Celestial Monk Master: The Divine Monk Who Traveled Across China’s Buddhist Lands

Today I introduce to you a miraculous high monk who has lived for over a thousand years.
In 414 BC, a strange-looking child was born into a Brahmin noble family in ancient India: he had large eyes, a long nose, and ears that drooped to his shoulders. His left hand was clenched into a fist from birth and refused to open. His parents sensed that this child was extraordinary, and at the age of nine, they took him to join the Buddha’s monastery. At the moment of shaving his head, the child's tightly clenched left hand suddenly opened, revealing a shining pearl in the palm. He devoutly offered the pearl to the image of the Buddha and bowed with both hands in reverence for the first time. The shaving master, witnessing this miraculous scene, named him “Treasure Palm.”
After ordination, Treasure Palm diligently practiced, strictly observed the precepts, and read the Tripitaka classics extensively, but he was still not satisfied. To seek higher enlightenment, he vowed to travel on foot. Over five hundred years, he journeyed through five countries in India, and during the late Eastern Han Dynasty, he eventually entered China. He first visited Mount Emei to pay homage to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, then stayed for more than ten years at Daci Temple, reciting over a thousand volumes of the Prajnaparamita Sutra daily. People at the time praised him in poetry: “Hard labor, icy teeth, like rushing mountain springs. Sometimes sitting in the middle of the night, ghosts and gods weep at the steps.” He once told the crowd, “I wish to remain in the world for a thousand years; I am now 626 years old.” From this, the name “Thousand-Year Monk” spread.
Treasure Palm’s footprints covered famous mountains and rivers across China: he paid homage to Manjushri at Mount Wutai, secluded himself on Mount Zhongnan to seek the Way with Futu Cheng, taught Dharma at Mount Heng’s Zhu Rong Peak, and visited Venerable Yeshé at Lushan. His most legendary encounter was meeting Patriarch Bodhidharma in Jianye. Bodhidharma called out “Old Shari,” and Treasure Palm responded instantly. He then suddenly attained enlightenment, and over 700 years of spiritual confusion melted away like solid ice. He composed a verse: “Met my master in Liang city, contemplating Zen and understanding the mind. Wandering through Zhejiang and Jiangsu, I have seen the finest mountains and waters.” Afterwards, he sought out wise masters, invited the purple-bearded Taoist to tour Mount Tiantai, paid homage to Guanyin of the South Sea, and visited the Two Ancestors’ Spirit Light, leaving traces of Zen wherever he went.
His interactions with Master Lang of Pujiang added to his legendary aura: the two exchanged letters using a white dog and a green monkey as messengers—an old tale tells of “A white dog bringing a letter, a green monkey washing bowls.” Treasure Palm especially loved the spiritual beauty of Mount Huangmei’s Shuangfeng Peak, where he built a hermitage, which later became the Old Ancestor Temple—an important birthplace of Chinese Zen Buddhism.
In the second year of Emperor Gaozong’s Xianqing era (657 AD), the 1072-year-old Monk Treasure Palm left a verse for his disciples: “Originally, there is no birth or death; now I show birth and death. I have obtained the mind of residence; he is born again here.” After meditating in silence for seven days, he awoke and instructed his disciples, “Sixty years after my death, a monk will come to retrieve my bones; do not refuse.” He then passed away. Forty-four years later, Elder La Fu opened his tomb and took his chain-like, golden-like bones, returning them to Central India.
#Gate2月透明度报告 #加密市场上涨 #特朗普称伊朗战事接近尾声 #微策略再砸12.8亿美元增持BTC $BTC