The Master Life of a Feast Master

The feast master was born in Xiaonianggang, in front of Langshan Mountain in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, on the fourth day of February, 65438 of the lunar calendar in the Republic of China 19. His laity surname is Zhang. His grandfather Zhang Xifan, grandmother Jiang, father Zhang Xuancai and mother Chen. Master laity has six brothers and sisters, ranking the highest. Because his mother Zhang was born at the age of 42, there are three brothers and two sisters in the world.

In the summer of the thirty-second year of the Republic of China (A.D. 1943), when the mage 14 years old, a neighbor named Dai came all the way from Langshan in Jiangbei. It is said that the abbot of Langshan Guangjiao Temple told him to go to Jiangnan to find a novice monk. On the one hand, he was passive, on the other hand, he took the initiative to give the birth to this Dai lay man and sent him to Langshan for instructions. That autumn, Dai Jushi also took him to become a monk.

On the north bank of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province, it starts from Xuzhou in the north and reaches Chongming in the south. Except Yuntai Mountain in Lianyungang, it is only about nine kilometers south of Nantong City, and there are five hills facing the Yangtze River. From right to left: Huangni Mountain, Maanshan, Langshan Center, Jianshan Mountain and Junshan Mountain. Among the Five Mountains, Langshan Lingfeng stands out from the crowd, regarded as a natural defensive fortress by ancient military strategists, and also a Buddhist resort for people in northern Jiangsu to worship incense.

The feast master lived in Langshan for only 33 years (1944) 10 months, then went to Shanghai, then returned to Langshan, and left for Shanghai in the spring of 35 (1946) and never returned to Nantong. When he finally left, Langshan had been repeatedly garrisoned by the anti-Japanese national army at that time, and Langshan could not see the heyday of incense in the past.

The basis of the Buddhist knowledge of the feast master is that after he became a monk in Langshan for half a year, in addition to the timely supervision of the elders from generation to generation, another master who taught Zen and a layman who taught the Four Books and Five Classics taught knowledge and self-restraint. After that, I went to the Dasheng Temple in Shanghai, where I recited the scriptures every day, made confessions to the Buddha, set fire to the benefactor's family, and extended my life. I had no spare time to study. In order to study, in the spring of the 36th year of the Republic of China (A.D. 1947), the master left Dasheng Temple in Shanghai and became a monk in Jing 'an Temple Buddhist College, which is also located in Shanghai.

The courses of Jing 'an Temple Buddhist College are probably at the middle school level, English and mathematics are from the upper grades of primary school to junior high school, Chinese is at the high school level, Buddhism teaches Mahayana belief theory, Brahma Bodhisattva Sutra, Indian Buddhist history, eight outlines, eight rules ode and so on.

The mage lived in Jing 'an Temple for five semesters until 1949 joined the army. Master Feast mentioned in his autobiography "The Course of Learning and Thinking" that he chose to join the army in 1949 and finally chose the communication company. The main reasons are as stated in the book:

"At that time, the social and national situation, in addition to having the money to bring their own air tickets and boat tickets to leave the mainland, only entering the army is the easiest way to go to Taiwan Province Province. I have no believers, no savings, and no teacher's consent and funding, so I have to choose the road of joining the army after careful consideration. The officer of the conscription station explained that as long as the number of recruits is collected, they will sail to Taiwan Province Province for new army training immediately; Seeing that we are all monks, it is probably inconvenient to charge directly on the battlefield, so I suggest doing logistics work in the army. "

The photos of the feast master when he joined the army.

Life in the army is another way of life change, because the mage took the initiative to declare in the army: "I am a monk and I will be a monk in the future!" " "So, although the life of the troops is very hard, I still have room for self-cultivation during the holidays. On May 19 of that year, I got on the boat at Shanghai Bund Pier and went to Taiwan Province Province. After two days' voyage, I landed in Kaohsiung, Taiwan Province Province. Later, after a night of moving, they settled in Hsinchu. With the relocation and stationing of troops several times,1June, 1950, the taxi operator class was assigned to the headquarters of the 339th Division on the seashore in Jinshan Township, Taipei County1kloc-0/June, and lived in Jinshan, Shimen and Keelung, Xiaoji for more than two years. Later, with the reorganization of the troops and the promotion examination, he was appointed as the warrant officer of the Second Corps Command of Fengshan Town, Kaohsiung County. That was June 1954.

