In order for Buddhism to flourish, only monks can praise monks. “In the history of our country, there was a” May 1st Incident “where the Zen sect of the Song Dynasty destroyed Buddhism. Master Gu of the Zen sect even made a special reflection on this, saying,” Born with three martial arts, my sect was plagued by disasters. When the Buddhist monk returned home, the pagoda and temple were empty, it should be because he worshipped the sun in the past and could not maintain the true wind. The reason why his Buddhist sect suffered such a fate is all because his disciples “did not abide by the rules and regulations”. Of course, there have been many enlightened monks throughout history, such as Master Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty and the Yonglong Holy Monk of the Ming Dynasty.
Yonglong Monk became a monk at Yinshan Temple in Suzhou, strictly abiding by the rules and regulations, and determined to promote Buddhism for the benefit of the people. In the 25th year of the Hongwu reign, Zhu Yuanzhang issued a decree to ordain monks, and at that time, more than 3000 monks and nuns from various temples in Nanjing sought ordination. Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy. In his early years, he received great blessings from Huangjue Temple. This move was to repay the karma of that time and prepare to select outstanding monks to educate the people. There are always speculators with malicious intentions, and even imposters. The emperor was furious and ordered the Jinyiwei generals to take them away.
After learning of this, Monk Yonglong decided to die to dispel the emperor’s anger, hoping to save these 3000 lives. “Please burn yourself to save them, the emperor agrees,” Zhu Yuanzhang agreed. On the day of the execution, Monk Yonglong brought a stick of incense and wrote the four words “Wind and Rain are Good” on it. He told the executioner, “Your Majesty, if you encounter drought, use this incense to pray for rain, and it will touch your feet.” After speaking, he burned himself with a torch. Zhu Yuanzhang also fulfilled his promise and spared the 3000 monks.
Bingju self immolated
Shortly after the death of Monk Yonglong, there was a severe drought. Just as the ministers were at a loss, Zhu Yuanzhang remembered what Monk Yonglong had said and quickly had someone take the incense to Tianxi Temple to pray for rain. It was indeed true. Zhu Yuanzhang was delighted with his dragon face and personally wrote a poem to commemorate him, saying, ‘This true holy monk will always rain.’. According to legend, after the self immolation of the Yonglong holy monk, his bones did not fall down, but instead attracted a group of cranes circling around and waves of strange fragrance attacking him (the bones stood tall, the strange fragrance attacked people, and the group of cranes danced on the top of the niche). The Buddhist saying ‘If I don’t go to hell, who will go to hell?’ is revered by the compassionate monk Yonglong.
