Part 24 (1/2)
I finally got hold of myself and muttered, ”Yes, Yi Kong s.h.i.+fu.”
A long pause.
”How did you get in here?” She had relit the candle in her hand; the flame, raging and flas.h.i.+ng under her, threw her face out of proportion.
”You told me about the shortcut.”
”Except for a few s.h.i.+fus who work closely with me, no one else knows about this place.” Yi Kong eyed me reflectively. ”It must be your good karma to be here....”
Yi Kong led me in lighting incense and making three deep bows to the statue. Her voice, deep and respectful, began to resonate in the hall like an ancient chant. ”This is the Golden Body of Revealing Mystery s.h.i.+fu, the teacher of my teacher, the Venerable Wisdom Forest....”
Instinctively I took a step back, then turned to look at her. ”Yi Kong s.h.i.+fu, what do you mean by the Golden Body...how is it possible that-”
”Be patient, Meng Ning. Listen carefully to what I'm going to tell you.”
Her voice filled the empty hall with voluptuous reverberation. ”This phenomenon is called flesh-bodied Bodhisattva. That is, when a monk or a nun has achieved profound meditation practice, after they die, their bodies will not decompose-”
Feeling a chill, I again cut in: ”Yi Kong s.h.i.+fu, do you mean that this is actually the nun's...mummy?”
Yi Kong shot me a chiding look and ignored my question. ”Only one in a million will attain the state of a golden body, and this phenomenon will happen only once every few hundred years.”
She made another deep bow to the shrine; I immediately did the same. ”Revealing Mystery s.h.i.+fu pa.s.sed away on March eighteenth, nineteen fifty-eight, at age eighty-eight. In February, she'd recognized that her worldly life was about to end, so every day she drank ten bowls of a medicinal soup. This was made from one hundred different kinds of herbs, with the result that she perspired and urinated profusely. A month later, although she'd lost a lot of weight, her face was flushed and her eyes blazed like torches. Ten days before she'd attained her circular tranquility, she entered this shrine. Then she instructed her disciples to seal it up, and after that, she meditated and recited sutras sutras all the way to all the way to nirvana nirvana.
”On the day she entered the shrine, she also instructed her disciples to open it eight months after her death, then take her desiccated body out to be lacquered and gilded, and then put back in the shrine. As they had been instructed, my teacher Wisdom Forest and other s.h.i.+fus opened the shrine on October eighth, and found that not only was the Dharma body of their mistress intact, but her head had grown hair, and she emanated a faint, sweet fragrance and a pale gold aura. According to Buddhism, this resulted from her profound practice, strict vegan diet, and asceticism.”
I asked, ”How?”
”Because monks and nuns with a long, strenuous practice of sitting meditation will have their arteries and veins opened up. And if half a month before they enter nirvana nirvana they also stop eating completely-so that only a minimal amount of fat and water will remain in their bodies-then their bodies will be mummified after they die. There are many ways to preserve the body. Some put it in an arid cave to let it air dry. Others leave it in an earthenware jar stuffed with wood sc.r.a.ps and straw papers. Then the jar will be sealed to keep out air and stored in a cool, dry place to dehydrate the body.” they also stop eating completely-so that only a minimal amount of fat and water will remain in their bodies-then their bodies will be mummified after they die. There are many ways to preserve the body. Some put it in an arid cave to let it air dry. Others leave it in an earthenware jar stuffed with wood sc.r.a.ps and straw papers. Then the jar will be sealed to keep out air and stored in a cool, dry place to dehydrate the body.”
I began to feel disgusted, but also fascinated to learn about all these methods of preserving dead bodies.
Yi Kong went on: ”Revealing Mystery s.h.i.+fu was a very special teacher. In the last fifteen years of her life, she didn't eat anything, speak a word, or step out of this monastery.”
”But how can this be possible?!” I exclaimed, the air suddenly feeling stale in my mouth.
But Yi Kong again ignored me and continued: ”Revealing Mystery s.h.i.+fu hid herself in this small hut behind the Hall of Guan Yin. That's why, after her death, we converted it to a relic hall for her body's storage. During her long years of closed-door meditation, she consumed nothing except water, herb soup, or juice. Neither did she talk to anybody. If for a specific reason she really had to open her mouth, she'd just say 'yes' or 'no.' Later, she stopped talking completely. To communicate in case of emergency, she used a sign language that only Wisdom Forest s.h.i.+fu, my teacher, could understand. Similarly, except for very specific reasons, she would not receive visitors. Every day for the last fifteen years of her life, all she did was meditate and silently recite sutras sutras.”
Yi Kong stared into my eyes and added, ”Only due to Revealing Mystery s.h.i.+fu's strenuous practice could her body attain this imperishable state.”
As my initial fright waned, I felt myself becoming entranced by this dead nun and suddenly revealed aspect of the monastic life. Could my body attain the same imperishability if I started to meditate strenuously tomorrow?
