——MindScape Zen-House
Photo by Zhengchu Fang and Xiaomi Wang from MindSpace Zen-house: Five Element Meridian Yoga Intensive Training Camp of Yang Qi
Feeling free in the bamboo forest.
The fickle and noisy city life covered our hearts with fog. In Buddhism, meditate is extremely important. Through meditate, we can create a tranquil inner world, overcome greed and lust, and let go of the fickleness that we feel. Being rapt in bamboo to enjoy the ever-lasting moment of the sudden peace. Let our hearts travel and experience the quietness and beauty of the deep part of the bamboo forest.
You will want to be alone when you are among the mountains, waters, and beside the Cloud Lake, and enjoy the poetic scenery which is like a wash painting. You can walk on the foggy path of Xizhu Zen Town; sit on a rock near the bank of Cloud Lake; watch the water under your feet flow to the deep forest under the dark moonlight and rising dim light. You might hear people talk and make a fuss in the distance, but you also might feel there is no one else. The mountains in the afar are clear and covered by layers of trees. The bell rings powerfully deep in the forest and echoes around every corner of the small town.
I feel like I am the only person in the world. I want to wave my sleeves chicly, and walk deeper into the mountains and waters. The bronze bell of Dajue Temple was left alone, and moss has grown solemnly. I don’t know if any person is waiting to play Go with me deep in the forest, and by the time finish, thousands of years might have passed, and I have forgotten how I came.
The bizarre imagination is like swinging on the swing when I was a child. I used to look at the outside of the mountain in the chilly early morning, dreams chased the mountain wind, climbed over hills and disappear.
Others can not steal the scenery I have seen when I travel and the dreams I had when I was young, and I will never forget. The town for one, I want to use quietness as essence and feel peace and happiness.
Let hearts go home and gather in a house.
MindScape is located in the Xizhu town of Yixing city, Jiangsu province. This town’s environment is breathtaking, and the climate is cozy. Xizhu town is known as the Bhutan of China and located on the south west of Yixing where is known as the city of pottery. There are many ancient pottery factory relics in Yixing and here has a profound history. This place is like a hometown deep in the river of time and the Peach Garden where the modern people desire in their busy modern city life.
In MindScape, be the neighbor of Dajue Temple.
Bathing in the warm autumn sunlight, I knocked open the door of Yixing Dajue Temple and entered the main temple which had the light of Buddha.
Dajue Temple is the Bodhimanda for Linji school of Zen Buddhism, and it has over seven hundred years of history. In 1938, Chewujinjue(also known as the Master Xingyun who founded Fo Guang Shan) became a monk here, and then he became the student of Zhikai monk in Qixia Temple, Nanjing. He became the forty-eighth generation of Linji school. Due to war and historical reasons, temples were gone. In 1989, the master went back home from Taiwan to promote Buddhism and visit family, and he went back to the main temple of Yixing to honor the ancestors. He saw how broken it was and sighed, “ I should recover the will of the temple.”
Everyone you meet in Dajue Temple carries a warm and pious smile. They can make you feel like there is nothing complicated in the world. In Dajue Temple, you can follow the footstep of Master Xingyun and find the recipe for happiness—— have a kind heart, say kind words and do kind things.
In the Bhutan of China, you can feel your body and soul are cleansed, and your heart is purer. This feeling is unspeakably marvelous! In MindScape, you can feel a force that travels through time and lands on your spirit and lungs. In this changing world, home is where you feel safe.