夏日的禅悦
文／美国太谷精舍禅修班学员　传谨

　　当我初次听到太谷精舍即将举办中台朝圣之旅时，非常有兴趣。当时的第一个想法是：「我何时才会有其他机会去台湾，而且有熟悉的台湾人引导我？」很明显地，这是一个很特别的机会，所以我与同修一起报名参加了。

　　虽然对这次的旅行感到非常兴奋，当出发日期接近时，我们心中仍有一些疑虑。很明显地，我们是全团中「唯二」的非亚裔人士，加上对于未知的恐惧：新的国家、语言、风俗习惯，以及绝大多数都是不熟识的团员。怀着兴奋及焦虑交杂的心情，我们整理好行李，放开我们的心胸，全心投入这一个新的挑战。

事中见理　处处法喜

　　高雄普上精舍所举办的第一场欢迎接待会，化解了我们心中所有的疑虑。我们参访了精舍，并向法师请法，与义工菩萨们交流，受益匪浅。这样的经验，在每一个我们所参访的精舍一再地发生──大家虽然从未见过我们，却把我们当成家人般欢喜地接待。

　　旅程中参学的部分才刚开始，我们有许多正式与非正式的学习机会。正式的学习，是法师的开示；非正式的学习，则是看似单纯事物背后隐含的意义及教法。
　　我们参观了茶工厂，学习如何制作擂茶。在学制茶的过程中，太大的力道会损坏陶碗内壁的纹路，因此，我学习到练习觉照及耐心。当晚，我们住在原住民鲁凯族的村落里。次日清晨，大头目即召集大家起床清扫街道。早斋时，我帮法师赶走了一只停在碗上的苍蝇，当时法师告诉我：「不用担心，我常与其他众生分享我的食物。」这是大慈悲心吗？我还不太明白。

　　后来，我们参观了一座造纸工厂。如同制作擂茶一样，造纸也需要注意很多细节。过程中，大家看到地上有一只死去的青蛙，精舍法师立刻用两片大落叶把它盖起来。在我们的眼中，这对青蛙实在没有什么帮助，因为它已经死了。但出于慈悲心，法师自然而然地这样做了。就在那时，我突然了解了那是什么样的一种慈悲──就像是一颗赤子之心！我豁然开朗，大慈悲心就像赤子之心一样，是从一颗最纯洁的心所发出来的。

中台参学　 夏日禅悦

　　最令人兴奋的是到达中台禅寺。抵达时已是半夜，并且下着大雨。在此，我们学习到许多关于佛陀及　惟觉老和尚的故事、中台禅寺的建立过程。太谷精舍住持见颖法师开示，每一件事物都有其目的及意义，没有一件事是没有意义的存在，或只为美观及娱乐的目的而有；中台禅寺的建筑，在事相及美学上融入了目的及意义，例如佛教的护法神──四大天王雕像，不仅具有美学价值，同时也是殿堂的支柱。

　　惟觉老和尚为我们开示慈悲的理念，以及如何过一个有意义的人生。中台禅寺住持见灯和尚也强调永续的生活，慈悲、和谐等理念。他举出科学已证实的事实：畜养动物作为食物，是空气及水污染的主要来源；动物粪便排放出有毒的气体（如甲烷），也会污染临近的湖泊、河流。所以，吃素不仅是对个人有益，对环保也有帮助。

　　接近旅程终点时，我发现自己在全程中都能在每个当下完全地体会每一个经验，这种体会是在休假中也难以达到的，因为即使休假旅游，我们的妄念还是四处奔窜。朝圣之旅已经完全帮我们安排好了一切，不用去担心：「如果下雨了，我就不去海边，而改去博物馆。」或是：「会不会有很多人？」或是：「午餐有没有我喜欢吃的东西。」……因此，我们可以完全地放松，充分地享受当下。

　　我至诚地感谢所有参与规划及安排细节的相关人士──精舍法师和护法居士，以及所参访的十四家精舍上百位义工的热诚接待。我也要感谢所有团员把我们当成家人一样。事实上，我们真的像是一家人，在这两个星期当中，我们同住同行，互助互谅，共同度过了生命中这一段欢乐的时光！

(When I first heard that the Sunnyvale Zen Center was organizing a trip to Taiwan, I immediately became interested. My first thought was "When will I have a chance to go to Taiwan again? And having people who know the place well to guide me?". It was clear it was a very unique opportunity. So I convinced my wife to come along and we signed up.