During this period, he published articles in the following periodicals: Learning Monks, Lions, Contemporary Youth and so on. 1953, he signed up for the correspondence school of China literature and art sponsored by Dr. Li, and took a novel course. At that time, there were six or seven famous contemporary literary writers such as Xie Bingying, Shen Ying and Zhao Youpei. However, the works created in this period only published two short stories, Mother and Father, in Literary World magazine, and were later included in Buddhist Culture and Literature published by Buddhist Cultural Service. Since Wen Bifeng was transferred to the Ministry of National Defense in the autumn of 1956, he has also started reading and publishing a lot of articles. During this period, I came into contact with Master Taixu's "Man's Success is Buddha's Success" and Master Yin Shun's "Human Buddhism", and wrote many articles on Buddhist issues one after another, which became the main theme of Buddhism and Buddhism in the future. From1May 8th, 949 to1June, 960, his military career exceeded that of a young monk, but he always thought he was a monk. After leaving the army, the feast master thought about the future and, inspired by the monk Lingyuan, decided to become a monk again. This time, he became a monk. According to the old man in the early East (A.D. 1907- 1977), he was appointed as a master of hair cutting and was given the name "wisdom, emptiness, holiness and strictness".

This early oriental old man was a student of Master Taixu and once served as the abbot of Cao Dongzong Dinghui Temple, a famous temple in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. He is also the 50th generation descendant of Dongshan Liang's family, the founder of Cao Dongzong. At the same time, the old man went to school at Tianning Temple in Linjizong, and became a monk in a temple in Putuo Mountain of Linjizong. Therefore, one person handed down two teachings of Cao Dongzong and Lin Jizong.

The feast master not only got the inheritance of two schools from the old people in the early East, but also got the dharma vein given by Lingyuan monk who inherited the dharma vein of Lin Ji School on June 5438+0978+February 5, and named it "Knowing Hard and Being Soft", and also presented a copy of the dharma vein inheritance spectrum "Star Lantern Collection", which made it have a inheritance relationship with the dharma vein of Lin Ji School in Gushan Yongquan Temple, and

In the early days of the East, the old man advocated the establishment of "human Buddhism" in order to inherit the legacy of Master Taixu, so he co-organized the monthly magazine Life with several Buddhist youths. As early as when the master of the East jumped on the old man's seat, the editor-in-chief of life asked him to resign, so the master changed from a contributor to an editor-in-chief and served for two years. 196 1 In the eighth month of the lunar calendar, Master was elected as the head of the Shami at the Haihui Temple in Ba Du, Keelung, under the seat of Nengxin Daochang (1900-1988). 196 1 autumn,1returned to China Buddhist Cultural Center in Beitou in late October, said goodbye to the old man in the early east in less than a week, and resigned from the editing work of Life. Then the mage went to the Yuan Chao Temple in Daxiong Mountain in Guang Lin, Meinong Town, Kaohsiung County to practice Buddhist scriptures and precepts. During this period, I studied Four Agama, namely Long Agama, China Han Jing, Zeng Yi Agama, and Zaagama, which laid the foundation for future subject study. During this period, the master published an article about precepts in Buddhist culture and literature:1961June, and he published "Reading the precepts of Youposai: How to become an ideal bodhisattva at home"; 1962 published "Thirty-three Methods of Reading Master Hongyi" in March. In this article, he has the following views on the Bodhisattva amulet:

"In the Wreath Sutra, it is said that it is a bodhisattva to have a ring, and it is a heresy to have no ring; Therefore, it is better to abstain from crime than to abstain from crime; A person who has received the Bodhisattva amulet and made bodhicitta will be punished even if he breaks the amulet, but because he has received the Bodhisattva amulet, he will decide to become a true Bodhisattva and even get the supreme Buddha fruit ... So I hope that you will pay more attention to your disciples and ask for the Bodhisattva amulet. "

After that, he wrote a law and discipline outline of190,000 words and handed it over to the Buddhist Cultural Service Office of Master Xingyun for distribution. The book is divided into seven chapters: introduction, conversion to the Three Treasures, Five Commandments and Ten Kindnesses, Bajie fasting, Misha Ten Commandments and Six Forks, and the Buddhist precepts of monks. This book is also reprinted and circulated. Faced with the pollution and misunderstanding of the Buddhist environment inside and outside the church, the feast master felt the bad environment and the lack of teachings, so he wrote a text to correct Buddhism. In the early days of that period, the comparison between Buddhism and Christianity was mainly conducted by Master Zhu Yun in the park, but because of Master Zhu Yun's poor health, he stopped fighting. At the same time, another elder, Master Yin Shun, was born as a Christian. After studying Buddhism for 30 years, someone came to challenge him and preach to him. Elder Yin Shun wrote two long articles: God loves the world, and then on God loving the world. Later, another article was triggered because a father Dewey integrated the Buddhist belief into the belief of the moon god.

