CHINESE PLAN OF MOUNT OMEI, SURMOUNTED BY THE SEAL OF THE MONASTERY OF THE GOLDEN SUMMIT.
BUDDHIST MATINS
During my day's rest I attended two religious services, besides a "choir-practice" of young boys who had not yet become fully-fledged monks. The services were well intoned, and, considering one's strange surroundings, had a singular impressiveness. The ordinary daily prayers are very simple, consisting in little more than repeated invocations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas: they are "praises" rather than prayers. The ordinary Morning Service or Matins (Tsao K'o)[104] begins with a procession of monks into the principal hall or chapel—Ta hsiung pao tien,[105] "The Precious Hall of the Great Lord (or Hero")—where, after circling round the central figure of Sakyamuni, keeping one bared shoulder towards the image, they take their seats on low benches on left and right. In front of Sakyamuni are lighted candles and burning sticks of incense. The service then begins by the general invocation, Nam Mo Pên Shih Shih Chia Mou-ni-Fo:[106] "Praise to our Lord Sakyamuni Buddha." This is followed by Nam Mo Tan Lai Mi Lei Tsun Fo:[107] "Praise to the Honoured One Maitrêya, the Buddha that is to be." The Buddhas of the past and future having thus been honoured, a bell is sounded to announce a change in the manner of address, when somewhat similar phrases of adoration, interspersed with short hymns of praise, are sung in honour of some of the great Bodhisattvas, those selected at the service attended by me being the following, in the order named: Wên Shu Shih Li[108] (Manjusri, the Lord of Ta chih,[109] Great Wisdom); P'u Hsien[110] (Samanta Bhadra, the patron saint of Mount Omei); Hu Fa Chu T'ien P'u Sa[111] (all the Bodhisattvas, Defenders of the Faith); San Chou Kan Ying Hu Fa Wei To Tsun T'ien P'u Sa[112] (the Honoured Bodhisattva Wei-To,[113] the Distributer of Rewards and Punishments throughout the three Continents, Defender of the Faith); Jih Kwang Pien Chao and Yüeh Kuang Pien Chao[114] (the Bodhisattvas of the Far-Shining Light of the Sun and of the Moon—who are regarded as attendant on Yo-Shih Fo, the Healing Buddha of the East); Tsêng Fu Ts'ai Shên[115] (the Bodhisattva who increases happiness and wealth—the Chinese "God of Wealth"[116]); and finally Shih Fang P'u Sa[117] (the Bodhisattvas of the Ten Quarters of the Universe).
BUDDHIST VESPERS
The most interesting part of the service consists in the short "lections" of extracts from the scriptures, which take the place of the lessons and sermons of Christian churches. The lections are followed by short hymns, some of which have been specially composed for liturgical purposes and are not to be found in the sacred books. Several processions and prostrations take place during the service. The intoning when heard from some distance is often not unlike a Gregorian chant, but the words are uttered rather too quickly, especially in the constantly-repeated invocations.
The Evening Service or Vespers (Wan K'o[118]) begins with a solemn invocation to the mythical Buddha of the Western Paradise, the sublime Amitabha.[119] Then follow the praises of Yo Shih Fo, the Healing Buddha, who "averts calamity and lengthens human life."[120] Two Buddhas, as in the Morning Service, having thus been invoked, the next to be lauded are a new selection of the great Bodhisattvas, in the following order: Kuan Yin or Kuan Shih Yin, the "Goddess of Mercy," and Ta Shih Chih, the Bodhisattva of Great Strength,[121] the two who under Buddha Amitabha preside over the Western Paradise; Ti Tsang Wang,[122] who saves men from the terrors of hell; Wei To, Defender of the Faith—the only divinity whose name is included in both Morning and Evening Services; Chia Lan Shêng Chung P'u Sa[123] ("the holy Bodhisattvas, Protectors of the Monasteries," of whom Kuan-Ti, the Taoist "God of War," is one); Li Tai Tsu Shih P'u Sa[124] (the Patriarchs, the Bodhisattvas of Successive Ages); Ch'ing Ching Ta Hai Chu P'u Sa[125] (all the Pure Bodhisattvas of the Great Ocean: i.e. of life and death or continual metempsychosis).
"Buddha's Glory" is not the only marvel that the fortunate pilgrim may hope to behold when he reaches the Golden Summit. Night, on Mount Omei, has its treasures hardly less glorious than those of day. These take the form of myriads of little lights, moving and glimmering like winged stars in the midst of an inverted firmament. They are known as the Shêng Têng (Holy Lamps),[126] and have been described to me—for alas! I saw them not—as brilliant specks of light darting hither and thither on the surface of the ocean of mist on which in daytime floats the coloured aureole. A fanciful monk suggested to me that they are the scintillating fragments of the "Glory of Buddha," which is shattered at the approach of night and reformed at the rising of the sun. Foreigners have supposed that they are caused by some electrical disturbance; but the monk's explanation, if the less scientific of the two, is certainly the more picturesque.
DESCENT OF MOUNT OMEI