Guo'en Temple
This temple is located in the village where Huineng was born; his parents’ tomb is on site; this is also where Huineng returned for the final years of his life, after 35 years at Nanhua, and where he died.
The name Guo'en 囯恩寺 was bestowed on the temple by Empress Wu Zetian, to express the gratitude of the entire country to this place for giving the world Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch.
The temple is elegant and refined; details adorn rooflines and corners.
The name Guo'en 囯恩寺 was bestowed on the temple by Empress Wu Zetian, to express the gratitude of the entire country to this place for giving the world Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch.
The temple is elegant and refined; details adorn rooflines and corners.
The temple was converted to a school (probably during the Republican Period), and so by the time of the Cultural Revolution, its use as a temple had fallen from memory. As a result, the late Ming murals (below) and tiles produced from nearby Foshan, famous for its ceramics (left), are in excellent condition. The temple is now pursuing ways to preserve the cultural assets of the temple. The temple is also undergoing renovation and expansion. It sits on a large plot of land with a private park (a large, unkempt garden, really) adjoining.
When digging to lay the foundation of the new pagoda, the base of an ancient pagoda was discovered. Inside the site was found a bronze reliquary (a trapezoidal coffin-shaped box, with a lid that could be lifted off; see below) filled with Tang dynasty grains (below) padding a precious glass/crystal orb (below). The glass/crystal ball (about the size of a baseball) had a hole drilled into one side, and something wedged into to it to keep it sealed. Inside, 7 white bone relics of various size, each no larger than a pebble, were kept. They are now in a new reliquary (left).
Pictures courtesy of Robban Toleno.
Pictures courtesy of Robban Toleno.
A bronze bowl with gold gilt was found; the bowl oxidized almost immediately, and now is a brown color – it still glowed when fresh from the ground. Inside the bowl were a few dozen coins, almost 20 from the Sui, and over 50 from the early Tang. Judging by the dates of the coins that abruptly drop off right around the time of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, it is most likely that the contents of this pagoda were interred in the mid-Tang.
It would be an amazing discovery if one could link the treasures of this excavated pagoda to the historic Huineng.
At the temple today many people believe that the real transmission from Hongren - given at midnight - was a pouch of relics, probably given to him by his master; (and, following religious logic, were brought from India by Bodhidharma, and passed down generation to generation). This transmission of powerful bone relics, would be even more desirable than a robe and bowl. According to this understanding of the transmission, when the patriarchy after Huineng was no longer passed down to a single person but instead began branching into many lineages, this change actually refers to his deciding to safeguard the relics in a pagoda; thus Huineng began to transmit the formless teaching.
However, Huineng was illiterate did not write things down. There is no known proof to substantiate any of this, and it seems unlikely any more words or letters will be found to explain the founding of this pagoda. The abbot says, "This gives new meaning to the phrase buliwenzi 不立文字."
This story would, it is said, explain a saying long passed down at Guo’en Temple, "身在寳林心在囯恩 / His body may be at Baolin, but his heart-mind is here at Guo'en." To wit, it is believed that though his body relic went to Nanhua, the relics he himself treasured were kept here.
In the end, regardless of who entombed the relics and treasures, it is clear that this person(s) venerated the objects deeply and respected them highly. They created a unique, elaborate reliquary requiring considerable expense. The glass-crystal sphere is especially remarkable in this regard; such glass could not be produced in Tang China, let alone a piece so large; it certainly was an imported item of great value.
At the temple today many people believe that the real transmission from Hongren - given at midnight - was a pouch of relics, probably given to him by his master; (and, following religious logic, were brought from India by Bodhidharma, and passed down generation to generation). This transmission of powerful bone relics, would be even more desirable than a robe and bowl. According to this understanding of the transmission, when the patriarchy after Huineng was no longer passed down to a single person but instead began branching into many lineages, this change actually refers to his deciding to safeguard the relics in a pagoda; thus Huineng began to transmit the formless teaching.
However, Huineng was illiterate did not write things down. There is no known proof to substantiate any of this, and it seems unlikely any more words or letters will be found to explain the founding of this pagoda. The abbot says, "This gives new meaning to the phrase buliwenzi 不立文字."
This story would, it is said, explain a saying long passed down at Guo’en Temple, "身在寳林心在囯恩 / His body may be at Baolin, but his heart-mind is here at Guo'en." To wit, it is believed that though his body relic went to Nanhua, the relics he himself treasured were kept here.
In the end, regardless of who entombed the relics and treasures, it is clear that this person(s) venerated the objects deeply and respected them highly. They created a unique, elaborate reliquary requiring considerable expense. The glass-crystal sphere is especially remarkable in this regard; such glass could not be produced in Tang China, let alone a piece so large; it certainly was an imported item of great value.
Photographs courtesy of Robban Toleno and Jason Protass.
All text and photographs are copyright 2013 Jason Avi Protass, and may not be reproduced or used for commercial purposes without consent.