The Comparison between Buddhism and Christianity, which Zhu Yun was still talking about in Tainan Park, was later recorded by Li Zhigang, a layman, and became the Buddhist trend of thought in the 1950 s. Later, Mr. Wu Enpu, a Christian who was then the editor-in-chief of the bimonthly Christian Life, wrote a book refuting the comparison between Buddhism and Christianity in response to Master Zhu Yun's remarks, which contained many criticisms, and this book was transferred to. After reading it, the master thought there were many biased arguments in it, so he spent ten days writing a book, Refuting Buddhism and Christianity.

Later, he successively wrote an article "Religious Belief in Hu Shi's Thought" in [[ 1959], referring to Mr. Wang's religious view; Write "Similarities and Differences between Buddhism and Christianity" in Jingfeng magazine published by China Religious Research Association in Daofeng Mountain, Hong Kong, to correct the confusion between Buddhism and Christianity, and then publish an article "Similarities and Differences between Buddhism and Christianity" to set the record straight.

During the period from 1964 to 1966, he wrote several articles and published them in Buddhist magazines such as Chaosheng, Shi Jue and Hong Kong Buddha. After 1967, they were published in the preface of a book entitled Christian Studies published by the Buddhist Cultural Service.

Because of the challenge of attacking Buddha, breaking Buddha and fighting, I became interested in studying Christianity and wrote a book as a result, so the protagonist of this book should be a Christian who attacked Buddha. In order to write this book, I have intensively read more than 50 related Chinese and western works. My attitude is to introduce the religions believed by westerners from the viewpoint of western scholars, to explain the true face of Christian content with orthodox Christian materials, and to guide some important issues between Buddhism and Christianity objectively and rationally. I don't want to promote Christianity, and I have no intention of attacking Christianity. I just calmly analyze and study, and look at Christianity from a historical perspective.

The appearance of this book received both positive and negative responses from religious circles, and Christian fundamentalists strongly criticized it. Since then, religious monographs have been published one after another: 1968 published Comparative Religion, and 1969 wrote A General History of World Buddhism. 1On March 4th, 969, the feast master left Taipei for Tokyo without any support. When I first arrived in Tokyo, I was registered in the Buddhist Department of Li Zheng University in Shinagawa District. The mage was thirty-nine years old at that time.

197 1 year, the feast master decided on his master's thesis: Mahayana Buddhism Research. The thesis is divided into three chapters: 1. The organization and content of Mahayana Buddhism; 2. The authenticity and author of Mahayana Buddhism; 3. The basic idea of Mahayana Buddhism. After the paper was finished, I invited Mr. Dai Sato Xuan from Ozawa University and Mr. Zhen Xuan from Niuchang to polish it, and sent a copy back to Taiwan Province to be published in the magazine Tide Sound. 197 1 The book was translated into Chinese on 10 in June and published by Dongchu Publishing House on 1979 in June.

During 1973, Mr. Niu Chang Zhen Xuan, a retired professor of Li Zheng University, translated Master Yin Shun's History of Zen in China into Japanese, sent it to Dazheng University, and applied for a doctorate on his behalf. Because the feast master had a close relationship with Mr. Zhen Xuan of the cattle farm at that time, he acted on his behalf. That year, Master Yin Shun's monograph passed the doctor's application of Taisho University, which also contributed to the birth of the first doctor in China. To this end, the feast master wrote the text for it-"epoch-making doctor bhikkhu".

After graduating from the master's degree, Master Feast chose Master Yan Yi as the research topic of his doctoral thesis for the following reasons:

1. Master Yan Yi was one of the four masters in the late Ming Dynasty. He is not only a scholar, but also a practitioner. The so-called corresponding interpretation is the standard principle of Buddhism.

Everyone thinks that Master Hu Yi is the last successful person of Tiantai Sect in China. I am very yearning for the idea of paying equal attention to teaching and stopping double luck advocated by Tiantai Sect. Because this is the complement of Buddhism and Zen, and it is also a spirit that Buddhism needs today.

