After finally getting dropped off at the gate I dashed up to Rou Shen Dian where there the hall of flesh body masters of the past are kept. I wanted to bow to it. It was dark and I asked for housing at this monastery. I was told that I could pay for a hotel room that is in the hotel that is in the monastery. Something didn’t feel right and I proceeded to leave.
Upon exiting I saw a group of grandmas from Henan and asked them where they were staying for the night. They told me they were staying at the Pureland Nunnery for 10 yuan a bed a night. Sun had set, it was drizzling, and the fog had rolled in. Many of the elders were still up the monastery. I decided to head up to light their path for their way down because they didn’t have flash light to see where they were going. The grounds were dark by now, wet and slippery. I guess I was suppose to be there to light their path.
On the way out of the monastery to where we were staying I showed them the cut away that they didn’t know about. They had come from the back of the mountain from a day of pilgrimage and didn’t know their way to the nunnery in the dark and rain. I showed them the way since I had just come from the front gate and did cut through the open play ground and could make out where the fence openings were even in the fog..
Upon entering the nunnery an old nun was bowing the Ten Thousand Buddhas Repentance. She consulted me on identifying a character. I was least of all possible qualified people she could consult. But looking around I realized I was the most literate of all in the place. The characters were in standard form not the current modern simplified form the main land Chinese were raised on the last 50 years. I can tell the texts were printed in Taiwan. It was nice to see someone taking the time to bow to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Repentance.
The room was simple with beds covering the room. All the women somehow let me have a bed all to myself. Their explanation was it would be warmer for them if they curled together. I think they were just being polite. But really, I was the young one and I should be yielding to them. But for some reason they were all yielding to me as if I was the senior elderly in the room.
There was hot shower water in the nunnery. I could not believe it. I was so happy to have a place to sleep for the night in a monastery, and on top of it all, a hot shower! What a gift, all for 10 yuan.
I could see the residents of the nunnery were really intent on being disgruntle about the presence of the guests. Wanting to make sure we understood how much of a trouble we were and how much we were taxing them and that we should know better how to serve ourselves and not the other way around. Well, I can understand all of it. First of all, we really didn’t know where things were and how to get to where so we needed to be guided and ask silly simple questions repeatedly, especially from a group of grandmas who had a short memory and was hard of hearing, and moved very slowly. And if guests are too much of a hassle then guests should not have been invited in, the door should not have been open for overnight stays.
In the evening I recited while everyone else chatted in the room and watched me recite. Then I meditated with my ear plugs on for an hour and half. It was a good thing to meditate before going to bed.