　　Despite the excitement, there was also a small piece of apprehension in our minds about it too since, as the departure date approached, it became clear that we would be the only non-asian people in the group. Add to that the normal fear of the unknown: unknown country, unknown language, unknown customs and behaviors, and a mostly unknown group of people.

　　The mix of excitement and anxiety made me see this as a new challenge. A good one, but a challenge after all. Liking a good challenge as I do, we packed our bags, opened our hearts and minds and jumped in.

　　Our first Day was spent in Kaoshiung. The welcome reception broke all the ice and any reminiscence of apprehension. An entire group of volunteers and shifus from PuShang Zen Center had planned a warm welcome party and a breakfast banquet for us. Afterward, we visited PuTong and PuGao Zen Center, asked questions, talked to shifus and volunteers and had a great experience. This scene repeated itself everywhere we went -- people happy to welcome strangers whom they may never had seen before, but they treated us as family.

　　The learning part of this trip was just beginning. We had many formal and informal learning opportunities. The formal ones were lectures and teachings. The informal ones were those hidden messages behind simple things during the trip. Everything had a meaning or a lesson behind it. Here are some of the lessons learned.

　　One of the "touristic" activities we did in the Kaoshiung area was at a tea factory. We learned hands-on how to make Lei Cha (Hakka Pounded Tea). Lei Cha is a kind of green tea mixed with beans, sesame seeds, peanuts and rice. The making of it is very simple, all the ingredients need to be hand ground by rubbing a pestle against a mortar. But one can't simply do this mindlessly. It requires a special kind of grinding and mixing that involves patience and the right dose of force. If one simply applies too much force, the tea will become lumpy and with even more force, the handmade ceramic mortar might break or lose its delicate ridges. So, practicing mindfulness and patience is the hidden lesson here to master the art of making Lei Cha. This is a Hakka custom. Hakka people are Han Chinese who immigrated to Taiwan many decades ago. The word hakka means "guests", because they weren't the first people to come to Taiwan and they were so named to indicate that they're occupying the land as guests of the real locals. But many years have passed and more immigrants have now come to Taiwan, and so the hakkas are the real locals.

　　Our second night, we stayed at a Taiwan indigenous Rukai village. We participated in their celebration of the Harvest Festival and learned about their history and how they run the village. It was interesting to see that they all woke up very early the next day at the sound of their chief on loud speakers summoning them to come sweep the streets in preparation for the Harvest Festival. I'll leave this lesson for you to think about.

　　The next morning we left the Rukais after some delicious breakfast made with local vegetables from the mountain around us. That morning, someone prepared a bowl of breakfast for JianGong Shifu and asked me to watch out for flies. So I kept shooing the flies from shifu's bowl until he came. A while later, when shifu was eating his meal, I shooed a fly that had landed on his bowl, and he told me not to worry, "I always share my meals with other sentient beings", he said to me. "Great compassion", I thought to myself, not realizing yet what I was about to understand.

　　Later in the trip we stopped at a paper factory. Paper making is very simple and manual. It does not require much technology. The simple mixing of the processed pulp with water and then draining the excess water with a sieve is enough to cause the paper to form. But like making tea, making paper requires attention to details or the sheets of paper can easily get mushed together while they're still wet, and that would yield a thick block of paper instead of a thin sheet of a ream. The lesson I took from this is that simplicity is beautiful and does not mean it's easy or trivial -- it's just pure.

