White Horse Temple in Luoyang is the ancestral temple of Buddhism in the Central Plains.
During the Yongping period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty ordered people to welcome eminent monks from Tianzhu to take photos of Moteng, and Zhu Falandong came to teach the Dharma and built the White Horse Temple in Luoyang. It has been nearly six hundred years since then.
As the birthplace of Buddhism in the Central Plains, White Horse Temple has experienced several wars and reconstructions, witnessing the changes of dynasties in the Central Plains.
Today's White Horse Temple was naturally built by Yang Guang, and it experienced another war.
It turned out that the monks in the temple either ran away or died, leaving only an empty temple where beggars lived and soldiers were stationed.
Everything in the temple that could be burned was burned, and the house was short of being demolished. A layer of the Buddha's statue was also scraped off, revealing the dark clay body inside. The lighter ones were pushed to the ground and shattered into mud.
Only the heaviest ones remain.
In times of war, human lives are like grass. Since they can't show any magic, it's no wonder they ended up like this.
Now that the war has passed, the monks have returned here at the right time...
Li Po stood in front of the temple door with a sarcastic look on his face.
Gods and Buddhas are created by people. In the end, what people worship are actually Taoist priests, monks, or priests. What they are looking for is the sustenance of their own souls. People's selfish and cunning nature, in religion
The expression is vivid and vivid.
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"I came here when I was young..."
Li Xiuning said something, but stopped suddenly, cursing herself for being confused.
At that time, she was living in Luoyang with her second brother Li Shimin. The next best thing was to come to Baima Temple to worship Buddha, but she made an appointment with her eldest grandson brother and sister here.
At that time, Changsun Wuji and Li Shimin had the same temperament. They chatted together and had endless things to say. She was still young at that time and could only listen.
Changsun's maiden name was Guanyin Maiden, and she was naturally devoted to worshiping Buddha. However, at that time, her eyes were fixed on her second brother Li Shimin. Even if Li Xiuning didn't understand Fengyue, she could still see the affection between Changsun's eyebrows.
The past is like smoke. Now that Li Shimin is dead, Changsun Wuji has become a hawk dog raised by others. He sits upright in Dali Temple and has a reputation of being strict. He is no longer the noble man with light clothes and thin belt, full of elegance and eloquent talk.
The family is gone.
The eldest grandson, Wugao, took refuge in her house and became a widow who could not easily show her face in front of others.
Thinking of this, Li Xiuning felt that things in the world are impermanent, and her eyes could not help but be stained with sadness.
Li Po saw that something was wrong with her expression, but he could understand her feelings. When she was young, the daughter of the Li family in Longxi came to Baima Temple to worship the Buddha without any worries. It was very vivid when she thought about it.
It's just that today, it's hard to look back on the past, and it's inevitable to feel that things are right and people are wrong.
Fortunately, Li Po moved forward step by step and finally reached the top of the mountain without any gap. Lucky, lucky, this guy thought unscrupulously.
So he laughed and said, "It seems that the Buddha has not escaped the disaster. You should not worship Buddha in the future. Why not worship me more? There will be some benefits, don't you think?"
Li Xiuning was amused by him and smiled. People in Guanxi only paid homage to Buddha. Like Li Bi, she didn't care much about Li Po's nonsense.
"Brother, you don't respect Buddha, so what are you doing here?"
Li Po smiled and said: "After entering the temple gate, of course you have to offer incense. I just wonder if the White Horse Temple today is as effective as people say?"
Li Xiuning didn't believe his lies. After getting along with him for these years, no matter how he looked at it, his lover didn't look like someone who could offer incense to the Buddha. For now, with just these few words, if the Buddha had a spirit, he would never be allowed to enter.
Enter the temple gate.
She rolled her eyes, and there was a hint of slyness in her smile, "Brother, you have to be more careful. Even if there is a disaster here, this is the realm of Buddhism. Brother, please don't fall down here and lose face."
Ashina Rong next to her gave Li Xiuning a very dissatisfied look. She was quite superstitious. Even if her god was not good to her, she felt that she still had to be careful when speaking in front of the god.
Of course, her husband is an exception. No matter who speaks ill of anyone, the other party has to listen, and the same goes for the gods, otherwise the red-eyed devil will come to the door and fight to the death.
Li Po stepped forward and entered the temple gate, but he paid attention to his steps. If he really fell down here, it would be so fucking embarrassing. Buddha would laugh so hard that he would fall from the sky and kill the crow next to him.
Mouth.
A few monks belatedly rushed out of the temple to greet him.
The old monk who took the lead was Monk Huizhen. After all, they could not resist the temptation and ended up living in the White Horse Temple, where they were also bound.
The emperor's approval is no joke. Since you agreed, you should register in front of the emperor. If you want to slip away again, you have to be careful about your bald head.
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Yang Guang has a reputation for piety, so the construction of White Horse Temple is no worse than that of the Imperial Palace, and the area is not small. The square in front of the main hall of White Horse Temple can definitely gather thousands of people.
There is also a pagoda forest behind the temple, which used to enshrine the relics of some eminent monks.
