The world of Tzu Chi September 2020 (Vol.126)

2020 • 09 50 I n Shinra (now in Korea), there was a young man from royal household named Chin Chiao Chueh. He loved Buddhism and became a monk. Later, he thought that he could only learn Buddhism in China, so he caught a boat heading towards Anhui Province. When they were sailing near the Chinese coast, they encountered a storm that blew the boat to the shore and ran it aground. The young monk abandoned the boat and walked towards the mountains. Eventually, he came upon a beautiful plain. He decided to stay there for a while in a cave. He ended up living there for 75 years. Chin’s life was hard because he did not have much food. He only ate wild grass and fruit, and it is even said that to stay alive, he ate dirt, which was called “Avalokitesvara dirt”. (Avalokitesvara is also called Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy.) We do not know if this was true or not, but certainly his life was very tough. There was no water near his cave, and he had to go half a mile down the mountain to get a bucket of water. Having to go up and down and the mountain for water every day was very hard work. A legend goes that one morning while Chin was meditating, he was suddenly bitten on the leg by an insect. He was surprised and came out of meditation. Then he saw a black-robed woman bowing before him. The Monk on the Mountain The elder talked to the monk about enlarging his house, “The whole mountain is mine, so you can have as much space as you want.” The monk replied, “The ground covered by the shadow of this robe will be sufficient.” The elder agreed, so the monk took off his robe and threw it into the air. It was like a dark cloud blocking the sun and turning the whole mountain black, as though the mountain was covered by the robe. aster Cheng Yen Tells Stories “I’m very sorry that my son so stupidly intruded on you,” she said. “In order to show his true repentance and respect, he has changed himself into a stream of pure water at the cliff.” Then she disappeared. When he went to look, there was indeed a stream at the cliff not far from his cave. It is said that no matter how dry the weather was, the stream always flowed continuously. The monk continued his spiritual formation for many years. One day, a group of poets, looking for ideas for poems, went there to enjoy the scenery. While strolling around, they suddenly saw a broken pot on a stone before a cave. The fire under the pot had gone out. In the pot, there were only wild plants mixed with Avalokitesvara dirt. When they looked inside the cave, they saw a monk deep in meditation, so everyone waited quietly for him at the mouth of the cave. It was not until the noon hour that the monk finally came out of the cave. The poets then asked him where he came from, because he did not look Chinese. It is said that his appearance was very extraordinary: he was very tall and his forehead was rather wide. The monk said that he came from Shinra. The poets were quite embarrassed, because they lived just at the foot of the mountain, but had not realized that a monk from so far away had