　　Still at the paper mill, I witnessed another very interesting scene. Someone had spotted a dead frog. It was a big brownish frog, laying on the ground, covered in flies and other insects. Immediately, JianGong Shifu took two big leaves that had fallen on the ground and used them to cover the dead frog. He also said a few words to the frog. Of course, shifu knows that covering the dead frog won't help the frog -- it's dead already. But out of compassion, that's what he figured he would do. 

　　And that's when I realized what kind of compassion that was. It was child-like. Yes, it was child-like -- that's exactly what a child would do, because children have a pure mind. So, it dawned on me: great compassion is child-like, it comes from a pure mind, like a child's mind. 

　　Arriving at the main Chung Tai Monastery in Nantuo was a great excitement. It was night time already and heavy summer rain came to greet us, which added to the mystery of that majestic place. And again, we learned a lot there. Stories of the Buddha and the Grand Master, as well as how the monastery was architected and built. JianYing Shifu explained to us that everything has a purpose and a meaning and nothing is there just casually or for pure aesthetics or entertainment. They combine form and aesthetics with purpose and meaning. Like the four-headed Heavenly King that supports the building (structure) as well as serving as the watcher of our practice (meaning) and also a beautiful attraction (form and aesthetics).

　　The Grand Master spoke to us about compassion and living a purposeful life. The abbot, Venerable JianDeng , also expounded on sustainability, compassion and harmony. He mentioned something that science has already confirmed: raising animals for meat consumption is a big source of air and water pollution. Cow and pig manure releases toxic gases like methane. Their feces can also contaminate nearby lakes and rivers, especially because this type of production happens at large scale in a concentrated place. So, being vegetarian is not only good for you individually, but for the environment too.

　　This trip also brought some unanswered questions. The multiplication of the relics, which we've seen in two different places during the trip, is something difficult for a scientist's mind to accept. But as JianYing Shifu explained, we do not need to blindly accept that. He's not asking us to believe in it at face value nor is he asking us to dismiss it completely. He's just asking us to ponder the possibility and be open to accepting that it could happen. And that's a good lesson for everything in life. Everything has another side and multiple pieces or layers of truth. It's incumbent on us to accept that other people's opinions, their beliefs and their ways of doing things is neither right nor wrong. It just is. The appropriateness of each action, behavior or thing is up to the circumstances to decide -- how they fit with the causes and conditions at any given moment.

　　Towards the end of our journey, I noticed that throughout this entire trip I was always fully present in every experience, fully enjoying the moment. Even on vacation, that's a difficult thing to accomplish usually. The mind is always jumping from place to place, even at times when we're supposed to be enjoying the moment. When I reflected about why that was, I figured out a few good reasons. I believe the main one was the planning of the trip. Everything was planned very carefully for us, so we didn't have to think about anything. We didn't have to worry what time we arrived or left any place. And we didn't have to make plans in case of rain or make reservations anywhere. Even when one is on a pre-planned vacation, not worrying about these details is hard. One will always think and worry about things like "if it rains, I'll go to the museum instead of the beach", or "will there be a big crowd there", "will they have my favorite thing for lunch", etc. But since the trip was totally taken care of for us and we had no expectations of what was going to happen next, it was easy to relax and enjoy the moment fully. 

　　And for this careful planning and great attention to the little details, I give my sincere and deepest thanks to all those involved in it: the venerable masters JianYing Shifu and JianGong Shifu, the planners Ning Fong and Anita Tsai, our group leaders Syshin Horng and Christine Tam and all the hundreds of volunteers we've encountered during this journey at the 14 monasteries we visited, who welcomed so warmly.

　　I'd also like to thank all the Sunnyvale Zen Center members who travelled with us and made sure we were part of their families. In a sense, we were very much family, as they were sharing rooms, meals, and their lives with us for two weeks.)