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The Convent: Religious Life
In the middle of the fifth century, a matter of
great concern to the nuns themselves was the proper transmission of the
monastic rules. Several of the biographies (nos. 14, 27, and 34) deal with the
question of whether the Chinese nuns were truly nuns, whether the proper ritual
had been carried out in the proper way. This question was important because the
lineage—that is, the transmission of the teaching from master to
disciple—defined where one belonged and whether one belonged. An
authentic lineage established legitimacy. The problem of the transmission of
the monastic precepts was solved to everyone's satisfaction, but it must be
pointed out that it was the foreign monks and nuns who pressed for resolution
on behalf of the Chinese nuns. Chinese monks are conspicuously absent.
The monastic precepts were designed to serve as a
guide for living the Buddhist life of self-discipline and nonharm as well as to
keep harmony and order within the religious community. The biographer's
frequent emphasis on a woman's strict observance of the monastic precepts
suggests, however, not only that the woman was fulfilling her monastic duties
to perfection but also that she perhaps stood in contrast to other nuns who did
not live up to the monastic code. Furthermore, the strict observance of the
precepts, as described in the biographies, looks very much as though it had
become a religious ritual in and of itself rather than merely the means to
self-discipline and harmony.
The women engaged in many cult practices, among
which were devotion to Kuan-yin in particular, a bodhisattva (Buddha to be); to
Amita Buddha who presides over the Western Paradise; to Maitreya who is the
next Buddha and presides over the Tushita Heaven; and to Pindola, an arhat
(enlightened one), who showed off his magic powers and was required by the
Buddha to remain in the world to serve as a field of merit until the last
person attains enlightenment. Worshipping, making vows, or sincere requests to
these four divine figures brought responses that pointed out the holiness or
sincerity of the petitioner. In the Kuan-yin Scripture
boons such as safety from brigands are promised to one who chants the scripture
with all her heart and mind. Hui-chan (no. 7) is an excellent example. Faith
brings response and provides the proof of the truth of the Buddhist claims.
Amita Buddha, also called Amitāyus (infinite
life) or Amitābha (infinite light), honors the believer with supernal
signs, indicating that the woman will be reborn in the Western Paradise.
Maitreya, the next Buddha, presiding over the Tushita Heaven, welcomes to his
heaven those who hope to be reborn on earth when he himself is born there as
the Buddha. Ching-hsiu (no. 52) was a devotee of Maitreya.
Connected at times with the Maitreya cult is the
cult of Pindola. The nun prays and petitions for the presence of Pindola. If
she is sufficiently worthy, he will let his presence be known. Because Pindola
is never seen, one must listen carefully to hear him should he accept the
invitaton and come to bathe. Or if a fresh flower is placed under the mat where
Pindola is invited to sit, the flower will not be faded or crushed. The nun
Ching-hsiu (no. 52) was also a devotee of Pindola.
Another very important Chinese Buddhist practice
was vegetarianism. In the earliest days of Buddhism in India, monks and nuns
ate whatever was put into their begging bowls—be it vegetable or meat,
fresh or spoiled. They were to eat all with equanimity, so long as they had no
reason to suspect that an animal had been harmed or killed specifically for
their use. Yet, in China, vegetarianism, although it derives logically from the
first Buddhist precept of nonharm to living creatures, received other
influences, too. Beyond merely strict vegetarianism, when we read of women
giving up all cereals (nos. 25, 28, and 34) or eating any part of the pine tree
(no. 25), we have crossed over the line into Taoist practices designed to lead
to immortality.
30 This is yet more evidence found in the early Chinese
Buddhist biographies, whether of monks or of nuns, that indicates the lack of
clear separation between the practices of the two religions in the first years
of Buddhism in China.
A third type of dietary regimen is the eating of
fragrant oil or incense (no. 36), a practice connected with preparations for
self-immolation by fire. Finally, some women forgot about food altogether (no.
47).
Another very important monastic activity was the
reading, studying, and chanting of the Buddhist scriptures and the texts of
monastic rules. Traditional Chinese reverence for the written word worked
favorably for Buddhism, which is not a laconic religion, and this attitude
focused not only on the meaning of the contents but also on the actual
materials, the written characters, and even the physical volume embodying those
contents.
31 Preservation and transmission of the texts was
very important. Monastics strove to memorize vast amounts of scripture, their
success measuring, to a certain degree, their sanctity. Another mark of
sanctity was the ability to chant these texts very rapidly. The chanting itself
may also be seen as a kind of incantation or magic spell.
Meditation was the heart of Buddhist monastic life.
The biographer lauds many women for their ability to enter the meditative
state, but, in those biographies where a physical description of the meditating
woman is given, we find that the woman has entered a trance state of which
other Buddhists of the time disapproved.
32 The body of the woman in a trance was like wood or stone, rigid and
inflexible, and her companions easily mistook her trance for death (no. 29).
This kind of trance points away from Buddhism and toward the Taoist belief in a
seeming death as a doorway to immortality.
33 Once
again Buddhism and Taoism are intermingled.
A nun's manner of death is as important as her way
of life because an auspicious death identifies holiness. Omens such as
fragrance or lights may appear (no. 25) The Buddha himself may come to receive
the dying woman (no. 15). The biographer in his preface singles out for special
mention those women who commit suicide by fire as having "achieved the epitome
of the ascetic life" (nos. 26 and 47). This practice, always carried out at
night so that the nun, in effect, made of herself a lamp, finds authority in
the Buddhist scripture, The Flower of the Wonderful Law.34 This
scripture specifically and graphically describes the practice of burning a
finger, an arm, or the whole body as an offering in honor of the Buddha, an
exhortation to fervor and zeal that was not necessarily meant to be observed
literally. In China, nevertheless, not a few monks and nuns chose to offer
themselves by fire to the Buddha.
Under the right circumstances Chinese tradition
accepted suicide as the proper thing to do. Taoists generally cherished life,
seeking elixirs of immortality, but a certain Taoist precedent could have
contributed to the state of mind that found burning oneself up for the sake of
the Buddha an acceptable practice. According to traditional accounts, some
Taoist practitioners, after years of carrying out particular rituals and eating
special diets, used fire to transform themselves into immortals, their souls
rising up to heaven on the smoke.
35
Ambivalence about the practice of burning one's
body in honor of the Buddha is illustrated in the biography of Hui-yao (no.
36). She sought and received permission from the governor of the province to
carry out self-immolation, but he later withdrew his approval.
The nuns carried out their suicides by fire on the
nights of the changing phases of the moon, either the half-moon on the eighth
day of the lunar month or the full moon on the fifteenth day.
Women who rise bodily up to heaven (no. 1), or who
simply disappear (no. 10), are dying in a Taoist rather than a Buddhist manner,
such deaths signifying that the person has become an immortal.
36
The body of the nun Shih Hui-ch'iung (no. 20) remained incorrupt—a proof,
for Taoists, of immortality.
37 Buddhists in China accepted the phenomenon of the
incorrupt body as a mark of holiness, and throughout the centuries many
incorrupt bodies of holy monastics have edified the faithful.
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