The Bell

It was dusk.

(The view out of the front of the monastery, notice the moon.)

I sat on a wood bench part of a circle of forty people in the court yard of a monastery with Woodenfish students and monks. The temple was located on the top of mountain above the noise and chaos of the Chinese cities which we could see below. We sat in a circle drinking green and black tea picked from the very hills around us. A sort of talent show was going on, first the monks would show off a skill, then a Woodenfish member would take a turn and try to match it. If there was any sort of competition, the monks won.

The first presentation by the monks was classical Chinese music on a historic instruments that I cannot identify. As the monk plucked the stringed instrument the notes seemed to wave over us and fit to the natural contours of the bamboo forest around us. Another monk presented a ti chi demonstration, which convinced me a human body can definitely learn to flow enormousness amounts of energy. When he struck the stone ground with his feet we could all feel it, even at a distance.

Our group did a song or two, and some dancing presentations. After there was a short Q&A with the abbot. I winced a little bit at some of the questions, luckily none of them were too bad. Not everyone on this trip has a Buddhist background -academic or practicing. Halfway through the session the monks began to ring the massive temple bell. One girl asked why the bell is rung, the abbot gave an answer related to making the sound of the dharma echoing throughout the universe.

Unsatisfied with the answer, the girl just asked the question again. The abbot sat for a moment puzzled by the question. He told the group to listen to the bell in silence for three minutes. It was probably my most favorite three minutes of the trip. We sat listening to the bell being struck, then hearing the ring slowly be absorbed into the valley bellow, then hearing the bell be struck again as soon as the noise faded beyond our ability to hear. This moment has added to my craving for a Buddhist monastic life, or something along the lines of life centered around practice. It was really great for the group, the rest of the evening flowed quite smoothly and it was entirely due to these three minutes of sitting.

When the Q&A ended it was dark, the bats fluttered overhead and the mosquitoes bit our legs. Rather than going to bed I wandered around the temple into the various shrines to observe the candle lit Buddhas. This was perhaps one of the most enjoyable evenings of my entire trip to China. Since everyone had gone to bed I was alone in all of these shrines, halls, and rooms. I think normally I would have been a little scared, it's kind of like wandering around a church at night. There was something about this experience though that was so warming. Gazing into these Buddhas among the incense and candles I could feel the pulse of samsara, a squeeze of birth and a release of death again, again, and again.

I could hear the bell even though it stopped being rung hours ago. I lied down in front of the main shrine on the cool stone and gazed at the candle lit Buddha. I tried to imagine what he saw, which is life as the way it ultimately is, and probably on a geological time scale. As Buddha stares out those temple doors out into the valley he must see cities go up and down, forest be cut and regrow, people come and go, die and be reborn.

And I, this silly "I," am obviously here for sometime more than any "I" can accomplish. 

Nuns and Friends

Venerable Yifa (pronounce her name like "e"-fa,) has been guiding the Buddhism in China Woodenfish Program for the past four years. Each year she chooses a different province in China to explore, this year of course being the general Shanghai area. We ventured quite a distance from Shanghai (about 5-6 hours by bus,) to visit loads and loads of sites. Yifa is fantastic, I really liked her. She is a Taiwanese nun from Fo Guang Shan Temple. She has spent quite a bit of time in the US, so we had a hard time surprising her. She's kind, articulate, has a sense of humor, and born leader. Below is Yifa and the Abbot during a Q&A. The photo might have been when I asked a ridiculous questions.

I showed Yifa the photo below of my brother Oliver dressed as a nun with the Ghost Busters. Yifa gazed at the photo for a few moments, probably trying to figure out what was happening,  then laughed out loud and said: "Good, the Catholics need more nuns." I beginning to think the weird things the Chinese and Taiwanese eat don't really match up to the strange things we do in the States. I suppose this was some event in Portland of running around like a nun that Oliver either organized or was a major role. I'm not really sure.

My two buddies for the week were Josh (on the left,) and Zack (on the right, plus Buddha in the middle (in the clouds,)) Josh is from the Midwest and had an awesome sense of humor. He was also very tolerant of several difficulties on the trip. Zack is from Seattle, studies at Fo Guang Shan Temple, and is fluent in Mandarin -which I totally took advantage of. Also, he studies happiness, which I've only joked about studying myself, but now the path has come into my vision (however, still horrendously blurred.) There were other fun folks who I shall mention later on. 

Kungfu

At Tiantai Mountain we went to the temple then met up with Yifa's friends. One of them was a kungfu master/unlicense chyropractor/medicine man. About a year ago Yifa took the wrong medicine (Chinese medicine) and became paralized. I'm not smashing Chinese medicine, some of it works since it's still practiced, but clearly in this situation it did not. So this Kungfu master/unlicense chyropractor/medicine man fixed Yifa in three weeks. He did a small Kungfu demonstration which unraveled quickly.

