Buddhist Koan- Elder Monk Xu Yun Tamed General Genyuan Li Who Wanted to Demolish Temple and Destroy Buddhism
By Zhengjian Li
General Li Genyuan was the commander of
the Yunnan New Army at that time. He had studied overseas in Germany
before returning to China and was a young and energetic general. He
regarded himself a strong believer of science and perceived Buddhism as
superstition. He wanted very much to have Buddhism removed. Because of
that, he came up with the excuse that there were tens of thousands of
monks in Mount Jizhu and they might organize armed resistance.
Therefore, he personally led his troops to Mount Jizhu. On their way,
the several thousands of officers and soldiers were demolishing temples
and arresting monks.
When Elder Monk Xu Yun, abbot of Zhu
Sheng Temple in Mount Jizhu, heard about this, he decided to come down
from the mountain in person to persuade Li Genyuan to stop. When Li
Genyuan saw this thin yet spirited elder monk who had his long beard
hanging down, noticing Xu Yun’s uncommon grace and peaceful and calm
manner, he was spontaneously startled, “Oh! This is Xu Yun. He does have
a little uncommon demeanor!”
Li Genyuan harshly shouted, “I want
to catch you. Now you even dare send yourself to me! Maybe you label
yourself as not fearing death. Let me ask you, how many lives do you
have?”
Xu Yun kept his head up and replied
calmly, “Great Commander, I, Xu Yun, have only one life. Also, I am not
any hero or brave man who does not fear death. I am just a monastic
person. Today, I do not shy away from your killing weapons and risk my
death to meet you, Great Commander. My purpose is to beseech an order
from you, Great Commander, to save Buddhism. I ask you, Great Commander,
to immediately stop demolishing temples and destroying Buddhism.”
“Are you really not afraid of death?” Li Genyuan had a cold smile.
Xu Yun did not have the slightest
fear on his face and smiled gently and calmly, “I, Xu Yun, have made up
my determination to die for Buddhism long ago. If, before my death, you,
Great Commander, can give me an opportunity to state my cause clearly
and stop doing damages to Buddhism in the future, I am willing to die.”
Li Genyuan spoke coldly, “You answer
me first. You kept saying wanting to die for Buddhism and tell me not
to destroy Buddhism. Let me ask you. What benefit does Buddhism have?”
Xu Yun replied with a smile, “The
Buddha established Buddhism to advocate great love and great compassion,
serve the world and benefit the population, and broadly save living
beings from suffering and hardship. Buddhism persuade and transform
people in the world to do goodness and remove evil, cultivate conduct
and virtue, and save oneself as well as others. Buddhism first teaches
people to cure their minds. The mind is the source and origin of all
afflictions. Once the origin is correct, all things can be in serenity
and peace will be everywhere. The world will be calm and peaceful.”
Li Genyuan’s face turned a little
milder, “I admit that you have good eloquence of debate. However, what
is the use of these statues sculpted with mud and carved from wood?
These statues lead people into superstition for nothing!”
Xu Yun stated calmly, solemnly, and
respectfully, “The Buddha spoke about the appearance of Buddha-dharma.
The appearance is to express the dharma. Not expressing with appearance,
the dharma cannot be publicized. The Buddha statues made of sculptures
are to symbolize the Buddha’s solemn elegance and loving compassion, to
let people generate homage, confidence, and respectful fear from
viewing. Without respectful fear in mind, people will do all kinds of
malicious acts, thereby creating calamities and upheavals. Even if we
just talk about customs in the world, examples are Confucius’ statue in
his temple at Mount Ni, an ancient person named Ding Lan carved wood
statues of his parents to repent for not being filial enough earlier,
worshipping ancestors in ancestral temples by all clans in China, and
bronze statues seen in all Western countries. All are for the purpose of
letting people view and generate respect and faith. Buddha statues are
sculpted with mud and carved from wood. However, what we respect and pay
homage to are not the materials of earth and wood. Rather, we respect
and pay homage to the symbolized Buddhas and Bodhisattvas with great
love and great compassion. As a result, thoughts of all kinds can
develop in the mind to induce us to save ourselves and save others. The
enthusiasm of respect and faith arises from seeing Buddha statues. The
merit and effect are inconceivable!”
Li Genyuan nodded, “It does sound
reasonable, hearing what you said. However, my mind does not submit to
that. You monks talk about cause and effect and talk about samsara
(transmigration). These superstitious views and concepts are elusive
without bases in science. I studied science and military in the West. I
despise these old superstitions the most. That is why I am determined to
uproot them. I would like to hear how you can skillfully argue about
that.”
Xu Yun smiled, “First, I need to
explain what superstition is. The so-called superstition refers to
blindly following and obeying without clearly understanding the truth
and knowing the ultimate reason and, moreover, without distinguishing
good or bad and upright from evil. Examples are, killing people to
sacrifice for evil deities, slaughtering cattle, sheep, chicken, duck,
or other lives to worship ghosts and gods, presenting gold and silver to
bribe and beg ghosts and gods for blessing wealth, engaging in sexual
misconduct to please demonic ghosts and demonic deities, using ghosts
and deities as excuses to raise money with selfish purposes, mocking
ghosts and deities to carry out despicably intolerable malicious conduct
or direct people to do things violating loyalty, trust, and
benevolence, teaching people to steal, rape, and kill, teaching people
to commit fraud and extortion, and encouraging cruelty and disorder. All
acts of these types belong to superstition! If a faith teaches people
with loyalty, filial act, benevolence, and love, advocates faith, trust,
and peace, praise and spread etiquette, firmly cultivate humility,
promote great love and great compassion of Buddhism, broadly save living
beings to leave suffering and hardship to arrive at bliss and peace,
teach people in the world to help and support each other with loving
compassion, use loving compassion, benevolence, and virtue to teach and
transform the world, pursue goodness and break away from malicious
deeds, and take refuge in correct teaching and abandon evil dogmas, how
can superstition come from such correct faith and correct wisdom?”
