James Baquet jamesbaquet@gmail.com After my disappointing visit to Shangfeng Temple on Hengshan Mountain, I needed a win. And I got one! Nantai (South Terrace) Temple was a nice enough place in itself, but my visit ended with one of those moments that makes travel so worthwhile. The temple was founded in the early 6th century by a monk named Haiyin, who meditated on a large stone behind the temple, giving it its name. A little over a century later, the temple was home to the prominent Chan monk Shitou Xiqian, a disciple of the great Sixth Patriarch Huineng and his disciple Xingsi Qingyuan (whom we met at Jingju Temple in Ji’an, Jiangxi). Three of Chan’s traditional Five Houses can be traced through Shitou. Like Haiyin, he meditated on a stone near the temple, which gave him his common name: Shitou (stone). Through him, Nantai is one seat of Caotang Chan (Soto Zen), and thus has strong patronage from Japanese devotees. One thing I really appreciated was the group of three Buddhas on the altar. Usually, Buddha statues are uniform and frankly a little boring artistically. But here, the three Jade Buddhas, all in different styles, made quite a pleasing effect. Behind the temple stands a pagoda said to hold relics of the Buddha. But the real treasure for me was the attendant monk. At first, he scolded me for trying to enter the pagoda with my shoes on. Before I left he had given me a book, a booklet, a fan, and a piece of fruit. Though he told me he was 80, the layman with him spoke English and said he was 54 — just a few years younger than me! |