The type of kungfu this guy knows is about cultivating power and sending it to one place. It's not about quick jabs or dance around. It's quick, powerful, and minimal moves to kill -I guess. He made it clear he was 57 years old, and looked pretty healthy too.

His first demonstration was pushing Josh's two arms with his two fingers. Kind of like arm wrestling. You can guess who won.

His demonstrations continued to pushing other people. He would simply push other people without any struggle. Josh held his hips while the Kungfu guy stood virtically. He just walked into Josh, who was leaning all the way into him, and Josh slid as he walked with ease. It was pretty amazing. He was a fairly legitament Kungfu dude.

Naomi volunteered to test his stregth, they tried to come up with another test of stregth, but he was kind of doing the thing of: "Meh, just a woman." He told her to try to hit him. She got pumped up and jumped around a bit, he laughed, she did a few quick jabs and punched him in the face. He was totally caught off guard, the group gasped, he didn't seem to show any pain.  Turns out Naomi is a european karate champion.

I don't have a photo of them fighting, I was sort of/kind of cowering in the back.

They had one more round, both were quick, he was completely on the defense but lightly slapped her face then it was over. I had a hard time watching, there was some humiliation going on at both ends. Kungfu dude lite up a cigarette, then said: "I don't dance around and do quick jabs, I just pull out the heart. I cut skin like tofu." He was kind of a sore loser, but he could probably do it.

Later on he claimed he could cure illness just by waving his hand over somebody and guide the yin into balance with the yang. It was a bit out there, but then again Kungfu guy was kind of out there with this skills he showed us.

Dr. Max

It turns out I have the highest medical training in the group -Wilderness First Responder, or another way to think of it is I have half the training of an EMT. However, there are major differences, my training is based for medicine in the wilderness, so I'm trained to make do with little or no medical tools or medicine. Also, its fairly "rough" medicine. By that I mean I am trained to know what to do when peoples intestines fall out, not so much along the lines of cosmetic issues, but I still have treated some rashes.

So far on this trip I have had to bring one person to the hospital for food poisoning in combination with heat stroke. I have also treated a bunch of minor issues like skin infections, insect bites, and more heat issues. A lot of it is waiting it out, people's bodies react when brought to new environments. Later on I heard that 18 out of the group of 30 last year had diarrhea.

One of the difficulties I did not expect to deal with is the Chinese believe 100% in Chinese medicine. During the food poisoning/heat exhaustion Yifa ordered the Chinese medical treatment of pinching this guys neck until it bruised -it put him in a lot of pain. Apparently it wicked the heat out. I asked for it to stop but Yifa ordered it to continue, so they did. The pain kind of distracted him from vomiting. I told the individual that he could ask for it to stop, he didn't, so I figure it was best to let this one fly by.

We got him to the hospital and everyting was okay. I feel some pressure now being the group medic. Later on somebody passed out at a temple due to the heat, luckily there was a doctor at the temple who took care of them.

I hope nothing really bad happens, but I suppose I'm ready for it.

The Begining of Woodenfish

I am currently participating in the Woodenfish Buddhism in China program, which is exploring Han Buddhism in the Shanghai area. It's two weeks long with about two dozen students and seven staff (mostly professors, a monk, and a nun.)

The daily flow is eating at around 7:30-8:30 in the morning, getting on a tour bus, and exploring two to three temples and/or sights a day. There's a constant information being thrown at us while we attempt to overcome cultural barriers. In the evenings we typically have free time after five to go find food and occasionally the old street or night market.

Making Candy at a shop on the Old Street

We have been staying in temples and hotels, so far about a 50/50 mix. We ride the same bus everyday with the same chain smoking crazy driver. Our first guide was Johnny, I don't know his chinese name, but he was hired by Woodenfish to show us around. Every morning he would start us with a bad joke then tell us about the temple or town we were going to that day. Our second guide repeats every other word twice. She can be hard to listen to but has incredible stories, for example she was in the Red Guard.

At every temple we visit we sit down with the abbot and have a one to two hour Q&A. Since it's usually after lunch, and in an airconditioned room (a break from the 90-105F weather,) I usually fall asleep. Seriousl, I try so hard to stay awake, but it's the same story with the bus, my body just wants to recover. The heat is intense, espeacially when it's humid, it has been (luckily?) the largest problem for the group. Luckily I have been getting better at stay awake the whole day, and these interviews are really interesting. I get to ask the abbots personal questions about how they managed to get through the cultural revolution, how they meditate, what made them want to become monks... it's awesome.