Day 1. Thanksgiving Day in US. No turkey for me. I left my Beijing hotel at 6:30am in order to catch the one per day fast D train at 8:17 to Fuding 福鼎 without transfer. This train runs up to 200km/hr. Arrived at 5:40pm after many stops. My friend and her 11 year old son met me at the station. I'm very glad to finally see them again after 8+ years. We were classmates and neighbors for a year when I was taking French lessons in Paris, long ago. Seemed like it was in another life.
After a bus ride and a short taxi ride, we arrived at the school 清静寺 (Temple of Tranquility), where they were staying this week. This is a rather new establishment, concrete plain buildings.
Quite a few temples in the same town, and a few more monastery or schools in China by the same founder, let alone other branches or schools. Why here? Well, I was here to see a friend. She was here because she chanced upon this group years ago looking for a way to reign her first born, and the founder happens to be here due to warmer weather compared to his other sites.
Quick registration with my ID. I was then given a stack of reading material, 2 wash basins, 1 bucket size ~5 gallon, a pair of slippers, all plastic, a hand towel. I was shown to my bed in a room of 3 bunk beds (all 3 lower bunks already occupied) and 1 cabinet in a separate building (women's dorm). Once they found out that we hadn't had supper yet, I was given 3 ceramic bowls, 1 pair of chopsticks, 1 small square wash towel. They heated up something in two giant aluminum bowls. All 3 of us sat down in the cafeteria on separate benches, no talking allowed. Dinner: rice noodle with shitake mushroom and celery, wheat drop soup.
After washing my dishes. My friend took me to the 3rd floor, the main lecture room. Joined ~80 women,
~40 guys. Separate stairs, separate seating sides. Shoes outside, rows of thin pillows to sit on floor and thick blanket to cover the legs. It gets chilly at night sitting still. A lady in her 40s was talking about her experience of leaving home in a poor island and pursue Buddhism. She's affable. Laughter occasionally in the audience, age between 10 and ancient.
At 7:40-ish, we have free time to wash up and prepare for sleep. I chatted my roommates: a college graduate in landscape design, disgruntled of what she called the dark reality after a year or two working (unknown to her family); a middle-class woman from 天津 in her 50s who was laid off at her transportation job due to lack of work (talking to her family and coworkers all the time on her mobile whenever there's free time) ; a laconic lady from 广东 Canton, about my age who has a teenage son. They're all disappointed about the brevity of my 2 day sejour.
8:10pm lights out. No sound allowed, no walking outside the room, unless going to toilet. Electricity is not cut, so I can charge my phone. I caught up my messages and emails inside my blanket. No heat. Hot water was boiled and filled in thermos. This town doesn't get very cold in winter. However, these two days it dropped to almost freezing at night.
Day 2. Woke up by light and sound. My roommates all got up by 3am! I immediately fell back to sleep after they left. But not for long. At 4am, someone pulled my blanket and suggested that I should get up and join the reading in the lecture hall. I complied. Washed with icy water. Bundled in all my clothes, went to the 3rd floor. I was given a booklet, showed which page. Then I joined the others chanting 药师经: scriptures of Bhaisajyaguru. At 6am, morning exercise. At 6:30 breakfast. ~7:30, founder Fu 傅味琴 walked in aided by walking stick and his student. He chatted and answered questions submitted on paper. 9am lecture by one if his early disciples, which I liked. 10am, manual labor: I swept the floors of lady's residence hall (all 3 floors), while my 天津 roommate mop the floors. 11am lunch. 12pm-1:10 nap (yes, you have to be in bed and silent). Afternoon varies. Some smaller class. Me and a few others were taught how to fold blankets. I then went out to the town. But I wasn't allowed to leave until I presented my cause (to mend a shoe) and had a company (my roommate). We came back ~5pm, already missed dinner. But I still went to the dining hall, had some leftovers (plenty). 6pm, another scripture reading. 7pm, speeches by my fellow students: 3 minutes each, voluntary. Mostly are terribly boring. Only my friend was brilliant. Her theme was food, and encouraging people to come and eat.
Day 3. Quite similar. Reading 金刚经 Diamond Sutra this morning. I checked out after Teacher Fu's talk. Striped my bedding and put them in the bucket. One local lady who came to listen to the talk graciously gave me a ride to the bus depot. We chatted on her bike.
