Compassion for All Beings, Paving the Path on Earth – My Thoughts on Ven. Longlian

Author: Chen Mowu

Ven. Longlian, the first Bhiksuni of modern times, is a sacred bodhisattva in the hearts of her devotees. A legendary talented woman in the eyes of common folk, to me, she is a bold character who truly loves the world and paves the path for others.

Contemplating what I read in The Platform Sutra, “Prajna is often present, not different from the intrinsic nature”, “Within the intrinsic nature, all Dharma is seen, all Dharma is within the intrinsic nature,” and “The Buddha arises from intrinsic nature”, Ven. Longlian has gone through the course of nearly a century. She demonstrated her character that follows the course of nature, as well as her indomitable spirit to go through hardship.

PART 1

Ven. Longlian, a native of Leshan, Sichuan, was born on March 13, 1909 of the lunar calendar. In her early years, her grandfather gave her the name Dechun. Later on, her ailing aunt gave her the name Yongkang. To express her view of gender equality between men and women, wishing to show her great dissatisfaction with the name given by her father that reflects the feudal idea of men’s superiority over women, she named herself Ming Yan.

Ven. Longlian was a gifted child and could recognise the words “Yan” and “Can” before she could speak. In the early years, when “Gong You Tang” had a pair of calligraphy for the doors, she was able to identify the two words “Yan”, “Can”.

From the age of 3, she began to learn the quatrains of Tang, and she was able to recite them fluently. When she was a little older, the elders taught her in rotation without a permanent teacher, and she wore a boy’s wear since young. When she was 13, she attended Leshan Girls’ Primary School, where her grandfather was the principal of the school at that time, she also changed from wearing boys’ clothing to wearing clothes for girls.

In July the same year, when her grandfather passed away, she ended her school life and, with the help of her father, she embarked on a path of self-study. Ven. Longlian has been a vegetarian since the age of 3, following her grandmother’s diet.

It is said that a man surnamed Xiong (the teacher of Ven. Longlian’s father), who was never married, took care of and educated his younger brother till adulthood, then left his job to live in “Bear Cave” in the countryside, with many of the local relatives and friends viewing him differently.

As he had many visitors and couldn’t bear the disturbances, he lived in seclusion in Buddhist monasteries. He was afraid that the mountains were not secluded enough, and with no way to escape his growing reputation, he went wandering to Leshan, living in Wuyou Temple and became a regular visitor to the You’s residence.

When Ven. Longlian’s father went on a business trip to Shanghai, Mr. Xiong entrusted him to meet Master Yinguang to ask about a location for his practice. As Master Yinguang was away, Ven. Longlian’s father wrote a letter to express his enquiry about this.

Later on, in Master Yinguang’s reply of thousands of words: “If one can completely let go, then anywhere is a place of practice.” From then on, Xiong Gaoshi stopped his travel, and Ven. Longlian was even more determined to follow the path of Buddhist practice. If her grandmother was the first person to lead her to learn Buddhism, then Xiong Gaoshi was the second person who influenced her to the practice of learning Buddhism.

At the age of 11, Ven. Longlian arrived at Wuyou Temple with her father, and when she learned that Venerable Da Yong was visiting the mountain, she waited next to the “Guang Yi Pavilion.” When she saw Ven. Da Yong dressed in golden yellow haiqing robes, moving past gracefully on the mountain path, her faith was inspired and arose.

Due to the convergence of causes and conditions, Ven. Da Yong’s figure left a strong Buddhist imprint on her, leaving her with a longing in life (for ordination). She declared that she would don such robes when she grew up.

At the age of 13, after the death of her beloved grandfather, she came across an introductory book to the Pure Land sect written by Zhang Shicheng of the Qing Dynasty while sorting out a large number of books and documents left by her grandfather.

After reading it, she was impressed by the state of this passage:

“Transient life is like a dream, everything is empty. Everyone knows it, also talks about it, yet still seeking fulfilment all day long, never awaken, generally harbouring the thought that one will turn into ashes after death, or thinking that it is no big deal since one will reincarnate once one passes, and there’s nothing to really worry about… the suffering is endless.”

In order to liberate oneself from this suffering, she set foot on the secluded path of Buddhism and never looked back. At that time, unlike many monks, she was not, on the surface, seeking a way out of the cyclic existence of life, nor did she try to escape life’s challenges by taking ordination. Whether it was sagacity or her destiny, they are inseparable from her pure childlike self and the timelines of the causes and conditions.

Therefore, from my understanding, Ven. Longlian’s wisdom and affinity with Buddhism is self-arising, in line with the causes and conditions.

PART 2

“Buddhism is a life-saving virtue while Buddhist studies are the mother of salvation.”
Sun Zhongshan

Buddhism is self-confidence, not superstition, is positive rather than negative, is in line with the world rather than abandoning the world, is incorporating kindness and not a stand-alone virtue.

