Everyone is happy - a one-day tour of Guiyuan Zen Temple

Guiyuan Zen Temple one-day tour After exiting from Zhongjia Village subway station, it only takes a few minutes to walk to Guiyuan Temple. You can enter to visit by scanning a QR code and paying 10 yuan for incense money at the entrance. I first visited the Vairocana Hall, where there is an inscription by Master Changming, located above the Maitreya Buddha statue enshrined in the front, which reads 'Everyone is happy.' The horizontal stroke of the character '大' (big) is especially thick in the middle, and if you remove this stroke, it becomes the character '人' (person), resembling the big belly of Maitreya Buddha; the two '口' (mouth) characters in '喜' (joy) are also not completely closed, signifying 'always smiling,' which corresponds to the couplet written beside the Buddha statue: 'Great tolerance can contain things in the world that are hard to contain, and compassion always smiles at the laughable people in the world.' Master Changming's calligraphy is a treasure of the temple, and many couplets reflect this, such as 'The law of the hermit has no fixed law, then it is known that the non-law is also the law; The affairs of the world are finished yet not finished, why not let it be with unfinished.' 'Think and then act, act and then let go, what is there not to finish once it's finished Wisdom arises from awareness, awareness arises from ease, and life after life is still no life.' Visiting the newly built Yuantong Pavilion, which was completed in 2012, the construction is very spectacular. The term 'Yuantong' comes from the Buddhist scriptures 'Yuantong Bodhisattva.' The building started construction in the first half of 2009, consisting of a palace-style stone base and a redwood mortise and tenon structure. Its style is an inner five-story and outer three-story four-eave tower-style building, one of the large traditional wooden structures in China. The base of the building is 60.8 meters long and wide, covering an area of 4,139 square meters, and is over 60 meters high. In addition to inviting 25 Yuantong Bodhisattvas, a 3.2-ton 'Treasure of the Temple' that was previously transported to Guiyuan Temple and a jade field will be crafted into a 2-ton Maitreya Buddha statue to be displayed here. I don't know why there are few visitors to the Yuantong Pavilion, but I think the stone carvings inside are very exquisite and sacred, worth visiting. Unknowingly, two hours passed, and after leaving the Zen temple, next to it is the Strange Stone Museum. After registering at the entrance, I went in to visit the strange stones from all over the country. In addition to the strange stones, there are also exquisite fossils and mineral crystals, covering a large area, with the characteristics of Jiangnan gardens, cleverly integrating plants, bonsai, and strange stones. The garden has green pines, bamboo, red maple, ginkgo, crape myrtle, fragrant citron, etc., with colorful colors in all four seasons, uneven heights, and varied scenery. Decorated with Lingbi stone, Taihu stone, and Yellow River stone, it allows visitors to enjoy the picturesque garden while not forgetting the theme of 'appreciating stones.'