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January, 1978
Dear Shih Fu,
Sunday, 3:45 a.m. Up for morning recitation, scramble for sweaters to keep out the morning chill. The highway's deserted and quiet, only the sound of the moon and a softly gurgling creek before we start with the Shurangama Mantra.
5:00-6:30 a.m. We write and read Sutras, fill up the kerosene lamp. Sit in meditation.
6:30-7:00 a.m. D0 T'ai Chi - slipping and sliding on eucalyptus-tree berries.
7:15 a.m. Drive to bowing site on mountain pass in Santa Lucia Mts. Cold, clear, and light wind. Sun rising over the mountains.
8:00 a.m. Four disciples from Los Angeles come out bundled up and ready to bow.
9:00 a.m. A man named Richard quietly joins the bowing procession in front of State Prison outside of San Luis Obispo. "I just saw you and felt sincerity and a bond. So I decided to join in. Is it okay?" Richard said he did a little yoga, t'ai chi and some ch'an meditation, "and this bowing looks and feels the same." He made an offering and then left about 10:00 to go back to work. He is a gardener. He's planning to come to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas this spring when he has a month vacation.
10:30 a.m. Stop bowing, transfer merit. Drive to field off freeway for meal offering.
10:45 a.m. Run out of gas (no gas gauge).
11-11:30 a.m. Meditate.
11:30-12:15 Meal offering and meal. During the meal a stranger reverently walks up and with folded hands, does a half-bow and offers a bag of fruit and long-stem red roses.
1-2:00 p.m. Kuan Yin praise, Great Compassion Mantra and Avatamsaka Sutra, translated by Heng Sure. (Tushita Heaven Chapter).
2-6:00 p.m. Bowing. On the way back to the bowing site, I am in a false-thinking Samadhi about how to get the extra food offerings to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. I spot a turtle right in the middle of the freeway, craning its neck, bewildered. By the time I woke up and thought to liberate it, we'd gone too far. Had to turn around and drive back. We got back just in time to hear and see the turtle popped and splattered by a big, pink Cadillac that ran over it. We feel the turtle's life end right in our stomachs. There is a big lesson here: "Off an inch in the beginning, off by a thousand miles in the end." Had I been according with conditions and not in one place with my body and in another with my mind, I would have been decisive and stopped the car as soon as I saw the turtle stranded in the road. Instead, my false thinking "Samadhi" about food caused me to be off by a few seconds and that made all the difference. Bodhisattvas are supposed to liberate and rescue living beings, says the Bodhisattva Precepts. Lesson: broken precepts begin with false thinking and cause disasters and suffering.
3:00 p.m. A man walks across the heavy traffic to make and offering, saying, "I never knew such a place existed in California (referring to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas). I want to help out."
4:00 p.m. A woman stops her car outside the prison gate and approaches. "Will you pleas accept this?" she asks humbly handing me her book of food stamps. "And could you in your prayers include my husband? He's in there," pointing to the prison. Bless you, God Bless you."
5:30 p.m. "Go home you bald-headed farts," from a passing car.
5:40 p.m. A man walks up to us on a narrow and tricky ledge. He almost falls but keeps coming. Handing me a money offering, he says, "When there is veneration, even a dog's tooth emits light." He turns and leaves.
6:00 p.m. We transfer merit, bow to the Triple Jewel and the Master.
6:30-7:30 p.m. Sit in Ch'an.
7:30-9:30 p.m. Recite Amitabh Sutra and praise. Translate Avatamsaka Sutra.
9:30-10:30 I do some Shao lin exercises and then do standing meditation outside to wake up and to chase out the cold.
10:30-11:15 p.m. Recite mantras and bow to the Patriarchs.
11:15-12:30 p.m. Read Vajra Bodhi Sea and sit in Ch'an.
12:30 Blow out kerosene lamp, hear a "who, who" from a solitary night-owl, and fall asleep.
Much peace in the Dharma,
Disciple Kuo T'ing
(Heng Ch'au)
bows in respect