“Shakyamuni is a great philosopher, he has given us a lesson on the problems we usually are unable to solve in life.”
Lu Xun

In 1931, Ven. Longlian went with her father to the capital city of Chengdu for her first trip away from her hometown. With the help of her father’s friends there, she taught Mathematics at the Chengdu County Middle School for Girls for the first time in her life, making a modest contribution to help her family. At the same time, her talents started to show.

Ven. Longlian had been diligent and studious all her life. She studied poetry, painting and Buddhism from Liu Yubo and Liu Suyuan. She took part in the examination for ordinary administrators and higher education administrators in Sichuan Province, and topped the list on both attempts.

It can be said that this article is similar to another article she wrote in her teenage days, “the theory that a country must weaken or destroy itself before others could humiliate or destroy it”, or that it can be called a sister article. The previous article explains Ven. Longlian’s view of how a country can strengthen its political power. If a country was to survive, it must first consolidate the regime itself. The next article details how to consolidate: those in power must have the public in mind. That is, she said in her article, “when a country is falling apart, and the people are in deep trouble, the aspiring gentleman will appear to save the day and reason for disorder.”

PART 3

The Buddha is someone who is enlightened, and human beings are Buddhas who are not yet enlightened. The Dharma can enlighten the world, but it cannot change the existing state of the world. Although the Buddha can lead all living beings away from suffering, it is still up to them to make subjective efforts to determine whether or not they will be liberated.

Ven. Longlian was a woman of extraordinary wisdom. She saw that around her were rulers who were oppressive, corrupt, contrived, and trying to cheat or outwit each other, and for a small, pure and civilised woman like her, she couldn’t change this ugly society, yet she had to maintain her integrity, so what can she do?

She had to persevere to keep her body in society and to let her mind enter the path of the Buddhist kingdom.

She firmly believed that the Buddha kingdom is not in heaven but in the human world. Wherever Buddhism is transmitted and wherever Buddhism is propagated, there is a Kingdom of Buddha that corresponds to the history and culture of the region.

Leshan, Ven. Longlian’s hometown is a place where Buddhist culture has been spreading for a long time. It contains countless sites of historical and cultural heritage, and there were also puzzles left because of man-made destruction, natural disasters and the downfall of dynasties.

To solve these mysteries, Ven. Longlian read history, geography, Chinese, mathematics, medicine, sculpture, poetry, calligraphy and painting, English and Tibetan, advocated running a school, wrote books and learned, translated scriptures and preached, and promoted Buddhism.

In the eyes of the world, Ven. Longlian is a true nun. She is an ordained Sangha, a nun, master, great master, and even a living bodhisattva. In my eyes, she is a mortal with great compassion, great kindness, great sense of enlightenment, highly intelligent and blessed with profound knowledge.

She is a virtuous scholar and one of the world leaders of the Buddha’s kingdom. She propagates the teachings of Buddha, preaches the sutras and talks about the path without being enigmatic, and she always incorporates “teaching” in her life, teaching through labour, through ordinary life and hard work, to lead her believers to the path of enlightenment. Therefore, she is a centenarian who deserves the heartfelt support and love of the world and her believers.

The existence or absence of the Buddha-nature is the foundation of whether all living beings can become Buddhas. The spiritual methods and paths of various schools of Buddhism are also the guiding lights to support sentient beings to attain the fruits of the path.

The complementary and contradictory aspects of the Samathavipa Syana of Tian Tai school of Buddhism, the Dharmalaksana School’s “Transforming Consciousness and Gaining Wisdom”, and Tantric Buddhism’s “attaining Buddhahood with the present body”; the conflict between Zen Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism, and the struggle between Sudden and Gradual enlightenment in Zen Buddhism etc., the most influential being the inquiry of Sudden and Gradual enlightenment.

Ven. Longlian was initially influenced by her grandmother to learn Buddhism. She first studied the Pure Land sect and, later, when she converted to Buddhism, her master Changyuan was also of the Pure Land sect.

However, in the 1940s, most of the great masters who went to Chengdu to give lectures or practice were of the Tantric tradition. Therefore, Ven. Longlian gradually accepted the method of practising Tantra.

In the Tantric view, spiritual practitioners could attain the state of enlightenment with their current body, born of their parents. From the Pure Land point of view , practitioners need to follow the methods of “holding and chanting the name of the Buddha” for an extended period of time consistently before they can take rebirth in the Western Paradise, in accordance to the vows of Amitabha Buddha, till the day the flower blooms and they get to see Buddha Amitabha directly, only then are they on the path to enlightenment, and even then, the fruition of their result can only come in their future life.

In the words of Master Huineng, the sixth Chan patriarch, “The Buddha Dharma is for this world. There is no enlightenment apart from this world. To seek Bodhi apart from this world is like seeking for horns on the rabbit.” It means that Buddhism cannot be separated from the society; once it is separated, it is not possible to achieve enlightenment through practice (of Buddhism).”

Therefore, Ven. Longlian felt that instead of calling her believers to go to the Western Paradise to become Buddhas, it was better to propagate Buddhadharma in the real world, and to promote the pure land in the human realm.

