pinghui. Master Zhiyi summarized the remaining utterances of the teachings of the Buddha and classified them into five time periods and eight stages. The Buddha taught for 49 years. His teachings are immeasurably deep, so that if someone studies this through the system summarized by Zhiyi, he has a chance at reaching the correct approach. That is why we consider Master Zhiyi to be so great.
But how did Master Zhiyi arrive at the thought that there was a contradiction — to put it delicately — between the original teachings of the Buddha and the confusing variegation of Buddhist literature?
pinghui. There is no contradiction. At the very beginning, the Tiantai school came into being. Later on, only the Chan school was in operation. If, however, we look at the teachings of the Tiantai after this development, then we can state that the Tiantai also employs the knowledge of Chan. We must hold Chan in great esteem, because the Chan teachings were directly contained in the original teachings of the Buddha. The situation of today is such that, according to the teachings practised by the Tiantai, Chan and the theoretical basis are mutually complementary. The Chan sect does not respect this, and acknowledges only the experience of Chan. According to their school, it is not necessary to write down anything, the sutras have no significance. Chan has not left behind any writing.
There is no point to the conversation. Various people rush about the office, the cacophony is great. All the while, however, the abbot doesn’t move, as if awaiting further questions — Stein must decide where to go from here. It occurs to him that well, they could talk about what daily life was like in this renowned monastery. Venerable Abbot, he asks, Zhiyi lived here. The monastery was built only after his death. So where did he live? In a cave? Was there some kind of building here already during the life of Zhiyi, which then became the foundation of the monastery? And in generaclass="underline" What was Zhiyi’s life like? Moreover, if it is possible to ask: How did he spend his days?
But there is no hope that this cleric of great authority will ever give a reply to anything he is asked, and it occurs to Stein that there might be some difficulty with the translation, or some misunderstanding due to the dialect. The interpreter signals that he should not worry — whatever the abbot says is being faithfully translated.
pinghui. We wake up at three-thirty. This is followed by prayers in the temple until five-thirty. Then there is breakfast, then each monk attends to his own tasks: some read sutras, some meditate, some look after the affairs of the monastery, some take care of the hall. Lunch is at ten-thirty. From one o’clock to four-thirty the same schedule is followed. Evening prayers begin at five-fifteen. After that there is reading of sutras, meditation, each according to his own preference. In the monastery we also maintain a Buddhist school where, for the most part, we teach the Tiantai doctrines as well as general Buddhist theory.
Stein attempts a kind of forced joking phrase, and interrupts, asking: So do they go to sleep today at the same time as in the time of Zhiyi? The joke elicits a very pale response, because the abbot smiles for a moment but then — as if the smile had been cut in two — that mercilessly administrative severity returns to his gaze.
pinghui. Generally, after seven. . Ah, no, excuse me that’s wrong, around eight-thirty or nine. .
Stein is thinking: What would happen if he would just overlook everything? If he would just ignore the fact that the abbot visibly does not want to talk about why they have sought him out. He speaks to the interpreter softly: Tell the abbot that he, Stein, is not interested in any of this. But ask him, and don’t let him not reply — would he take into consideration what is troubling Stein, what is oppressing him, what is making him feel that he is ruined — would the abbot listen to him then? Would he help him to solve this? Would he help him to find an answer? Would he let him into the monastery? Would he take him in here among the young monks? Is there a possibility of this? How does someone join the order here? How does it work?
pinghui. It’s possible.
Stein has no idea why he got an answer to his question this time. Emboldened, he continues, and asks: How does this work? What are the conditions? Can anyone come? He, Stein, could also stand in front of the gates, wait for three days, get drenched in the rain, not eat, then on the third day the gates will open, they will let him in, and. .
Pinghui raises his hand, silencing the interpreter.
pinghui. To begin with, there are three strict requirements: the applicant must be a believer, he cannot be involved in a court case, and we demand permission from the parents. If all this is in order, then there is a trial period of six months. We say that he can be a monk here whose ‘eyes and nose. . are in their place’.
And then, if these conditions are met and the six months are up?
pinghui. After six months we have a look, to see if all the conditions have been met — if so, we cut the novice’s hair. Then comes the shoujie,[120] then the phase of biqiu[121] for the men and biqiuni[122] for the women.
Stein is completely emboldened, because suddenly it’s as if they were really talking about something. Spurred on by a sudden idea, he says to the abbot that he has met with so many people in China, and he has always observed the forms of courtesy demanded by this country. Here, however, in this Buddhist temple, he does not consider this to be requisite. May he count on the understanding of the abbot? And may he say why he has come?
The face of Pinghui does not flinch for a second. He listens to the words of the interpreter without interrupting. He is thinking.
pinghui. Moments of prayer, when the believer stands in front of the Buddha with a pure soul, are extraordinarily important occasions. We have our festivals. For example, we commemorate the birth and death of Master Zhiyi, and every three years we have the Jiangjing festival lasting several days. Then, on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, there is the Yulan fenghui[123]. .
They have fallen back to that place where they keep falling: Stein is unexpectedly seized by an embittered audacity. He doesn’t know what has suddenly come over him but, waiting after each sentence for the interpreter to render his words into Chinese, he takes no notice of what the abbot has just said and tells him what he thinks: that since he has arrived at this monastery, there has been deep sorrow in his heart. The interpreter stares at Stein. He tells the interpreter, if he can, to translate word for word. He has been full of pain, he continues, because what is important to him, the spirit of Chinese classical culture, its beauty, its strength, has disappeared — it disappeared a long time ago. Because for years he deluded himself that there was a point to his own research here, in modern China, and that he didn’t want to acknowledge how ridiculous it was, how truly pathetic.
The question never really gets to Pinghui, at least not in the form of words, because he’s already waving down the interpreter, this time clearly in great impatience when he gets to the part of Stein’s statement which deals with classical culture. Stein is convinced that the abbot knows full well, in fact knows with dead certainty what he is saying; moreover, that he knows, even without words, what Stein wants.
pinghui. In my opinion, classical culture has not vanished at all. Once again, you can see the buildings, paintings and calligraphy, all from the classical tradition and now restored — from that I draw the conclusion that this culture is still alive. There are the traditional ceremonies as well. These too have remained, even if in a somewhat different form. In the Japanese tea ceremony, the outward forms are the most important. For the Koreans, the taste of the tea is essential as well as the ceremony. In Chinese culture, tea drinking as a tradition has remained but without the formalities. So I would express it by saying that there is no ceremony, no formalities, but there is the inner content, there is prayer.