TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

[Hogo]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

Very warming news, glad to hear of your new, and overdue addition.
Safe travels to you and your family.
Gassho.

[Jundo]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

Jundo, wishing you well for your travels and for this new adventure of bringing the girl into your family and raising her!

one thing I can't get my head around - and I don't mean this in a joking way - is that if you've been waiting for her for 5 years, how come she's only 1 year old? Sorry, you may have explained this at some time, and I know absolutely nothing about adoption procedures. Had there been a girl chosen 5 years ago, and then it didn't work out? Or did you not even get that far then? Most children adopted from China (that I hear of) seem to be very young - what happens to the older orphans?

Hi Nindo,

The officials-in-charge do not designate a specific child for each couple until near the end of the adoption process. So, for most years, there was no specific child ... and she was not even born yet.

Unfortunately, there are so many children ... and the bureaucracies make it so hard.

I am not sure what happens to the older children, and they are much harder to place. Everyone wants a baby. However, I was surprised to read recently that children raised in orphanages ... if any kind of decent and stable environment ... do surprisingly well in school and later in life. A decent orphanage ... with caretakers and children one is raised with ... may be better than so many disfunctional families these days! :cry:

Gassho, J

[louis]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

Best wishes to you, Mina, Leon and baby Sada. Wonderful to hear this is coming to fruition.
That should make for a great new years card! _()_ Louis

[Jundo]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

TRAVEL DIARY I:

Hello every-One!

Just a quick note to say that I have made it to Guangzhou .... with a bit of a head cold, so taking it easy today. Yesterday, there was one last minute, nearly forgotten document for the adoption needed, so my rush to the airport began with a rush to the American Embassy in Tokyo for a last minute notarization! Always one more form! However, got it, and made it to the airport in time for the plane.

Today, my goal is to get a cell phone and visit Bodhidharma's temple! Bodhidharma did not have a cell phone or a plane, yet he made it from the West and still speaks clearly to all of us! (Ha ha). In the afternoon, I will telephone to the 6th Patriarch's temple to confirm I am coming tomorrow. They are in the mountains about 3 hours from here.

I am in Communist China, so cannot access Youtube or Justin.tv (or Blogger and many other websites) at all. So, I cannot see how the Retreat ended (it never ends), and thank all who sat sit will sit. Now, onto the Retreat with Taigu in Europe!

Gassho, Jundo (Ah Choooo ..... )

[Kaishin]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

Glad to hear you made it safely!

Fear not, the 2nd day of Rohatsu went off without a hitch. _/_

Looking forward to more updates. By the way, forgive my ignorance of Chinese culture, but given that it's a communist country, why does the government allow monasteries/Buddhist temples to operate?

Safe travels!

[Nindo]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

And how come the ancestor (fortunately!) survived the cultural revolution?
Edit: I mean the mummy ... since he was dead already :shock:

[ghop]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

Gassho, Jundo (Ah Choooo ..... )

KAZOONTITE 8)

take care

gassho
Greg

[Dokan]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

?? (yì b?i suì)!

Glad to hear you made it OK!

G

S

Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

[Kyonin]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

Glad you made it so far!

Thank you for the updates, Jundo Sensei

[Jundo]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

And how come the ancestor (fortunately!) survived the cultural revolution?
Edit: I mean the mummy ... since he was dead already :shock:

Hi Guys,

The PRC has been more tolerant of religion in the post-Mao days, so long as the religions don't make waves. In fact, they are more tolerant of the Buddhists (not including the Tibetans, for obvious reasons) perhaps than Christians (seen as a nefarious foreign influence ... the Chinese Catholic Church is not allowed to have any connection to Rome) and Taoists (often leaders of peasant revolts in centuries past). In fact, throughout Chinese history, the Buddhists were pretty much a conservative religion, supportive of the rulers. They are not trouble makers overall.

As to the 6th Patriarch's mummy ... it was much abused during the Cultural Revolution, but apparently survived enough to be restored. Red Pine's lovely China travel diary, Zen Baggage, has the story of how some local Buddhists rescued it from the Red Guards.

Rev.Huifeng at ZFI posted a link to an article on the subject of Buddhist mummification ...

