chan-金沙1005

when crossing over sentient beings, we monks can not just use a dharma-gate, speaking that i only cudgeled others and teach people to chant amitabha, which is far from adequate. we cross over people, should forwardly go to people and meet who is who. we should adept at making flexible use of dharma-gate, make dharma-gate cater to sentient beings and can not make sentient beings cater to dharma-gate. so we cannot subscribe to which buddhist school. for example, i’m from chan sect but i can’t persuade people to chant sutra. if i persuaded people to chant sutra, that seemed to betray ancestors, which is not so good. this violates principles of buddhism. i’m a monk from shaolin temple. shaolin temple is the ancestral monastery of chan sect, which is a historical result, not sealed by any one. so i’m pretty open-minded and don’t get caught in one’s trap as so called an heir. this is my basic standpoint of chan sect. (from words of chan by shi yongxin)