunate departure of his disciple made Fa Xian cry very sadly. It can also be seen from this that The Fa Xian is a devout believer in his practice and a very affectionate companion in the world.
However, the harsh environment and the sad mood did not knock down Fa Xian. At this time, the companions traveling westward were only accompanied by Dao Zhen and Fa Xian. On the way, this small group of monks, due to differences in thought, some of them missed their homeland and returned to Chang'an, while some stayed in the local area to practice Buddhism. But The Dharma Manifest has only one goal, that is, to obtain the true Buddhist scriptures for the Eastern Lands, and not to affect the goals in the mind due to any external force.
Fa Xian's third sadness
The last country in which Dharma Xian sought sutras in the Buddha's kingdom was called the Lion Country, which is today's Sri Lanka.
After coming to the Lion Country, Faxian was often tormented by a kind of nameless loneliness. The last Dao zhen who accompanied him felt that the Shamen gate of the Buddha Kingdom was orderly and the majesty of the monks was awe-inspiring, so he finally decided to stay here forever and not return home.
At this time, Fa Xian was already an old man in his 70s, and he had been wandering outside for more than ten years to learn the Fa, and the few people who had set off on the journey were now only themselves.
And every night, only a lone lamp accompanied him, he could not sleep. On this day, I inadvertently walked to a Buddha statue and saw a white silk fan offering to the Buddha statue. Fa Xian's tears rolled down in an instant, because this silk fan was only available in his homeland, which made him miss his motherland even more and how well the Buddhist cause in Chang'an had developed...
Return to The Country to discuss the Scriptures
Fa Xian naturally felt that it was time to return to China. He decided to follow the merchant ship on the sea route in order to return home quickly and quickly to translate the verses obtained by these difficulties.
Facing the sea, the huge merchant ship is also like a leaf boat, and the weather at sea is unpredictable and difficult to figure out. Unable to find the right way due to wind and rain, they drifted at sea for months.
One night, the wind and waves were so strong that they almost overturned the ship. The magic hands of several foreign merchants reached out to the Fa Xian. They believed that this monk had brought bad luck and should have thrown him into the sea to worship the gods.
The ugliness of human nature is like this, and it is often not natural disasters but man-made disasters that often crush human beings.
Fortunately, a righteous layman stepped forward and defused the crisis. Otherwise, the Dharmakaya would have been buried in the sea along with the Bible he had painstakingly obtained, and it would have been a great loss to human civilization and a great loss to the Dharma.
After returning to China, he did not enjoy his old age in peace, but translated scriptures day and night until he was 86 years old.
At the last moment of Fa Xian's life, he also thought: If I could give him another 10 years, how good it would be to finish translating all these sutras. And when karma ends, the years are not given to anyone.
A few short lines of text cannot record the hardships, hardships, and tribulations that Fa Xian has paid for the motherland for more than ten years.
The physical and mental torture, the efforts of the companions, all give a strong spirit of grandeur on the way to learn the scriptures.
Perhaps it is the support of faith, or perhaps this is the persistence and responsibility of Chinese monks, generation after generation, making the land of China the greatest place for the promotion of Buddhism in the world. The grand development of Buddhism reflects the long history and breadth of Chinese culture, and carries the exchange and collision of various cultures.
This is why only the Chinese civilization is the most magnificent, the most magnificent, and the most flowered of the four ancient civilizations. Because we have inherited, developed, persistent tenacity, courage to be fearless of danger, and all tolerance.
In today's China, there are still batches of "Fa Xian" on the road of "taking the scriptures", on the road of "taking the scriptures" to return, on the road of "taking the scriptures" and not returning, moving forward...
PS：
The voice recording of The Fa Xian, one of the top ten monks in China, has been completed, and I can listen to a more complete and specific story content in my audio.
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Quiet flowing time, the faint fragrance of flowers at hand, quiet and comfortable without sadness.