Other business that Xuecheng Da Heshang had in Beijing at the time!
（3）龙泉寺
2005年4月11日，在众善信殷重祈请下，经由北京市宗教局批准，法师乘宿悲愿，怀着振锡北京、重兴古刹的心情，来到了北京市海淀区凤凰岭，住持起这座有着千年历史的古刹。在颁发宗教活动场所证书的仪式上，法师说：“今天龙泉寺恢复为佛教活动场所，佛菩萨欢喜、人天欢喜，更是北京广大佛弟子欢庆的日子。”北京市佛教协会会长传印法师说：“本寺由学诚法师住持，必将起到涤瑕荡荡垢、推陈出新的良好效果！必将使龙泉寺成为首都模范道场。”冷落近百年之宝刹，忽欣欣然又发朝气，久已断流之龙泉，复又涌出清流！法师后来说：“我1984年来到北京时，观察当地居士们的情况，发现不少居士要跑到外地去找道场。那时，我就有个愿望：希望在北京提供给大家一个学佛的场所，提供给大家一个修行的宝地。二十一年后的今天，因缘终于成熟。”
On 4 Apr 08, under many heartfelt and increasingly heavy entreaties, and ratified by Beijing’s municipal Religion Bureau, Dharma Master realized his compassionate wish and cherishing the mood of stirring up Beijing, and causing ancient temples to flourish, he arrived at Fenhuang Ling (凤凰岭) in Haidian District (海淀区) in Beijing City, to start as Abbot of this ancient temple with a thousand years of history. In the formal ceremony of issuing the certificate of Religious Movement Site ((implies financial support -xp)) Dharma Master said: “That Longquan Temple today has returned to a Religious Movement Site make the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas happy, makes men and heavenly beings happy, and and it’s also a day of enjoyment and celebration for the broadly extended Buddha disciples of Beijing. The chariman of the Beijing Buddhist Association, Zhuanyin Fashi said: “That Xuecheng Fashi has become the Abbot of this temple must bring about the cleaning of blemishes and washing out of the impurities, to bring forth new good and fine results! This must make Longauan Temple a model capital-class Dharmaksetra.” This precious ancient temple, which has had the cold shoulder for the last century, suddenly and delightfully again puts out vitality, and the long cut off flow from the Dragon Spring (Longquan) once again bursts forth in a clear stream! ((How beautiful! The century in question has been exactly China’s darkest hour, and that the leadership finally has time to take care of a temple called Dragon Spring in Beijing really means that the Chinese culture is once again on task as a major influence on this planet. (The Dragon is the guardian of the Chinese central government). -xp)) Afterwards, Dharma Master said: “When I came to Beijing in 1984, surveying the conditions of the laity here, I discovered that many of the laity wanted to go other places to find a Dharmakshetra. At that time I had a wish: I hoped to offer everybody in Beijing a place to study Buddhism, and sacred ground on which to practice. On this day twenty-one years later, the causes and conditions finally matured.”
…
Read the whole translation here: (9) Longquan Temple – Taking Hold at the Center
The story that ensues from this is the most important thing that I have ever translated; an overview of how to bring back orthodox Mahayana Buddhadharma to a dead temple. I do not believe that what is recounted herein differs significantly from what the process would be in starting a new orthodox Mahayana Buddhist temple in America. The funding wouldn’t come from the goverment, that would be unconstitutional. It would have to come from private foundations and donations. That’s a detail, and it pales in significance compared to the cultural issues; unreformed Tang-style ritualism including apocryphal scripture, and neo-Confucianist thought at Fo Guang Shan, ancestor- and death-cultism, and the pollution of their temples with ancestral remains among the Japanese, and the general language-bound and culture-bound attitude and behavior of East Asians on American soil.
To cut through any of this, and to get actual transmission of the orthodox Mahayana to the American mainstream, you first have to get the Buddhist doctrine straight, and this document tells you how to do that, on a real-world developmental timeline, both in relational and organizational terms. Yes, it’s an overview, and an overview is what we need. Details are details, and details are not what’s hanging up this transmission. What’s hanging it is not getting the doctrine straight in the first place.
There is no longer any point, I feel, in being outraged by the failure of innumerable East Asian Buddhist sects and cults to transmit to the American mainstream. They’re just not big enough to do it, and never will be. That’s all she’s ever going to write about any of them. Broad orthodox Mahayana Buddhism is the only thing that is going to transmit to the American mainstream, because it’s the only ilk of Buddhism that is big enough and strong enough to do that, and that will prove to be stably and finally consistent with our core values as Americans and Democrats. So it’s time to focus on this and get it done. If you belong to my cohort, this is what you’re doing here. And your own practice comes first. You don’t need an Asian lineage holder to be a Pure Land Buddhist. Just take O-Nembutsu.
Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
The story that ensues from this is the most important thing that I have ever translated; an overview of how to bring back orthodox Mahayana Buddhadharma to a dead temple. I do not believe that what is recounted herein differs significantly from what the process would be in starting a new orthodox Mahayana Buddhist temple in America. The funding wouldn’t come from the goverment, that would be unconstitutional. It would have to come from private foundations and donations. That’s a detail, and it pales in significance compared to the cultural issues; unreformed Tang-style ritualism including apocryphal scripture, and neo-Confucianist thought at Fo Guang Shan, ancestor- and death-cultism, and the pollution of their temples with ancestral remains among the Japanese, and the general language-bound and culture-bound attitude and behavior of East Asians on American soil.
To cut through any of this, and to get actual transmission of the orthodox Mahayana to the American mainstream, you first have to get the Buddhist doctrine straight, and this document tells you how to do that, on a real-world developmental timeline, both in relational and organizational terms. Yes, it’s an overview, and an overview is what we need. Details are details, and details are not what’s hanging up this transmission. What’s hanging it is not getting the doctrine straight in the first place.
There is no longer any point, I feel, in being outraged by the failure of innumerable East Asian Buddhist sects and cults to transmit to the American mainstream. They’re just not big enough to do it, and never will be. That’s all she’s ever going to write about any of them. Broad orthodox Mahayana Buddhism is the only thing that is going to transmit to the American mainstream, because it’s the only ilk of Buddhism that is big enough and strong enough to do that, and that will prove to be stably and finally consistent with our core values as Americans and Democrats. So it’s time to focus on this and get it done. If you belong to my cohort, this is what you’re doing here. And your own practice comes first. You don’t need an Asian lineage holder to be a Pure Land Buddhist. Just take O-Nembutsu.
Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
