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Saturday, May 14
Dear Shih Fu,
We continue to bow about one and a half miles a day, averaging five hours of bowing and one and a half hours of 20-minute rest periods in between each hour. We rise at 4:00 for morning recitation and finish by 6:00 PM to wash up and recite evening recitation as always. These days also includes a t’ai chi ch’uan lesson from Kuo T’ing (Heng Ch’au) in the morning and a short reading and translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra at night before we recite the first lines of the Shurangama Mantra 49 times and then pass out. We are living in one of the upasaka’s old Falcon van, sleeping out on the streets of L.A. and washing in the park. Our lunch comes from several Dharma protecting upasikas. The upasakas and upasikas are watching over us with some care. They are really working to make our trip go smoothly--getting letters from the police giving us coins for parking meters, etc. The other morning when it rained we bowed in one of their garages and ate lunch there. It seemed like a cave in the heavens and then when we descended down into Lincoln Heights, a tough Chicano ghetto, it seemed like we were talking through the hells. Bhikshus must be the freest men on earth or in any world to be able to know both heaven and hell and not be bound to either realm.
May 18, 8:00 AM
Dear Shih Fu Shang Ren,
We appreciate the wonderful weather that the dragons are sending Los Angeles. It’s not too hot and not too cold.
We are very tired in body, but very happy in mind. Every joint, muscle, and limb is speaking its own pain dharma but this will gradually disappear as the work progresses and our bodies adjust. We fall asleep every night after mantra, totally exhausted but the next morning wakes up at 4:00 feeling energized and ready to work again. We have increased the bowing time gradually each day: yesterday was six and three quarters hours. The problem in the city is trying to find a parking place for our Bodhimanda/Van and then walking back to the bowing site. It really eats up the rest periods.
Although we are tired, it helps keep us mindful. It is a small problem and it feels good to be working.
Yesterday we received lunch offerings from the L.A. lay disciples and each time it is a humbling experience. We have no merit and virtue of our won. We are simply borrowing the Venerable Abbot’s merit to receive the treatment we get. Truly if it were not for the faith these lay people have in the Venerable Abbot, this trip would be impossible. We would have starved already, or been robbed and eaten each night we stop to rest.
By returning the light this way it makes clear the responsibility for us to be left-home people at all times--to learn how to behave correctly with lay people, with other left-home people, with Americans, with all people. It is time for us to learn how to stand up for Buddhism on our own, to take responsibility for the teaching we have received and to do it correctly.
Proper conduct is hard work, just as hard as bowing and we are happy for the chance to learn it.
Disciples Heng Sure & Heng Ch’au
Bow in Respect