After the war, although the shelves of the White Horse Temple were still there, the inside was in dilapidated condition. The relics were gone and I don’t know who had taken them away. There used to be places where scriptures were stored in the temple, but they were also damaged, and not a single scripture was found.
Nothing left.
On the contrary, some precious scriptures were hidden by Yang Guang in the Guanwen Hall in Luoyang and kept. Later, they were taken away by Li Po for the Chang'an Collection.
The wars in the late Sui Dynasty caused all-round damage to civilization, and no one could escape it alone.
More than a month later, Monk Huizhen and several monks, with the help of the government, started to tidy up the White Horse Temple. However, it is still far from possible to restore the glory of the White Horse Temple to its former glory.
In particular, Li Po had set a rule for them not to accept offerings from the public, so he wanted to rebuild the temple and reshape the golden body of the Buddha. With these monks... hehe, even if they broke the wooden fish, there was nothing they could do.
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Li Po stepped into the gate of White Horse Temple, and the guards entered, searched the inside and outside of the temple, and then took control.
Ashinarong really had something to do. He went into the temple and looked around, removing anything that could trip people up. He also felt very displeased when he looked at the shabby Buddha statue in the main hall. He wished he could go up and kick it.
She felt that her husband was fully qualified to sit there.
Monk Xuanzang was about to "speak uprightly" again, but was stopped by the monk next to him.
It's just that the emperor came here not to talk about Zen and teach the Dharma with monk Huizhen. Xuanzang later became famous, but no one knew who Huizhen was.
It can be seen that both monks and emperors need merit to back them up. If you don’t do something big and run far away, ordinary people will not be patient to read Buddhist scriptures. How can they remember who you are?
This time Huizhen spoke more carefully than last time. The emperor did not believe in gods and Buddhas, and seemed to be very dissatisfied with the monks' actions. It seemed that unless the Buddha showed his true form, the monks would suffer if something went wrong.
The monks of the Fahua Sect had many dealings with the government in the previous dynasty, and several eminent monks were guests of the emperor, leaving behind a lot of valuable experience.
The most important one is that the emperor's opinion of Buddhism is very important. If the emperor likes it, his ministers and nobles will flock to Buddhism. If the emperor doesn't like it, it will be extremely bad. Their experience in Luoyang proves this.
.
They blocked the road to see the emperor, and what they asked for was actually a word from the emperor, which was to build the White Horse Temple. If the emperor had agreed happily, the repair of the White Horse Temple would have been completed by now, and devotees who came here to offer incense would be in front of the temple gate.
Now if you look at it again, people from the government tend to ignore it. For example, the land distributed to the monks in the temple has many conditions. This year has missed the farming season. Next year, the monks must cultivate it themselves. Even if one acre is vacant, it will come.
Make trouble for the monks in the temple.
This alone made the two monks, who were not very firm in their Buddhist hearts, full of complaints. When they returned to the temple, they repeatedly talked about wanting to return to Tiantai Mountain.
In fact, it can be seen from the emperor's verbal edict that the future of White Horse Temple is bleak.
Huizhen, Xuanzang and others discussed it, but they all felt that they must persist. Their reckless behavior this time would bring extremely unpredictable consequences.
It doesn't matter if they suffer a little. If they harm the Lotus Sect or the Jiangnan monks, then they will be guilty of serious sins. After passing away, they will definitely not be able to go to the Western Paradise.
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"Your Majesty, the poor monk and others have just settled down. The temple is simple and simple, and they are unable to fulfill their duty of welcoming you. Please forgive me."
Monk Huizhen welcomed Li Po into the main hall of the temple, wanting to bypass this place and go to the monk's room to talk.
However, Li Po took a step and entered the main hall. In the past, the threshold of the main hall was extremely high, and there might be a chance that the emperor would stumble. But now, the threshold has been removed, and there are also large traces of rain erosion in the hall.
Li Po raised his head and looked around. Although the golden body of the Buddha was broken, it was still sitting upright. The Buddhas next to it were not so lucky. Some were pushed to the ground, and some simply disappeared, leaving only a base.
At this time, Li Po couldn't help but smile when he heard Monk Huizhen speak in such a worldly manner.
I thought Xiao Shiwen was right. The monks were very tactful. I just met him once, and now I can talk a lot. It is not bad for such a person to be an official. What kind of monk do you want to be?
Of course, judging from the level in the temple, serving the Buddha is probably no different from being an official.
Li Po smiled and started to talk about his wonderful words again, "That's right, monks practicing Dharma must not wear silk and satin, or eat delicacies from the mountains and seas.
I heard that in the past, the great temple in the south of the Yangtze River had thousands of hectares of fertile land, rich clothes and fine food, and the people who came and went were all high-ranking officials. It was no different from the famous families in the world.
If your mind is filled with worldly matters and the aura of fireworks is so strong, then what kind of Dharma can you practice? What kind of Zen can you participate in?
In my opinion, monks should endure all kinds of suffering in the world in order to cultivate their moral character and cultivate their Zen mind and wisdom...
Buddhism tells the world, isn’t it about cultivating the afterlife? Monk, do you think what I said is correct or not?”