2015-08-31

【Aiden in English】

        Other than the amazing sights, sounds, and tastes of Beijing, the city had a sense of history as well. When I went to the Tanzhe Temple, it would be helpful for some history.

        The Tanzhe Temple was around before Beijing was established, which wasn’t hard to learn since the park advertised it. The old Buddhist temple had nearly been everything repaired, reconstructed, remodeled, or repainted. As usual, the flash on cameras was strictly forbidden. 

        The temple actually consisted of a series of small praying areas to different gods. And one common theme that always appears in the different cultures I travel to see is the religion social class. It is always the gods at the very top. For the Chinese, however, the gods were split into two tiers. One was Bodhisattva or Goddess, the small gods. They were ranked second on the food chain uh… I mean social class. These gods could be combined into a Buddha, a god over an attribute, or simply the king of food chain. Then the Goddess came, followed by the lowly humans. Below us were demons and ghosts, and finally came the members of the boiler room. The Tanzhe Temple was for the Goddess and the God. The difference between the two, other than their rank, was the God always had blue hair, meaning they were the best of the best (aka top-of-the-food-chain). In addition, the God all had a symbol of Wanzi on his chest that meant auspiciousness. Nazi adopted and bent its four legs at 90o in black. Well, technically, the Nazis changed this symbol from red (good) to black (evil), and flipped the sign vertically. 

        “The curving alley passes through the profound secluded place.” The Tanzhe Temple had altars where various gods and goddess sat, each with different attributes, and people could pray for what they wished in Deveraja Hall, Mahavira Hall, and Vairochana Pavilion. For example, it would be stupid to pray to the sun god for rain, unless you would wish for the sun to go away, which wouldn’t polite. Unfortunately, the day agreed to the requests, and I was walking in a downpour. The temple had many slippery stairs, and so far I hadn’t had a medical issue in Beijing yet. The temple also included some of the kings of the supernatural. The Dragon King was one of them. In his honor, a face of the dragon was carved into a stone slate about 5 feet/1.5 meters in width and height. A slight current of water gently flowed along the edge, and I picked up some mandarin melon berry I found on the ground and threw it in.

        Like that berry, my journey in Beijing ended with that statement. The berry though didn’t actually make it all the way to the end of the dragon and was stopped by a small incline. That’s where I am now. I’m nearly at the end, and the only problem remaining is a small incline. I am flying home.

【紅霞譯文】

        在北京，除了看得養眼聽得刺激吃得過癮之外，還能感受到歷史的呼吸，潭柘寺就是這樣一個帶我穿越時空的地方。

        先有潭柘寺後有北京城，公園的宣傳廣告早已深入人心。目前，這個古老佛教廟宇正處於大規模整理修繕改造翻新階段，但公園內部照舊嚴禁使用閃光燈照相。

        其實，潭柘寺由一系列大大小小代表不同神祗的祭堂組成。綜合本人以往旅遊經驗，所有社會背景的文化全都具有一個共同特點，宗教分三教九流不同階層，神的地位最高。然而，中華民族又把神分成兩個部分，其一為菩薩，屬於小神，地位居次，法度小於佛陀。由此說來，佛祖地位最高，菩薩排名第二，接下來為卑微的人類，眾生之下是妖魔鬼怪，最後才輪到地獄幽靈。潭柘寺專供佛陀和菩薩，兩者除地位有別，佛陀的頭髮呈藍色，表示級別最高，另外佛陀胸上刻有“萬”字吉祥標誌，而納粹也採用了這一符號，將萬字四條腿轉了九十度，並塗成黑色，結果納粹符號就由紅(好)變黑(壞)，角度也調得垂直起來。

        “曲徑通幽處，禪房花木深”。潭柘寺天王殿、大雄寶殿、毗盧閣內設有祭祀聖壇，佛陀和菩薩各就各位，前來敬拜彌勒、佛祖、觀音的信徒們燒香叩頭好不虔誠。在這裡口是心非顯得十分愚昧，譬如向太陽祈雨，除非你巴不得它從你眼前消失，可這樣做未免有失常理。“天有不測風雲，人有旦夕禍福”，想不到天公偏偏滿口應允，結果一下子把我淋成了落湯雞。寺院不少樓梯滑得要命，幸好截至到今天為止我在北京依舊安然無恙。神王祭壇是潭柘寺另一特色，龍王玉顏尊容被雕刻在一個五英尺／一米半正正方方的石碑上，涓涓雨水沿着四周慢慢流淌下來，我順手從地上撿起一顆柘樹果子扔了過去。

        柘樹果子離手瞬間，我出遊北京之行隨即拉下帷幕。柘樹果子並未按預想的路線打中龍碑，而是落在前面的石座上，這恰好反映出本人目前的處境，我行期在即，只待坐上飛機踏上歸家之路。