Gildow, Douglas and Marcus Bingenheimer. 2002. “Buddhist Mummification in Taiwan: Two Case Studies.” Asia Major. Third Series, Volume 15, Part 2

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~dmgildow/documents/GildowDouglas2002.BuddhistMummificationTwoCases.pdf

also this

[quote]The Buddhist "mummies" appeared in China during the 4th century and during the 11th century in Japan, with the exception of the corpse of the monk Kukai, founder of Shingon [in Japan], the esoteric school of Buddhism at the 9th century. The monk Kukai (posthumous name Kobo Daishi) is the most famous case. He would have entered in samadhi, at the end of his life, at the Koya mountain in the south of Osaka (Japan) at the beginning of the 9th century. His is the legendary model which the monk-ascetics of the Edo period were to follow from the 12th til19th century whose mummies were found in the North of Japan. The Japanese tradition reports that Kukai, at the time to of his death, announced to his disciples that he was going to enter Samadhi to leave there only at the time of the coming of the future Buddha Maitreya. At the end 49 days (7 times 7), his disciples opened the sarcophagus and noted that he was "as if living sat in meditation"; 70 years later, another eminent monk went up on imperial order to the top of MT Koya to open the mausoleum once again and found the body intact. He left after having cut the hair of Kukai (which had continued to grow) and having changed his clothes. The door of the mausoleum was not reopened except every fifty years by the Archbishop of Koya san to cut the nails and the hair and to change his clothes for him which will then be used to manufacture amulets for the faithful. ...

The Tetsumonkai saint ascetics of the Chuzen temple, Chûkai of the Dainichibô temple, those of the Kaikoji temple or the 18 others, all chose this self-mummification at the end of their life, to give to the world the merits acquired during the course of their life because the population suffered from epidemics. The monk Chukai began his life of asceticism by offering his left eye to the god-dragon to benefit Tokyo which suffered at the time from an epidemic of pox. His altruistic gesture reproduced that of the future Sakyamuni Buddha which in one his former lives, offered his life to the tiger so that it could have milk in sufficiency to be able to nurse its young. During the feudal times, the epidemics were thought to be the manifestation of demons. It seems that the belief in the continuity of the supernatural capacities of the Saints remains even beyond death, through the relics. There is thus a survival of the Saints beyond death itself. I make a point of specifying that the presence of only one relic is equivalent to the presence of an alive Buddha in flesh and bone! Not only do the relics have all the capacities of the late one, but they connect the world of the living to the invisible world.

http://members.shaw.ca/shugendo/mummies.html

Gassho, J

[Jundo]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

TRAVEL DIARY II:

Today was off to a good start, as I was able to get around town and pick up a cheap disposable cell phone. I was pretty content, as the folks I bought it from did not speak a lick of English, and I had to make my way with incredibly broken Mandarin. The conversation on my part went something like ...

I want phone. Small money phone. I China 4 weeks, (makes throw away in trash gesture), no want good phone. Bad ugly old phone is okay. I want phone to call Beijing. Oh, cheap phone number contains unlucky number? I okay unlucky cheap number! Can I call Beiing this phone? Yes!? Oh I very happy! Oh happy happy phone!

It is amazing what one can do with a vocabulary of 20 words! They gave me discount for making them laugh so hard! My only other purchases of the day were a Chinese Inkin and a mallot for our Mokugyo, both Buddhist musical instruments ...

http://terebess.hu/zen/szoto/hangszersz.html

Oh, happy happy Inkin!

Then, I wandered over to Guangxiao temple, said to be have been visited by Bodhidharma, and home to a tree (of the same kind as the 'Bodhi' Tree in India under which Buddha sat for enlightenment) where the 6th ancestor was said to have been Ordained. Next to it is a Pagoda said to contain hairs from the 6th Ancestors head!



Then, speaking to a kindly monk, I was invited to join into a HUGE ceremony in which monks and lay folks would circumnamulate the temple singing (more than chanting) the name of Amida Buddha! (In China, Chan and Amida Buddhism have been largely mixed all together for centuries.). The ceremony looked something like this ...

pic_authentic01007.jpg

Male priests walked in front, then nuns, then male lay folk then women lay folk. I was back with the women lay folk (most Chinese priests don't know where to place Japanese priests .... married and with kids ... and consider them lay people for that reason. No problem by me! Being a barbarian who barged into their ceremony unannounced because of the kind priest, I had no Kesa and no interest in raising the issue, I don't believe in the walls between male-female-lay-ordained anyway, and I think the back of the Buddhist bus is best!!).

The whole atmosphere of the temple, like most Chinese temples, is devotional to Amida and the other Buddhas (and Kannon) ... as devotional as a Catholic Church toward Jesus and Mary on Sunday. Hundreds of worshiper filled the temple (yes, there seems to be quite a Buddhist revival in China) lighting incense ...



...before the Golden Buddha statues.



