Guangzhou Fayu Temple Travel Notes

(1)

Even though these flowers and plants seem to grow a little messy, they still have the appearance they should have.

Today is the weekend, early in the morning as usual. It takes ten minutes to walk to Fayu Temple. The hill that originally offered an unobstructed view was surpassed by the surrounding towering buildings. The temple suddenly lost the bustle of the past, but surprisingly, as we went up the stairs step by step, a cool feeling slowly climbed up along the ankles until it spread all over the body.

This is a feeling that I have always been curious about and like, from hot to cool, from restlessness to calmness. Maybe it’s because I arrived early, and the mountain gate was wide open, but there was no one. I felt free to come. Swim away. After ascending to the Temple of the Heavenly King, I turned back and looked down at the street at the foot of the mountain. The workers' breakfast stalls were steaming with steam. In the courtyard just across the door, there was a gentle breeze and time seemed to have stopped.

(2)

Passing through the Tianwang Hall, the courtyard in front of the Main Hall is empty, but it seems to be full. A bhikshuni swept the courtyard quietly.

The early morning sunshine fills the entire roof. The walls of the corridors on both sides are carved with calligraphy works of Fayu Temple by one author after another. The writing is chic and the meaning is profound. It is not difficult to imagine the moment when the temple was consecrated Unprecedented grand occasion.

The temple is not big, and a few trees sit quietly in the corner. I don’t know why, but seeing them makes me less anxious. The lush yellow flowers and lush green bamboos are natural and leisurely. Sometimes words are powerless. When you are in a certain situation, your feelings will come naturally.

(3)

It is hard to imagine that Fayu Temple, as large as it is now, was just a 120-square-meter temple called Jixiang Temple. Among the many jungles in Guangzhou, there is one of the few bhikshuni temples.

The Jixiang Nunnery established in the Qing Dynasty did not survive the devastation of the ten years in the middle of the last century, and the originally small Jixiang Nunnery became even more dilapidated.

Perhaps it was God’s will that Master Shi Yongjian was born in that era. After becoming a monk, he studied Buddhism with the great monk Foyuan and the elder Ben Huan. Seeing this auspicious nunnery, he felt pity and vowed to rebuild it. Later, with the support of all parties in the society, the local government decided to abandon the original site, rebuild it on a new site, and rename it Fayu Temple.

(4)

For the last photo taken before leaving Fayu Temple, I chose to look at the Main Hall from between a half-dead tree. After passing through the heat wave of rolling red dust, I finally encountered the coolness of heaven and earth, like rain.

Buddhist Dharma liberates all living beings and moistens all things like rain, so it is called "Dharma Rain".