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Oct. 1 & Oct. 2, 2008

Local School Students Visit CDR

While Buddhism is the dominant religion in Asia, most Americans go to church and pray to God or Jesus or Mother Mary. They may have heard about Buddhism but not really know what it is. Looking back in time, 100 years ago the English word Buddha probably didn't show up in a dictionary yet. In the past 40, 50 years there has been tremendous amount of commercial trades between the East and the West, and along with that, cultural exchanges. The West has come to learn about spirituality from the East; and the East has come to learn about science and technology from the West. Nowadays in most American high schools you can find a social-study class or a comparative-religions-study class that will have a few pages in their textbooks describing Buddhism. It is in this present-day climate of religious openness that we've come to meet Mr. Chris Symkowick-Rose, a religion teacher at the Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento. He teaches comparative religions to his students. Each year he arranges field trips for his students to visit religious establishments other than Christianity. And this year he brings his students to visit CDR on Oct. 1st and 2nd. The Dharma Masters had prepared a program for them: first a tour of CDR, then to the VIP room for a talk and discussion about the Buddhist practices here. They came a little after noon. When everybody had assembled together, we brought them to the Buddha Hall directly on the first day. On the second day we took them to see the newly planted bodhi trees in the parking lot first. Dharma Master Shi told the group about Buddha sitting under a bodhi tree and achieved enlightenment over 2,500 years ago. The bodhi trees here, small though they are, were propagated from branches of that original bodhi tree in India. Getting into the Buddha Hall, the visiting students found a few nuns bowing and chanting the Great Compassion Repentance Sutra. The students were given a copy of the sutra so they can recite along. As was the custom, the boys and girls are separated, one group on each side of the Hall. They kneeled down facing the Buddha. Some watched the nuns performing the ceremony: standing, chanting the sutra, kneeling down, standing, chanting, and kneeling down... Some read the sutra booklet silently; some chanted along. After staying in the Buddha Hall a few minutes, they were taken next into the Library to see the collection of Buddhist books, Chinese classics, and sutras, which were mostly written in Chinese. A sutra is a book of the Buddha's Teaching in Buddha's own words, recorded by his disciple Anada. These books were originally written in Sanskrit; and by super-humanly efforts of the Dharma Masters of the past they were brought to China from India and translated into Chinese, To preserve these Buddha's teachings, also called dharma, from generation to generation is not at all an easy task, because history is full of catastrophic events: natural disasters or wars. Even as minor as personal strife or carelessness can seriously damage the continuation of the sutras. Impermanence is the law of this world. Time is a river that washes away what don't last. The sutra books here in the library are one of the triple jewels in Buddhism, which are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. What's more, the original sutras were written hundreds and thousands of years ago. The classical language back then was very hard to understand to people nowadays. By the grace of one of the Venerable Master Hsuan Hwa life-long ambitions, many of these sutras had been first translated into contemporary Chinese language, and then translated into English, Vietnamese, Spanish, and other languages. It is a fortune indeed to be able to find and read and understand the sutra. Next the students were led into the Patriarchal Room. Here they see a picture of the Venerable Master Hsuan Hwa, the founder of CDR, and a picture of Dharma Master Hsu Yun, who was the patriarch transmitting the proper dharma to Venerable Master Hsuan Hwa and made him the next patriarch. Dharma Master Gwei told us that Master Hsu Yun became a monk at the age of 19 and lived until 120. He lived a left-home, monk's life for over a century! Dharma Master Hsu Yun himself received dharma transmission from a previous patriarch. The lineage can be traced back to Bodhidharma and the Buddha. Bodhidharma came from India to China and founded the Zen Buddhism there. This Zen Buddhism later propagated to Japan and became one of the main religions there. In CDR's Patriarchal Room the students saw a wooden statue and an ink brush portrait painting of Bodhidharma. On the right side of the Bodhidharam statue is a wooden fish, and on the left side a brass sounding bowl. The sounding bowl belonged to Venerable Master Hsuan Hwa. Dharma Master Shi demonstrated its usage by gently striking it with a wooden stick. It emitted a very clear and ringing tone that lasted a surprisingly long time, perhaps 15 seconds. One student mentioned that she saw another sounding bowl like this one, but extra large, in the Buddha Hall. Dharma Master Shi replied that that one is used to signal the sangha the beginning of a dharma assembly. A sounding bowl is used along with a wooden fish during sutra recitation. Dharma Master Shi explained that the wooden fish is a percussion instrument that provided a steady beat and rhythm to the chanting. It's made of wood, with ornate carving on the surface that's meant to look like a fish symbolically. The fish symbol came from the fact that a fish did not close its eyes to sleep, thus reminding us to tirelessly cultivate ourselves in the Buddhist practice. Dharma Master Shi used another wooden stick, with a big round head, to strike the wooden fish. The sound was