The Ksitigarbha Heart Lamp: My Seven Years in the Buddhist Sect

Yu Ming graduated with a degree in Chinese literature. At the age of twenty-four, he shaved his head at Qingya Temple and took the Buddhist name Jue Xing. The year he entered the monastic life, he received a lamp: the Ksitigarbha Heart Lamp. It could reveal the obsessions of the dead, and those of the living, too.

Over the next seven years:

He helped a scholar who had been dead for three hundred years sit the final imperial examination.

He witnessed the fury of a mountain lord and the deceit of a false immortal, as well as the desires churning in the hearts of his dorm mates.

He also saw what he least wanted to see: the business dealings behind the gates of a great temple, monks at the Buddhist academy indulging in food and drink, and an old monk quietly fading away.

The temple gate collapsed. His master left. The lamp shattered, and grew clouded.

Some laughed at him for being a fool. Others advised him, "Either put up with it or get out."

In the seventh year, he took off his robes and returned the lamp. He hadn't lost. He had simply let go.

No System, no face-slapping, no invincibility. Seven years of hardship at a small temple in western Liaoning, and a portrait of the many lives of those who seek enlightenment.

May everyone who has ever looked back at a crossroads recognize the one inside the lamp.