Are we making a mistake in the West of stepping away from that devotional aspect of Asian Buddhism?

Tomorrow, a three hour bus ride to the Temple of the 6th Ancestor, in the mountains north of here. I will be spending a couple of days in their visitors' house.

Likely no internet there, so I will be out of touch till Friday.

Gassho, J

[Nenka]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

[The conversation on my part went something like ...

I want phone. Small money phone. I China 4 weeks, (makes throw away in trash gesture), no want good phone. Bad ugly old phone is okay. I want phone to call Beijing. Oh, cheap phone number contains unlucky number? I okay unlucky cheap number! Can I call Beiing this phone? Yes!? Oh I very happy! Oh happy happy phone!

It is amazing what one can do with a vocabulary of 20 words! They gave me discount for making them laugh so hard!

Oh, that's brilliant! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Jen

[Hoyu]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

Hahaha :lol:
Your Chinese sounds a lot like my Japanese. Or I should say, my happy happy Japanese :wink: :lol:!

Jundo wrote:
I don't believe in the walls between male-female-lay-ordained anyway, and I think the back of the Buddhist bus is best!!).

_/_

[Geika]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

In response to the purpose of your trip, Jundo, I say:

"YAY!"

...Or, "Happy, happy new baby!"

I want phone. Small money phone. I China 4 weeks, (makes throw away in trash gesture), no want good phone. Bad ugly old phone is okay. I want phone to call Beijing. Oh, cheap phone number contains unlucky number? I okay unlucky cheap number! Can I call Beiing this phone? Yes!? Oh I very happy! Oh happy happy phone!

_/_ :mrgreen:

[anista]

Re: TRAVEL DIARY: Jundo Goes To China

Hello Jundo,

Very nice to hear about your trip! It sounds marvelous, especially considering what will come out of it (with the adoption)!

I hope it's not too disrespectful to ponder about some of the things you said?

Then, speaking to a kindly monk, I was invited to join into a HUGE ceremony in which monks and lay folks would circumnamulate the temple singing (more than chanting) the name of Amida Buddha! (In China, Chan and Amida Buddhism have been largely mixed all together for centuries.).

The reason chan methods and pure land methods have been mixed together is because they are just that - methods. They are not separate "schools" as in Japan, even if they can be called schools. It's not as clear cut. When you say "Amida Buddhism" it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking about the Japanese schools, which are definitely not the same as the Chinese practices you see going on there. Well, obviously you know this, but there may be people here not knowing this. So, FWIW.

Male priests walked in front, then nuns, then male lay folk then women lay folk. I was back with the women lay folk (most Chinese priests don't know where to place Japanese priests .... married and with kids ... and consider them lay people for that reason. No problem by me! Being a barbarian who barged into their ceremony unannounced because of the kind priest, I had no Kesa and no interest in raising the issue, I don't believe in the walls between male-female-lay-ordained anyway, and I think the back of the Buddhist bus is best!!).

I think this is because married people with kids, like you and me, *are* lay people in Buddhist terminology. Even if you are a teacher, you are still a lay teacher. That has always been my understanding. This is a lay samgha, but that doesn't mean it is worth less. I wouldn't be here if I thought that. Please, correct me if I have misunderstood this entirely!

It's not just the Chinese that see it this way, by the way, it's the mainstream thought of almost all Buddhist schools (except the Japanese). I am curious though, why would you see this as an issue? Well, obviously, if you *don't* see yourself as a lay teacher, this is an issue, but since I was under the impression that you are ... well, needless to say, I am a bit confused! The reason for my confusion could be stemming from the fact that I'm practicing with both Japanese and Chinese "schools".

The whole atmosphere of the temple, like most Chinese temples, is devotional to Amida and the other Buddhas (and Kannon) ... as devotional as a Catholic Church toward Jesus and Mary on Sunday. Hundreds of worshiper filled the temple (yes, there seems to be quite a Buddhist revival in China) lighting incense ...

Are we making a mistake in the West of stepping away from that devotional aspect of Asian Buddhism?

I do not think "devotional" and "worship" is the right word here. Pure land methods have faith at its core, but it cannot be likened to that of the Catholic church. It is an entirely different concept. Chanting amituofo can be, and is, considered as one meditation method. It's right concentration and right action all in one! As you know, I practice pure land methods as well, so this is an important question for me, and not in any way meant as criticism. I cannot stress this enough.

But yes, perhaps we are making a mistake in the west by neglecting the other side of the no-sided coin.

Respectfully,

anista (who wishes you a pleasant and rewarding trip!)

_/_