The origin
Since I came out from my last retreat, I have spent most of my time being in contact with the public, very seldom do I have time for my own practice. I think, however, after more than two decades of propagating Dharma and benefiting sentient beings, it is time to put things in order, like performing a play, time to go back to the original mountain monastery.
It has been 25 years since the last retreat, and I have been going outwards, and outwards, to build a museum, to make the society stabilized and people’s mind harmonious. However, without a founded root, the ordained who renounce the world,  still go outwards all the time, vexation will arise eventually; once there are vexations, they are not different from secular people. Those disciples who follow me were like this; for more than ten years they had been busy building the Museum of World Religions, so busy that they forgot to practice Dharma, they forgot that they are Buddhist. Therefore, I had to return to the practice of a traditional forest monastic. I had to start.
 The system of a forest monastery, the spirit of Ling Jiou Mountain Monastery, the teachings of the ancestors; even the organization and human resources all need to be conserved and adjusted. So I came back to the mountain, first to rearrange the monastery, then to go back to its origins, to regenerate the energy for propagating Dharma and benefiting sentient beings. I started with myself. I returned to Dharma practice first, in order to make my disciples, no matter whether they are ordained or not, go back to their true mind, a mind that is focused on Dharma practice.
- Hsin Tao
|
|