Chinese Buddhist temples: wooden boards with adages of wisdom and other elements

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Realmwalker
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Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2021 11:58 am

Chinese Buddhist temples: wooden boards with adages of wisdom and other elements

Post by Realmwalker »

Hello everyone,

I hope you can help me alleviate some of my deep seethed ignorance. I would like to obtain the English nomenclature of the following elements seen in this photograph:

Image

If I understand correctly, the two wrathful images are facets of Buddha, or so I once was told. Should I interpret them as "Dharma protectors"? Do these two characters have a respective name? What do they signify?
I am especially interested in how I should name the two black wooden planks inscribed with characters. The two that flank the left and right side of the entrance. Would it be correct to name them steles? Wooden steles?
I understand they portray sayings of Buddhist wisdom. Is that correct?

I'm writing a story set in ancient China. For the story it is significant that these two planks contain a part of the heart sutra. Could this actually have taken place/take place in actual temples, historical or contemporary?

Thank you so much!

Your humble little friend,
Cleaner of your toilet and floor,

Realmwalker
humble.student
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Re: Chinese Buddhist temples: wooden boards with adages of wisdom and other elements

Post by humble.student »

They should be two of the four Heavenly Kings, which you can read about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Heavenly_Kings

The board merely has the name of the temple inscribed on it, from right to left. In this instance, 無為寺, Wuwei Temple, which has a nice Taoist ring to it. You might find other inscriptions in a temple, possibly even the full Heart Sutra, but probably not snippets hung over the front door.

And I do not think you could use the word stele to describe such a board. As far as I can tell, you could just call it a wooden plaque.
humble.student
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Re: Chinese Buddhist temples: wooden boards with adages of wisdom and other elements

Post by humble.student »

Sorry, I misread part of your post: the two pillars flanking the entrance are just that, pillars, not steles. I am not sure if the wooden boards have a specific name though.

And I was thinking that temple looked familiar; I've been there, and just now found some better pictures of the inscriptions, which are verses from the Diamond Sutra.

https://youimg1.tripcdn.com/target/100j ... 60_506.jpg
https://youimg1.tripcdn.com/target/1A08 ... 60_506.jpg

You can see pictures of steles by searching around for that word one Google. There may well of course be some steles in the courtyard of the temple, that goes without saying, if steles is what you're after.
Realmwalker
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Re: Chinese Buddhist temples: wooden boards with adages of wisdom and other elements

Post by Realmwalker »

Humble Student,

Thank you for your insightful comment!
Wu Wei Temple is in Yunnan, Dali; in the mountain range of Caoshan mountain. It allows foreigners to come there and practice Kung Fu.

All the best to you,

A wanderer nameless,
Realmwalker
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Queequeg
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Re: Chinese Buddhist temples: wooden boards with adages of wisdom and other elements

Post by Queequeg »

humble.student wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:52 pm They should be two of the four Heavenly Kings, which you can read about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Heavenly_Kings
Perhaps different in China, but in Japan, the guardians at the gates of temples are 仁王, emanations of Vajrapani and called 金剛力士, not of the Four Heavenly Kings.

Apparently called 哈哼二将 in China? The mouth open is called 哈将 and the mouth closed is called 哼将

Maybe this is helpful? Its about these guardians in Japan, but there is a blurb on their appearance in China.

https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/nio.shtml
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
humble.student
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Re: Chinese Buddhist temples: wooden boards with adages of wisdom and other elements

Post by humble.student »

Queequeg wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 8:17 pm
Perhaps different in China, but in Japan, the guardians at the gates of temples are 仁王, emanations of Vajrapani and called 金剛力士, not of the Four Heavenly Kings.

