11.南岳古剎進香 Offering incense in the ancient monasteries of Nan Yo

南岳古剎進香

壬子歲八月隨叔父蒲堂。進香南岳衡山諸名勝。古剎朝拜菩薩。每有所至。則恍若舊地重游。夙昔所識之家門者。然以此推之。公或宿世生中。主化南岳。教諸眾生。咸令發心精進勇猛求無上道。

宣化偈曰： 南岳衡山妙高峰。歷代相傳出聖僧。 三生石伴誰識誰。萬劫生中親復親。

Offering incense in the ancient monasteries of Nan Yo

In the eighth lunar month of the cyclical year Jen Tuz (1852), the Master, at thirteen, joined his Uncle on a pilgrimage, visiting temples. He offered incense at all of the famous places of Heng Shan, Nan Yo Mountain, and bowed to the bodhisattva in the ancient shrines. As if he were roaming through familiar ground, he was happy wherever he went, and was attracted as if seeing relatives whom he had known in the past. Who knows? Perhaps in a previous life, the Master was at Nan Yo Mountain, teaching and causing living beings all to resolve themselves on vigorously and courageously seeking the Unsurpassed Way.

The verse says: Nan Yo (Southern Peak), Heng Shan Mountain-that marvelous towering peak- Is where the successive transmission produces sagely monks. The granite friends of the past, present, and future-who recognizes them? Within the lives of ten thousand kalpas, relatives return to relatives.