crispy low and brief, just the opposite of the sounding bowl. Mr. Chris Symkowick-Rose liked to tell his students that he had brought his 3-year-old daughter along with him during a previous visit to CDR. They were walking around looking at the Buddha Hall, the library. Suddenly his daughter just stopped in front of the Patriarchal Room; and then she walked in and bowed to the patriarchs all by herself. Did she see the nuns bowing in the Buddha Hall and copied what they did? Or did she just feel a natural affinity to the patriarchs and did it for no logical reason? It was amazing to Mr. Symkowick-Rose that she did so. Adjoining the Dining Hall there was a large room. It used to be a pub before this property was sold to CDR; now it's lined with bookshelves for storing a set of sutras that was printed during the Chinese Ching Dynasty 2 or 300 years ago. All the bookshelves had glass doors to protect these precious books. Students came into this spacious place after crowding the Patriarchal Room and they could move around a bit more freely. Some of them were wondering about the several Buddha statues placed this room. They were antiques, Dharma Master Gwei said. All but one was in a sitting position; the one exception was in a crouching position, and that one is showing Buddha just before he reached nirvana. Having seen all these places, everybody then moved into the VIP room where ice water was served because the day the day was hot outside. On the tables in front of the seated students were booklets, titled: "Cherish Your Body," "Meditation Handbook," "Ten Thousand Buddhas City Accomplishes Ten Thousand Buddhas," "The Light of Hope," and others. They were gifts for the students to take. They started to flip through the pages and read what's inside. On the first day of the visit, during this time Dharma Master Gwei and Shi described what the daily life was like for the nuns. Waking up at 3:30 a.m. in the morning (maybe someone was just going to bed then?), the nuns had morning recitation, sitting meditation, precept lesson, physical exercise, community work, till 11 a.m. when they had the only meal of the day, then another sutra chanting, afternoon community work, evening sutra chanting, free study time, and lights off at 10:30 p.m. Although the daily schedule was the same, there are often variations from day to day, because although the monastic life was simple here, it was also dynamic. They also explained about the precept marks (the incense burnt marks on the head), and the precept sash (the piece of cloth they wear everyday). The students, having learned that the nuns had more than 300 precepts (rules) to follow, responded and asked how they decided to become Buddhist nuns? Both Dharma Masters Gwei and Shi were born in Buddhist families; but they didn't think of becoming a Buddhist when they were young. As grown-ups they gained experiences and came to understand what's really important to them in life; and they chose the Buddhist path by following the Venerable Master Hsuan Hwa. The room got a little quiet by now, so Dharma Master Shi suggested everybody to try a brief sitting meditation, since the students probably had not experience this kind of exercise before. Dharma Master Gwei explained the body posture, the half-opened eyes, and the crossing of the legs. We meditated quietly for a few minutes. Amazingly some students could already sit in half-lotus position, or even full-lotus position. Now the students were asked to say what their impressions were during this visit. Some said that they didn't know what to expect before the visit, but noticed the peace and tranquility here once they stepped inside of CDR. Some said the objects or paintings they saw were cool. Some were impressed by the openness the Dharma Masters showed in receiving them. And the visit concluded there. On the second day of the visit, the students were a different group from Mr. Symkowick-Rose's classes. A number of the male students were very big and tall, athletic-built, and many of them showed restlessness. As the first day, they had a full tour of the Buddha Hall, the library, the Patriarchal Room, the antique sutra room, and came finally to the VIP room for a talk about of the Buddhist monastic life. Again Dharma Master Gwei and Shi described the daily schedule here and how they became Bhikkhunis (Buddhist nuns). On this day, however, Dharma Master Shi showed a museum-quality incense holder, and the spiral incense inside to the students. It looked so high class, made from the best material and craftsmanship, that it drew attention of many people when it was passed around. Some students were talking or moving about, showing that it was difficult for them to sit quietly or be still. So instead of a meditation, Dharma Master Shi talked about what a mantra was and she taught two mantras to the students. The first one was "Patient, patient, got to be patient; Never get angry; Sa Po He." and the second one was "Om, ma ni pad mi hong; Om ma ni pad mi hong." We all chanted these two mantras several times. Amazingly, this football-player-like student, who's so big and restless, was impressed by the "patient" mantra that he said he wanted to practice chanting it again, though not in front of everybody. Another girl student also said the "patient" mantra moved her because something happened in her family that reminded her the importance of patience. So concluded the second day of the visit from Mr. Chris Symkowick-Rose and his students. Before leaving, Dharma Master Shi asked them to come to the Honoring Elders Day to help. Maybe CDR could even set up a meditation session for those students who might be interested in exploring this aspect of spirituality. Chris thanks the help of many people who made the visit possible. And CDR is glad to reach out to let the students have some experience with Buddhism.