Apparently called 哈哼二将 in China? The mouth open is called 哈将 and the mouth closed is called 哼将

Maybe this is helpful? Its about these guardians in Japan, but there is a blurb on their appearance in China.

https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/nio.shtml
Doh! You are right of course, my mistake. OP can disregard my earlier post.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nio
Realmwalker wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 5:03 pm
Wu Wei Temple is in Yunnan, Dali; in the mountain range of Caoshan mountain. It allows foreigners to come there and practice Kung Fu.
Yes, I've been around there a fair few times and went hiking in the Cangshan mountains on occasion. No opportunity to practice Kung Fu in the temple though.
I should add that the verses are from the last couple of chapters of the Diamond Sutra, as far as I can see from those photos.
https://lapislazulitexts.com/tripitaka/ ... acchedika/
Realmwalker
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Re: Chinese Buddhist temples: wooden boards with adages of wisdom and other elements

Post by Realmwalker »

Thank you both so much for your insightful contribution :-).
As I continued with the chapter, I ended up with a more abstract description of the temple. Its a short story delivering a transcendental message; the moment in the temple became a creative and symbolic expression of that message. I felt it was okay if it would not be entirely coherent with actuality; afterall, the transcendental reality is more important, reducing all else to the mere status of factoid :). In this moment in the story, my Taoist experience of reality provides a Taoist intepretation of the heart sutra. Note that the temple here is a ruin and is abandoned:
I walked the courtyard where stood a rusting ritual cauldron
covered in green mosses; in the shrine hall
stood a statue of the World Honoured One
himself. It was carved out of wood; and the ivy
that covered some of the courtyard outside had
crept its way in, and grew around this wooden
shape of the Enlightened One, as if embracing
him.
Nature returning unto nature, thus my heart in
the moment bade me.
For all beings not joined with the
transcendental secret, are nature herself,
ignorant of her own principles.

Nature returning unto nature.
For the Tao is all things, and all things are the
Tao.
Therefore, to know the transcendental secret is
to transcend all things and yet return to them,
unified and in profound harmony attuned.
Upon the wall, carved deeply in black sheets of
wood, there was carved the Buddha’s wisdom,
a citation from the heart-sutra that echoed
upon the oneness that I saw:

Form is none other than emptiness, Emptiness
none other than form.
Form is only emptiness, Emptiness only form.
Feeling, thought, and choice, Consciousness
itself,
Are the same as this
Your humble little brother,
Polisher of shoes,

Realmwalker
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: Chinese Buddhist temples: wooden boards with adages of wisdom and other elements

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

Realmwalker wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:27 pm Thank you both so much for your insightful contribution :-).
As I continued with the chapter, I ended up with a more abstract description of the temple. Its a short story delivering a transcendental message; the moment in the temple became a creative and symbolic expression of that message. I felt it was okay if it would not be entirely coherent with actuality; afterall, the transcendental reality is more important, reducing all else to the mere status of factoid :). In this moment in the story, my Taoist experience of reality provides a Taoist intepretation of the heart sutra. Note that the temple here is a ruin and is abandoned:
I walked the courtyard where stood a rusting ritual cauldron
covered in green mosses; in the shrine hall
stood a statue of the World Honoured One
himself. It was carved out of wood; and the ivy
that covered some of the courtyard outside had
crept its way in, and grew around this wooden
shape of the Enlightened One, as if embracing
him.
Nature returning unto nature, thus my heart in
the moment bade me.
For all beings not joined with the
transcendental secret, are nature herself,
ignorant of her own principles.

Nature returning unto nature.
For the Tao is all things, and all things are the
Tao.
Therefore, to know the transcendental secret is
to transcend all things and yet return to them,
unified and in profound harmony attuned.
Upon the wall, carved deeply in black sheets of
wood, there was carved the Buddha’s wisdom,
a citation from the heart-sutra that echoed
upon the oneness that I saw:

Form is none other than emptiness, Emptiness
none other than form.
Form is only emptiness, Emptiness only form.
Feeling, thought, and choice, Consciousness
itself,
Are the same as this
Your humble little brother,
Polisher of shoes,

Realmwalker
My first impression was that this is a photo of a Taoist temple (because of the decorations on the roof) but I might be wrong.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
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