She thinks that it is necessary to focus on one school of Buddhism, but to also read other scriptures and to study Buddhism extensively. The key is to learn from whoever that has knowledge, and not to hold on to any label. The key is to study the fundamentals. Ven. Longlian is not only thinking and saying so, her actions reflect her belief.

Since abandoning her post as a senior official in the government in 1937, she took ordination under the Pure Land Master Ven. Changyuan, and went on to study with Wang Enyang, Ven. Fazun, Ven. Nenghai, Awang Khenpo and other teachers. She became a nun in Chengdu’s Aidaotang in 1941, and received precepts in February 1942 at the Chengdu Wenshuyuan. She successively translated “Exposition of the Bodhicaryavatara”, “The Mandala and Sadhana of Green Tara” and part of the Vairocana practice and ritual and so on.

In 1943, she was appointed the Academic Director of the Lianzong Women’s Institute of Studies and in 1949, transmitted the Siksamana vows in Chengdu’s Tiexiang Si. She also took part in the compilation of the Tibetan and Han Dictionary sponsored by the Institute of Liberal Arts of Sichuan University, the World Buddhist Encyclopaedia of Sri Lanka, and the religious section of the Sichuan Provincial Gazetteer and the Great Encyclopaedia.

In 1953, she was appointed a member of the Sichuan Provincial Museum of Literature and History, and joined the Chinese Buddhist Association in 1955. She was appointed to various positions such as Committee Member, member of the Executive Council, Deputy Secretary-General and Vice President.

She was the Chairperson of the Sichuan Buddhist Association for its first term, a member of the standing Committee of the fifth Sichuan Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and a member of the sixth and seventh National Committee of the CPPCC. She was also Director of the Sichuan Bhikshuni Institute for Buddhist Studies.

Ven. Longlian devoted her life to the Buddhadharma, studied the Tripitaka extensively, cared for society with profound scholarship in the field of Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism, and was admired by devotees at home and abroad.

Ven. Longlian’s thoughts and theories, evolving in accordance with the development of the times, inheriting the tradition of Shakya and propagating the idea of “becoming a Buddha in this very body”, creating the general trend of ideological development and incorporating all types of Buddhist doctrines, developing the dialectical idealism without “deity” in Buddhism, has produced important research value and inspiration to the devotees and scholars of the present and future generations.

Her challenging and bumpy path of Buddhist learning and her application of great wisdom in life can be cited as exemplary in the Buddhist circle. I dare not comment on Ven. Longlian, and I beg for forgiveness from Ven. Longlian and her devotees if the above composition shows any disrespect as the above reflects only what I understood about Ven. Longlian.

Amitabha

Translated from: http://www.scybsf.com/view/150.html

About Chen Mowu

Chen Mowu is a famous calligrapher. Originally from Kaixian County, Chongqing.

Among the many posts he holds, he is the Vice President of the Sichuan Calligraphers Association, member of the Sichuan Artists Association, member of the Sichuan Calligraphers Association, Director of the Sichuan Provincial Guild Institute, Director of the Chengdu Calligraphers Association.

His biography is featured in many collections, including the “Celebrities of Contemporary Chinese Art Circles”, “Dictionaries of Chinese Experts”, “Celebrities of the World Chinese Literature and Art Circles”, “Summary of Chinese Calligraphy”, and “Tutorials on Self-Study of a Fountain Pen”.

The most touching aspect of Ven. Longlian is her Bodhisattva’s spirit of sacrificing herself to nurture the Sangha. I heard that she used to be an aloof intellectual and did not meet with people of low cultural levels. However, things completely changed after the economic reform period.

She was the Director of the Sichuan Bhikshuni Institute for Buddhist Studies and managed all the affairs. She taught classes at the institute, and although she was very busy, she still gave monthly lectures at Aidaotang and gave audience to visitors. Once, after a busy day, a group of lay practitioners came to meet her. Although the meeting could be arranged for the next day, she met these people on that night itself. She answered their questions and gave them advice in earnest words and with good intentions. She finally collapsed after the audience with a stroke and brain ischemia, and from then on, she was bedridden, but she was still very clear-headed.

It was mentioned that she said: “There is a huge gap in nurturing Buddhist talent, and there is a need to propagate the Buddhadharma, so I cannot go!” With a strong will, she extended her life and lived for more than a decade, including doing retreats and granting vows out of retreat.

Professor Chen Bing
Buddhist scholar, Sichuan University

About Professor Chen Bing

Chen Bing is a famous Buddhist scholar in China. He graduated in 1981 from the Department of Religion of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He currently serves as a Professor and Postgraduate Supervisor of Sichuan University’s Institute of Taoism and Religious Culture, and is the director of Sichuan University’s Buddhist Culture Research Center. He is also a Research Fellow at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in China, a librarian at the Sichuan Provincial History Museum, and a member of the Standing Committee of the 12^th CPPCC in Chengdu.

He is the author of “The Buddha’s Wisdom”, “Zen Buddhism and Eastern Civilization”, “A Guide to Freedom in Buddhism”, “Buddhist Life and Death”, and “Buddhist Psychology”. He has published more than 100 papers over the years and nurtured more than 70 master’s and doctoral students.