After listening to what Fa Ru said in the miscellaneous room of the North Courtyard, Zhang Shaofei said very gratefully: "Second senior brother, you don't need to enlighten me. I understand the elder's true intention very well. Not only do I not resent him, but I am very grateful to him for treating me." His teachings enabled me to realize the great path that leads directly to Buddha nature."
Hearing this, Fa Ru was stunned. He seemed to be trapped in a mist, standing dazedly in the sun, motionless, his expression sometimes clear and sometimes cloudy, sometimes nodding, sometimes shaking his head, with a look of puzzlement on his face.
"Second Senior Brother, Second Senior Brother!... Second Senior Brother!" Zhang Shaofei called him for a long time.
"Oh..." Fa Ru had a little reaction at this time.
After Fa Ru reacted, he blinked, glanced at Zhang Shaofei, said nothing, and took Zhang Shaofei to the backyard to the north.
What Zhang Shaofei saw in front of him was a long corridor running straight from north to south, with two rows of monks' rooms with blue-grey brick walls and tile roofs on both sides. At the end of the corridor is an open space with several rows of flower bases, lush orchid grass, and dense cypress trees. In the middle is a century-old Bodhi tree with vigorous branches and whirling green leaves. Farther away is the mill and an endless stretch of vegetable fields.
Faru arranged Zhang Shaofei to live in Huiqing's monk's room and assigned tasks: "You get up at six o'clock every morning, and your tasks are to carry water, pound rice, grind flour, collect firewood, and plant vegetables..."
"Okay." Zhang Shaofei grinned and nodded.
Zhang Shaofei was about to walk away, but was stopped by Fa Ru.
Zhang Shaofei turned around and asked, "Second Senior Brother, do you have anything else to ask?"
Faru said solemnly: "There is a way, the country has national laws, and the temple has temple rules. You are a lay disciple who has not yet become a monk, and all the handymen are here in the north courtyard and on the mountain. The elders live in the abbot's room next to the south corridor. There are no elders. With my permission, you are not allowed to go to the south corridor, so as not to disturb the elder's peace. Remember, if you step even half a step beyond the thunder pond, you will be punished according to the temple rules."
"I understand." After Zhang Shaofei nodded in agreement, he repeated loudly, "I can't go to the south corridor without the permission of the second senior brother and the elder."
That night, Zhang Shaofei lay on the bed, feeling very happy: Today, the elder agreed to accept him as his disciple, even though he was still a layman. But his long-cherished wish finally came true, and the first step on the distant Buddhist path was finally taken.
…
From this day on, he began his spiritual life in the temple——
Carrying water, pounding rice, grinding flour, gathering firewood, and growing vegetables have become Zhang Shaofei's normal routine in a day.
Before almost every monk officially becomes a monk, he must first serve as a monk in a monastery for a period of time - a monk who does chores.
In other words, practitioners are in a period of being inspected and tested. Those who can pass can be ordained, otherwise they will be eliminated.
It is precisely because of this that the so-called practice of practitioners is to practice asceticism - doing the most arduous chores, but without any status, and even if they are wronged, they can only keep it in their hearts.
At that time, Zhang Shaofei, Zhang Xingzhe, was in such a position in Dongchan Temple.
The east has not yet breathed out the morning light.
The morning star still hangs in the gray-black sky, blinking.
Zhang Shaofei had already gotten up, went to the mountain stream behind the temple to fetch water with a bucket in his bare feet. When the other brothers got up at the regular time and went to the kitchen to pick up the bucket, the sink was almost filled by Zhang Shaofei.
At that time, there were no rice mills in the world, so all the rice eaten by the seven to eight hundred monks in the temple was pounded manually.
The process of pounding rice is actually not complicated, but it is definitely a laborious job. A mortar is slowly chiseled from a large solid stone. It is shaped like a huge wine cup, and the diameter of the mortar is no less than 70 to 80 centimeters. A large stone mortar usually requires four people to lift it. There are threads in the mortar. The body of the mortar must be buried in the ground. The mouth of the mortar should be exposed above the ground. The surrounding area should be smoothed with lime mixed with river sand to facilitate cleaning.
On top of the mortar, there is a "碓 body" made of a large tree segment. There is a pestle under the head of the "碓", and the mouth of the pestle is pressed with iron teeth. In the middle of the "碓" belly, there are horizontal bars on both sides that support the tilting, just like the acrobatic "seesaw" that supports the thing in the middle. Dig a deep hole in the ground at the tail of the "碓". When the center of gravity is moved to the "碓" "Tail" and press it down into the pit, the "碓" head is raised immediately, and then it is pounded down, lifted up, and pounded down again, and it is repeated mechanically, which is pounding rice.
A wooden pole or bamboo pole is placed across the mortar to serve as a handhold for those who pound the rice. But after pounding a mortar of rice, people are already sweating profusely. Therefore, pounding rice is a job for men, and only a strong and strong man can do it.
In the rice pounding room of Tozenji Temple, there are six pairs of wooden tools for pounding rice arranged in a line.
There is no skill involved in pounding rice, it depends entirely on the strength of the whole body. Therefore, all the monks in the dormitory are tall, muscular men with thick arms and round waists, and weigh more than 200 kilograms.
As for Zhang Shaofei, he was not very tall at the time and weighed less than a hundred pounds. When others step on the hammer, they can press the heavy hammer up just by their weight, but he has to push down with all his strength to lift the hammer up.
Therefore, every time he steps, it takes twice as much effort as others; even though he gets up early and stays up late every day, it is difficult to complete the quota tasks.
Zen temples have strict rules, so Zhang Shaofei was punished by the governor monk every day: kneeling in front of the Buddha statue for the time it took for the incense to burn out.
Gradually, his lower body lost consciousness. He dozed off unconsciously, lost his balance, and fell to the ground...
The prefect monk kicked him hard on the buttocks and scolded him: "You confessed your sins in front of the Buddha, and yet you dared to take a nap! How can a person like you, who is so disrespectful to the Buddha, continue to become a monk or practice anything? ? I think you’d better get down the mountain as soon as possible and live your secular life!”
Zhang Shaofei was so ashamed that he drew his bow from left to right and slapped himself several times in the mouth. One is to punish oneself, and the other is to drive away sleepyheads.
Zhang Shaofei's enlightened mind was bright and clear, and he quickly found the crux of the problem - his weight was too light to press the hammer down, so his efficiency was very low.
"To speed up rice pounding, you have to increase your own weight. How can you increase your own weight?" Zhang Shaofei came up with a way to put a stone on his waist, so that when people step on the stone pestle, they will start pounding rice. It is both powerful and fast.
Zhang Shaofei's method of pounding rice uses ingenuity, speeds up the process, and greatly improves the quantity and quality of rice pounding. Therefore, Zhang Shaofei grinds more and better rice than other monks every day.
