And here is Part 2 for my mega-long post of today. See Part 1 below...

I really didn't know what to expect from the ZhaoMing temple, but I was looking forward to the change, and getting away from cities. After a 16-hour train ride to Hangzhou from Beijing (where I met a nice British bloke at the train station and we had lunch together before I took off), and a 2-hour car ride from Hangzhou to the town of Ling An, a lunch with some Buddhist people there (including the 'big boss' of the temple - don't know what to call her, the one on top anyway! And i didn't even understand what an honour it was to eat with her...), it took another hour or so to drive to the Dong Tian Mu Shan mountain.

The road found its way through pretty little villages (how nice the houses here look compared to the barracks of the north!!!) and paddy fields. Finally, after driving up to maybe halfway of the mountain, we were left at the foot of a long stairway, me and the old lady with whom I had shared the ride. we were joined by a young woman, who lives at the temple, wearing her simple clothes and short and carrying a basket on her back. And so we made our way up the mountain, it took about an hour, all the time looking over the beautiful valley, and passing waterfalls and gorgeous cliffs.

The temple was only founded six years ago, and it's still being built. What is there now are dormitory buildings, a big hall for the 'services', a big dining hall, offices, and so on. Some more *temples* are still under construction. And it's not exactly simple to build something so massive on a top of mountain, with no road coming up. That means that everything has to be carried up, every single sack of cement and every brick... it's amazing the work these people are doing every day.

I was told that at any given time tyhere are about 700 people staying at the temple, both monks and nuns as well as a lot of lay persons. About 300 people are visitors, and many lay persons also live their for a longer period. Most of the people staying there as visitors were rather old, although a few young people had come, too. Needless to say, I was the only foreigner.

I was put up at a guest house for 'special' guests, where all the foreigners are systematically lodged. I tried to get them let me stay in the dorms with everyone else, but it was no use... There were no other guests in the house at the time, so it was only me and the two women who lived there, taking care of the guests and the place.

The first one, Old Wang (who was just called Lao Pu Sa, Lao meaning old and Pusa meaning a holy person or a boddhisattva), is 64 years old, from Beijing. She comes from a Buddhist family, and a few months ago left her family to come to the temple. She was really looking after me, literally showing me by the hand what to do and how, and pushing and pulling me here and there. She was a little scary at times, and I was afraid to do something to make her angry (she used to come and re-do everything after me anyhow in the beginning, move my shoes 2 cm to the left and so on...). But in the end, she was so so sweet, just holding my hand and smiling with her whole person, telling stories.

The second one, Little Wang (oh the joy of Chinese surnames!) is 33 and comes from Shandong. She was once married, and then divorced. And after a lot of heartache, money and health problems, she met a teacher who brought her to Pure Land Buddhism. And so, just a couple of weeks ago, she secretly left her home (her family wouldn't have agreed) and made her way alone to the mountain. Where she is now living happily :) She spent a lot of time, explaining things to me, both about their beliefs and practices, as well as practical things which she couldn't have mentioned in front of Old Wang, things that I was doing wrong.

And oh boy was I doing things wrong. All the time I kinda had the feeling that there are so many rules, and I managed to break quite a few of them. For example, putting a Buddhist book on a chair (that's where the bum goes!!), forgetting to change my shoes to slippers when bowing down in front of Amitabha, eating at the wrong moment, not combing my hair opr washing my hands before chanting, or even having my bum too high when i bowed down in front of Amitabha (as Lao Pusa kindly pointed out)!

On my first night at the temple, Old Wang brought me to the main hall for the evening chanting. Every morning, afternoon, and evening people go to the hall, wearing long dark robes, to chant 'Amituofo' (which is the Chinese version of the name of Amitabha) while walking in a slow procession, in a 'snake' through the room and between the cushions on the floor. First the monks, then the nuns, then the other mena and finally the women. One round through the room took about 15 minutes, depending of course how many people would be there.

On that first night, I was first taken to the front of the room, to pay obeisances to Amitabha Buddha. So, I had to kneel down in front of him, pressing my head down to the floor. Lots and lots of times. It took me a little while to get it right, with the hands doing the right motion. But after a few dozen repetitions it wasn't that bad anymore! (yes, kept my bum down, too...) Then we sat down (supposedly to meditate upon Amitabha), after which we joined the procession for a couple of hours.

In the mornings, we would wake up at 2 or 3 a.m., and then go down for the morning chanting until about 5 a.m. Although I didn't really believe in the chanting as the others (i guess) did, it was kinda nice, very soothing, and a chance for me to just practise concentration. Two hours went by amazingly fast.

And it's funny how i wasn't tired at all, even though i woke up so early, and had no problems getting up. Maybe it was the fresh mountain air, or maybe it was Amitabha ;)

Throughout the day and the night, the loundspeakers of the main hall would blast out the chanting of Amituofo, you really can't get away from it. And when it would stop, they would broadcast speeches by their big teacher, Master Chin Kung ( www.chinkung.org ) . And as if that wasn't enough, they even gave me a little 'Amituofo radio', which plays foure different kinds of chanting in a loop. :-)

But despite all the mistakes I made, I quickly learned to keep saying 'Amituofo' (which replaced 'thank you',
I'm sorry', 'hello', and so on...) and to bring my palms together whenever meeting someone. The people truly were warmhearted and welcoming.

But to me the best thing was the chance to be on my own, spend time reading, writing, thinking... And what I liked the most was climbed up the mountain a little, to a point where I could sit down and look over the green green valley and the sea of clouds and mountains in different shades of blue as far I could see, hearing the sound of the waterfall in the distance.

I would have a thousand other things to tell about my days at the mountain temple, but this is getting too long already. So I'll just conclude by saying that in the end, although I could have stayed for as long as I wanted, for months if that would have been the case, I decided to go even quicker than I myself had expected. The reason for it was that though the place itself was nice, it felt dishonest in a way to stay, as I really couldn't believe in what they (we!) were doing there. I don't feel that chanting Amituofo is a way forward for me, and if I was hoping that it would have been a place top just take more time for myself, I felt that to have stayed there, I really should have put my heart into the practise, which I can't do.

So, yesterday, out of the blue, I told the two Wangs that I am going, which they were not happy to hear. But we had a long talk and in the end, they sent me on my way with a thousand smiles and good wishes, and hoping for me to come back another time. And of course I have my little Amituofo radio ;)

From here, the adventure goes on, with no special destination right now. Just this huge country to explore and more time to explore myself, too :)

Tomorrow I might try to upload some pictures, of the smelly children as well as of the blue mountains far, far away...