When I chose the topic of my thesis, I asked Yukio Sakamoto, the advisor. He said: he wants to write, but there is still no news!

So, at 1972, I began to collect the papers. However, in 1973, the tutor Professor Sakamoto died, and the thesis tutor was Hiroyuki Kimura and Yao Chang Nomura. The first chapter of the thesis is about the background of Yan Yi Xu Zhi, the second chapter is about Xu Zhi's career, the third chapter is about Xu Zhi's belief and practice, the fourth chapter is about Xu Zhi's works, and the fifth chapter is about the formation and development of Xu Zhi's thought. 1975 1 month, the master submitted his doctoral thesis, which was strictly examined by Li Zheng University and passed smoothly in February 12. On the morning of March 17 of the same year, the "degree record" was awarded (that is, the doctoral degree certificate was awarded). The official publication of the paper was published in Japan on 23 October A.D.165438+/KLOC-0. At the stage when the master published his thesis, he was invited back to Taiwan to attend the "Fourth Overseas Scholars' National Construction Research Conference", during which he raised three questions:

1. Religious education should be incorporated into the university education system.

2. Social education should pay attention to the rectification of weathered areas and the guidance of underworld.

3. Pay attention to spiritual education, that is, humanities and science and technology should develop in parallel.

Although the meeting did not achieve any concrete results, in the Buddhist circles at that time, the reaction to the emergence of a doctor among monks was full of polarization after all. In addition, the mage thinks that there is not much to do at this stage, so after returning to Tokyo at the end of the session, he went to the United States to give lectures at 1975+02+00 at the invitation of American lay Shen.

The American Buddhist Association was founded by Shen, a Buddhist in America. Through this association, the mage was placed in Daixueyuan Temple in Bronx, new york, belonging to this association. The mage lived in the academy for less than two years. However, due to westerners' emphasis on reality, the promotion of Buddhism and Buddhism focuses on practicing secret methods, holding spells and learning meditation. Until now, westerners still regard Tibetan Buddhism and Japanese Zen as their mainstream when they are in contact with Buddhism and practicing Buddhism.

197765438+In February, Dong Chu, a great barber, died in Taiwan Province. When the master got the news, he immediately went back to China to take care of his affairs, and was appointed as the head of the Buddhist Cultural Center in China according to his last wish. Since then, he has been traveling in the United States and Taiwan Province Province, taking into account these two things. Later, the master established the Zen Center in new york, compiled the book "Zen Experience" for the purpose of teaching, and successively published two English periodicals, Zen Magazine (Zen Magazine Quarterly) and Zen Newsletter (Zen Newsletter Monthly). By the end of 1992, Zen magazine had been published. Since 1978, meditation activities have been held in China Buddhist Cultural Center and Beitou Nong Temple in Taiwan Province, and seven Zen books, such as Life of Zen, Smile at Flowers and Zen and Enlightenment, have been published one after another. Many people at home and abroad regard the feast master as a Zen master because he has profound views on meditation. Dharma drum mountain's 80-year-old spiritual leader feast master was admitted to National Taiwan University Hospital for treatment on June 5438+1October 5, 2009 due to recurrence of kidney disease. In order to pray for Master, dharma drum mountain disciples held a 10-day prayer meeting, and many believers came from afar to wish Master a speedy recovery.

Feast master left kidney malignant tumor, surgical resection of the left kidney, resulting in serious deterioration of renal function, anemia. He had to have his kidney washed and was once admitted to National Taiwan University Hospital for treatment. After that, I washed my kidney regularly three times a week and went back to National Taiwan University for follow-up treatment.

As early as the end of 2007, when Jet Li visited the Feast Master, Feast revealed for the first time that he had kidney disease. At that time, he said that he was "ready to die at any time", which made his followers quite disappointed. On New Year's Eve in 2008, Feast explained for the first time that his left kidney had been removed, and he refused to have a kidney transplant because he felt that his future was numbered. "Using a kidney is tantamount to wasting one, which is very unkind. It is better to give it to those in need. "

On June 5438+February 3, 20081day, Feast went to the hospital for regular check-up and was diagnosed with urinary tract-related cancer. Finally, he was hospitalized on the advice of medical staff and died at 4 pm on February 3, 2009. At the age of 78.