But before I had a chance to ask, Yi Kong spoke again. ”Every day I come here to pay my respect to Revealing Mystery s.h.i.+fu and never run into anybody. So today must be a very meaningful karmic day that I see you here. Anyway, it's late now and we shouldn't disturb s.h.i.+fu's Golden Body anymore. Let's go outside and I'll tell you more about this if you want to know.”
Hands pressed together, Yi Kong and I bowed deeply to the Golden Body three times before she led me out of the hall. As I turned back to the golden face, I felt as if she were looking at me with something to tell me, if only she could speak.
In silence, Yi Kong and I walked meditatively on the winding path leading back toward the stone garden. The air outside was balmy and scented by the healthy vegetation; the sky burned with stars. Was my encounter with the flesh-bodied Bodhisattva in the relic hall a dream, a nightmare, a hallucination, a revelation...or a calling?
We finally arrived at the stone garden and sat down on a bench next to the waterfall. Amid the sound of rippling water and the deep-throated croaking of the frogs, I asked Yi Kong if my body could also attain the same imperishability as Revealing Mystery s.h.i.+fu's.
”No,” she said, ”unless...” She caught herself in midsentence.
”Unless what?”
She didn't answer my question, but steered the subject in a different track. ”Meng Ning, this only happens to monks and nuns.” She stared deeply into my eyes. ”I should say this is a rare karmic result for only a few very special high monks and nuns.”
In the silence that followed, suddenly I realized her implication: if I wanted my body to attain imperishability like Revealing Mystery's, I also had to be a nun. I shuddered.
Yi Kong looked up at the starry sky, then looked down around the moonlit garden before she continued. ”What Revealing Mystery s.h.i.+fu did certainly deserves the greatest respect. But we also need active, 'entering the world' nuns and monks to spread the Dharma and to carry out compa.s.sionate deeds.” She turned to search my eyes. ”Our temple needs more open-minded, outgoing women to become nuns.”
Feeling an awkwardness crawling inside me, I looked down at the ground to avoid her gaze. A beat or two pa.s.sed before I asked, ”s.h.i.+fu, why can't lay people's bodies attain imperishability after they die?”
Under the moonlight, Yi Kong's nicely shaped bald head seemed to glow with enlightenment. ”Because lay people are constantly bothered by worldly affairs. They can never concentrate as deeply in meditation as do people who belong to the religious order.”
I blurted out, ”What about...someone like me? If I were to become a nun, could my body be imperishable after I die?”
Yi Kong shot me an intense look. ”Possibly...but only if you become-”
Just then, a shout pierced the quiet of the garden like the tw.a.n.g of an arrow shooting through the air. ”s.h.i.+fu! s.h.i.+fu! Oh, A Mi Tuo Fo A Mi Tuo Fo!” It was the young nun Enlightened to Emptiness. She dashed into the garden, gasping, sobbing, and wiping her tears with her sleeve. She tripped over the stone lantern a few feet in front of us, and fell.
”What's the matter?” Yi Kong dashed to her and helped her up. I hurried to both of them.
”Yi Kong s.h.i.+fu...no good...no good...” She kept swallowing her own words. Yi Kong lightly touched her shoulder and said, her voice that of a concerned nurse, ”Calm down and tell us what happened.”
Her face flushed, with some blotches of white, Enlightened to Emptiness spat out in one breath, ”Wonderful Countenance s.h.i.+fu tried to kill herself!”
Although Yi Kong's voice sounded loud and sharp, her face stayed calm. ”How did this happen?”
”I don't know...”
”Let's go to her now!” Yi Kong took my arm and the three of us dashed out of the garden and sped to Wonderful Countenance's-Dai Nam's-dormitory.
Nuns crowded the small room-milling around, talking, crying, yelling, pa.s.sing Chinese medicinal oil, towels, a gla.s.s of water. Yi Kong spoke authoritatively: ”Please step away and give Wonderful Countenance s.h.i.+fu fresh air.” She turned to Enlightened to Emptiness. ”Call the ambulance, quick!”
Dai Nam was lying on the floor. Next to her lay a rope, numb and stagnant like a lifeless snake. Shards, like miniature mountain snowcaps, were scattered everywhere. It was the ceramic Buddha knocked over from her altar. Dai Nam had tried to hang herself. The realization hit me so hard that I felt my heart lose balance and plunge over a precipice.
I jerked back, then asked a young novice, ”How did this happen?”
She said, ”A s.h.i.+fu was pa.s.sing Wonderful Countenance s.h.i.+fu's dormitory and heard a loud shattering sound. She knocked to ask what happened, but n.o.body answered, so she broke in. She found Wonderful Countenance s.h.i.+fu hanging herself, so she immediately took her down.”
The young novice pointed to the heaps of shards on the floor and whispered into my ear, ”Buddha sacrificed himself to save s.h.i.+fu's life.”
Yi Kong knelt beside Dai Nam. I went over to kneel next to them.