Master Huiyuan lived for more than eighty years
In the first half of his life for nearly fifty years
Almost all of them are constantly on and off
From Yanmen to Hengshan to Xiangyang
In order to avoid the chaos of war, he ran to Jingzhou
……
It has experienced half a century of ups and downs
Finally, he was able to settle down in Lushan
After Master HuiYuan came to Lushan, until the end of his life, for more than thirty years, he never took a step out of Lushan Mountain. What did he do in Lushan for more than thirty years? Today's "Legend of the High Monk", let us follow in the footsteps of Master Huiyuan and walk into Lushan Mountain.
The shadow does not show the mountain, but the Dharma is widespread
Master Hui Yuan's activities in Lushan can be roughly summarized into the following aspects.
■ Preaching and expounding Buddhist principles
Hui Yuan set up a pulpit in Lushan and lectured tirelessly; at the same time, he wrote diligently, and the Biography of the High Monk records that his works had more than fifty articles, which were integrated into ten volumes.
The Period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties was an important period when Chinese monks digested and absorbed Buddhist principles and tried to adapt them to Chinese society and local Chinese culture. In this historical context, Master HuiYuan tried to reconcile Confucianism and Buddhism, and tried to show that Confucian rituals and Buddhist principles can complement each other.
HuiYuan is a deep believer in cause and effect, advocating the Midas faith and discussing the Pure Land method of transcendent karma. This belief had a huge impact on future generations.
■ Organize the translation of the scriptures and advocate Vishnu
Master Huiyuan sent his disciples Fa Jing, Dharma Ling, and others to the Western Regions to collect the scriptures, and organized Buddha Bhadra to translate the Zen Sutra for the Convenience of Cultivation, so that Zen could become popular in Jiangnan; he asked Tama Liuzhi to translate the Ten Recitations to facilitate the spread of the precepts. But Hui Yuan's main contribution was to promote the spread of Vishnu.
"Vishnu" is a rough term for "Abhidharma" or "Abhidharma", meaning "incomparable Dharma" and "Dharma", referring to the Anthology part of the Buddhist Three Tibetans. In the history of Chinese Buddhism, "Vishnu" refers specifically to treatises used by the Theravada system to explain the "Dharma Phase", and scholars refer to the study of such treatises as "Vishnu Studies".
■ Academic exchanges with Kumarosh
When Hui Yuan's reputation at Lushan was great, Kumarosh was also welcomed into Chang'an.
HuiYuan took the initiative to write a letter to greet Kumarosh, and Kumarosh replied with a letter praising Huiyuan. For more than a decade, the two exchanged letters. Hui Yuan sent his works such as "On the Nature of the Law" to Kumarosh and asked him for advice. Kumarosh was very impressed by this: "The Han people did not see the new scriptures, so they secretly agreed with reason. Therefore, he sent his first translation of the Dapin Pan ruo jing and other manuscripts to Hui Yuan. (Note: The "new sutra" mentioned by Kumarosh is his own translation of the Dapin Prajnaparamita Sutra.) ）
After Kumarosh translated the Treatise on the Great Wisdom, Hui Yuan was invited to write a preface for him. Hui Yuan carefully wrote the preface and asked Kumarosh for advice on the difficulties in the Great Wisdom Treatise, and the two wrote letters to each other and exchanged ideas with each other. Later generations compiled their questions and answers on Buddhist doctrine into the Mahayana Chapter of Righteousness.
Due to the influence of Hui Yuan, the monks Daosheng and Hui Guan who were in Lushan went north to Chang'an and became important disciples of Kumarosh. Kumarosh translated three hundred volumes of the sutra in Chang'an, and important texts such as the Treatise on Becoming Real, the Treatise on the Middle, the Hundred Treatises, the Twelve Treatises, and the Treatise on the Lotus Were also widely circulated in the south because of Hui Yuan's advocacy.
■ Make extensive friends and spread Buddhism
Although Hui did not hike out of the mountains, his contacts were very extensive. Successive Jiangzhou Assassins had contacts with Hui Yuan. In the historical context of the confrontation between the north and the south at that time, Emperor An of the Eastern Jin Dynasty sent letters to greet Hui Yuan, and Later Qin Yao Xing also continued to give gifts, magic tools, etc., and at the same time, a group of literati and scholars, scholars, and celebrities united around Hui Yuan.
Master HuiYuan had no choice, he did not distinguish between the north and south of Huayi, nor did he distinguish between the government and the opposition, and all of them were related, not close or distant. In the chaotic historical context at that time, Master Huiyuan made extensive connections, enabling the Lushan Sangha to survive and develop and the Dharma to be promoted.
Huiyuan gathered and trained a group of educated Buddhist disciples, such as Hui Guan, Hui Bao, Fa An, Dao Heng, Sang Ji, Sang Yong, etc., all of whom had a certain influence on the history of Chinese Buddhism.
In 416, Hui Yuanyuan died at Donglin Temple. Xunyang Taishou Ruan Kan buried him in The Western Ridge of Lushan Mountain, Xie Lingyun wrote the "Lushan Huiyuan Master Recitation" and wrote an inscription, and Zong Bing erected a monument in the temple. In the Tang Dynasty, Master Huiyuan was known as the "Master of Apologetics", the Southern Tang Dynasty as the "Master of Enlightenment", the Song Dynasty as the "Master of Enlightenment", and later the Master of Enlightenment.
"Alpine Elevation", Lushan Donglin Temple and Huiyuan Sermon Office, have become holy places for Buddhists and literati to visit and trace.
The influence of Master Huiyuan on the Pure Land Beliefs of later generations
When the Pure Land Sect became popular in the world, some Buddhist historians traced back to the source and established the Pure Land Sect as the ancestor of the Pure Land Sect, with Master Huiyuan as the first ancestor of the Pure Land.
■ Pure Land of Birth, Recitation of Buddha Samadhi
Hui Yuan said in the Preface to the Collected Poems of the Three Noble Poems of the Nian Buddha, "Linjin Jiwu, and go with the nine streams." This means that when we come to the Pure Land of Midas in the past life, we should help all sentient beings and go with the nine past lives. The spirit of the Pure Land of Midas is self-interest and altruism, and Master Huiyuan, with all the merits he has gathered, returns to giving alms to all sentient beings and lives together in the Pure Land.
In Lushan, there were 123 people who sought to die with Hui Yuan, most of whom were monks of Donglin Temple, and there were also a few lay disciples. Inside the Dharma Hall of Donglin Temple, they practiced chanting the Buddha Samadhi day and night.
Master Huiyuan's recitation of the Buddha is to meditate on the Buddha's Samadhi, that is, at six o'clock and the public sit in meditation in the Dharma Hall, and visualize the solemnity of the Buddha.
This process of contemplating the thirty-two phases and eighty good aspects of the Buddha in meditation is mixed with the realization of the Buddha's principles, and Hui Yuan is here to combine the contemplation of the Buddha, meditation and the realization of the Buddha, and the Pure Land belief with the Zen Dharma and Prajnaparamita.
Huiyuan had a profound influence on the spread of Pure Land thought in China. He chose the Midas Pure Land among the many Pure Lands, organized more than a hundred people to swear to the West, and practiced the Samadhi of reciting the Buddha samadhi that combined Prajnaparamita, Zen And Pure Land, which played a role in promoting the wide dissemination of the Midas faith and even the Pure Land thought.
Due to fate, master Huiyuan is still promoting the development of pure land belief many years after his death, which is really amazing!
Article source: Shanghai Jade Buddha Zen Temple