In the long evolution course of human civilization, ancestors never stopped their inner world of exploration and sitting in meditation is the exact one of many ways. The practice of sitting in meditation originated from ancient culture and religious traditions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and even all classes of authors as well as Judaism, Catholicism, Orthodox Eastern Church, Mohammedanism, and Christianism in the West all have the tradition of siting in meditation.
The destiny of human beings in the future to a great extent depends on nature rather than human beings themselves. Thus solving the environmental crisis from the root, we must change the opposite attitude of nature and man, correct this point of view focusing on human beings, settle a holistic view of the unity of man and nature, and establish a harmonious coexistence relationship between man and nature.
(13) In everyday life, people would usually adhere to the principle of “concentrating on prudently dealing with affairs that are of primary importance and at the same time leaving matters of secondary importance to run their own courses”. In pursuing self-cultivation, a practitioner of Buddhist Chan must also adhere to such a principle. By “leaving matters of secondary importance to run their own course” is actually meant that leaving matters of secondary importance utterly out of a practitioner’s mind. A practitioner should rip from his consciousness such trivial concerns in his everyday life as “whether my gains are being pilfered”, “whether my ‘infallibility’ is crushed”, “whether my fond idea is flouted”, etc. By “concentrating on prudently dealing with affairs that are of primary importance” is meant—for a Buddhist-Chan practitioner—that the question of incessant rebirth is a momentous one. Moreover a practitioner needs to concentrate on striving to fully understand what the essence of mind is, so that he can free himself from the bitter sea of life and death until he attains Buddhahood. We fervently admire the hierarchs in the history of the Buddhist Chan Order. What distinguishes them from the rank and file of the order consists in both the hierarchs’ penetrating insight into the problem of incessant rebirth and their irreversible transcendence over all mundanities of the worldly life.(Form My Heart My Buddha)
(11) By studying Buddhist canon attentively and by regularly checking both on the levels, evinced at different stages of our comprehension, of essence of Buddhist canon and on the degrees, evinced at different stages, of our fidelity to our commitment to practicing Buddhist canon, we would be able to perceive readily that the initiation of the practice of almsgiving and donation (dana) was originally intended as dharma-gate for promoting a Buddhist-Chan practitioner’s self-cultivation in compliance with the Chan tenets. Throughout the entire stage of self-cultivation aimed at gaining access to the path of Bodhisattva through a process of self-exertion at attaining the six paramitas (six perfections), “practicing almsgiving and donation” is, as a rule, not only enforced as the first path of all “the sagely paths” to be adhered to by a Buddhist-Chan practitioner, but also employed as the primary countermeasure against “greed” which is also termed as “the delusion that mistakes an imaginary ego for a real ego” or as “the delusion that mistakes nonentity for real entity” and deemed as the most noisome of all the five destructive passions. Practicing almsgiving and donation is not an objective in itself and serves merely as a means, through which a Buddhist-Chan practitioner can purify his mind and correctly orientate his line of conduct. That is why in Buddhist canon the practice of giving away alms and donating is rated as the path of Bodhisattva. However when one would assume that significance of the act of giving away alms and donation consists merely in enabling an almsgiver or donator to elicit pleasure or imbibe a sense of gratification or peace of mind from his generosity, such an assumption must be regarded as a manifestation of terrestrial practicality.
He is Maitreya Bodhisatta. According to Buddhist prediction, long after the extinction of the teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha in the far future, Maitreya Bodhisatta would become the Buddha and preach in the world. For this reason, he has been held in universal esteem as well. In Chinese history, there were instances in which peasants were called to rebel under the pretext that Maitreya was born, for example, the Maitreya Cult of the Yuan Dynasty. As to the statue of the smiling monk, however, it is not the true image of Maitreya, but the image of a monk named Qici of the Five Dynasties. He usually carried a bag made of a piece of cloth on his shoulder, so he was known as the Cloth-bag Monk. He was said to be an embodiment of Maitreya. That is why later people chose his form to be enshrined as Martreya. Some believe that this tradition may have developed under the influence of the Maitreya Cult, which originated in Fenghua, Zhejiang Province, since this area was the home town of the Cloth-bag Monk. It is logical to infer that the image of the Cloth-bag Monk spread under the influence of the Maitreya Cult.
The Wutai Mountains as the preaching place of Manjusri was recorded in Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, so in ancient times, it was worshipped by quite a few eminent monks from India and central Asia. There was even an old legend in Nepal saying that the Kathmandu Valley (where the capital of Nepal is located) used to be a large lake. It was Manjusri, after he arrived there from the Wutai Mountains, China, who cleaved apart a mountain, drained off the lake water, and settled down with his followers, thus founding the State of Nepal. That is why the Nepalese people hold Manjusri and the Wutai Mountains in particular affection. As to how the Putuo Mountains became the preaching place of Avalokitesvara and how the Jiuhua Mountains became that of Ksitigarbha, they are said to be related with the Buddhist monks from Japan and Korea.
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