Li Genyuan quietly listened and the
cruel and offending expression on his face gradually disappeared. He
said, “Elder Monk, these statements are truly reasonable! However, you
did not explain cause and effect and samsara clearly. These do not agree
with science!”
Xu Yun said, “The so-called science
is the accumulation and investigation of the wisdom and knowledge of
humanity. The approach is inheriting from the past and developing the
future, knowing the past to probe the future, and using what is known to
investigate and validate the unknown. The learning from such
investigation and validation never stops or stays at the same place.
People must quest and probe incessantly. Only that is the true spirit of
science! The scientific knowledge at the current time is of course
greatly advanced from that of the ancient and middle ages. However, does
that mean there is nothing unknown already? Does that mean we have
completely understood all subtleties and secrets of the universe?”
Li Genyuan said, “Of course we have not been able to do that yet.”
Xu Yun smiled, “Sutras of Buddhism
already studied the genuine knowledge exhaustively several thousand
years ago. It has been known that the universe never ends through all
lifetimes. Matters in existence will annihilate and will be reborn after
annihilation, in different shape and state. It is just a process of
transforming between different form bodies. On the other hand, only in
the current era, Western scientists stated the law of matter’s
conservation. Buddhist sutras stated the world’s continuity and living
beings’ continuity long ago. These agree completely with the law of
physics of the universe. Why do you say the concept of samsara is not
scientific?”
Li Genyuan asked, “What do these have to do with samsara and cause and effect?”
Xu Yun said, “The law of cause and
effect is the law and principle governing the cycle of the universe! All
things must first have the causes of birth and annihilation and then
have the consequences. This is the cycle from the law of cause and
effect! All sentient beings have wisdom and power of consciousness.
After the death of the physical body, the power of consciousness still
exists, which is the soul that worldly people talk about. A person who
cultivates, practices, and carries out good conduct has a concentrated
mind and calmed spirit and knows to go toward goodness and avoid
calamity by instinct. Focusing the mind to chant Amitabha Buddha’s name
will let one to know about going to the World of Ultimate Bliss. If this
person practices good conduct, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will naturally
come to receive him. Conversely, if a person has done a lot of malicious
acts and evil deeds and has a surly, hostile, and unkind mind nature,
then his conscience is closed and his wisdom is also all lost. That
means his power of consciousness and soul also got lost. Moreover,
because he does not know chanting the Buddha’s name, he will naturally
devolve. With a muddled head and not knowing the direction, he can only
follow his karmas to transmigrate and cannot get out. Consequently, he
has to suffer life after life and also has to pay back for his earlier
malicious acts. This is the law and principle of the universe. Things
all have coming and going and undergo the never-ending cycle. What is
unscientific in the law of cause and effect and samsara?”
Hearing this, Li Genyuan was
horrified. He was sweating all over but felt chilling to the bone. He
was extremely moved and said sincerely, “Elder Master Xu, hearing this
speech from you is more beneficial than studying in school for ten years
to me, your disciple! I, your disciple, studied overseas in the West
and only learned some skin-deep and hair-thin science. I really do not
know the profound principles of the universe and even absurdly wanted to
destroy Buddhism! From listening to your teaching and discourse, I am
now completely clear. I ask you, Elder Master Xu, to allow me to take
refuge before you to become a Buddhist disciple!”
Xu Yun smiled, “Great Commander,
please get up. Since you, Great Commander, have become clear and have
the determination to believe in Buddhism, this shows you, Great
Commander, still has a very deep root of goodness and can realize the
truth quickly. However, please first develop more opportunities to get
close to Buddha-dharma and let real faith develop in your mind and
become firm and unmovable, the matter of taking refuge can be talked
about after that.”
Li Genyuan immediately said, “Elder
Master Xu, please do not call me, your disciple, great commander
anymore. Even though you, Elder Master Xu, do not want to accept me as
your disciple today, I, your disciple, have already submitted to you in
my mind. Please call me by name directly.”
In that evening, Li Genyuan gave the
order to light up candles to talk with Xu Yun at night about the
principles of Buddhism. From the clear manifestation of the law of cause
and effect to the inter-webbed net of karmas, consequences of karmas
and karmic conditions, the continuity of the world, the continuity of
living beings, and other fundamental principles of Buddhism, and to the
profound axioms in Buddhist sutras, Xu Yun introduced the profundity of
the universe. Li Genyuan was completely convinced and had full
admiration. They spoke until after midnight and were very high-spirited.
Li Genyuan sighed, “Without hearing
Elder Master Xu’s earnest teaching and explanation today, I really do
not know the fact that the principles of Buddhism and Buddha-dharma are
so broad, great, and profound. I now have the complete faith and
submission! I am determined to take refuge in Buddha-dharma.”
The next morning, Li Genyuan
personally guarded Xu Yun to return to the temple. Wearing his military
uniform indicating a general’s rank, Li Genyuan led the horse in person.
Xu Yun, who was 72 years old, was sitting on the horse. They slowly
walked to the temple’s gate. Behind them were several dozens of
horse-riding guarding officers. With the shining Sun, golden light
appeared from the mountain. Starting from the mountain top and coming
downward, trees and grasses were covered with golden color. The scene of
the entire mountain shining golden light was extremely splendid and
solemn.
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