..續本文上一頁rgarments kept out the cold, but when the sash was worn on top of them, it was easy for it to fall off. When Buddhism had just been transmitted to China, probably those Bhikshus weren”t very bright. Being sort of stupid, they would lose their sash every once in a while. Once they lost it, since they had no money to make a new one, they had to go around begging, and this worried the laypeople. After awhile, the left-home people held a meeting, and decided, "This won”t do. Our sashes fall off all the time, and it”s hard to make new ones. The Chinese people live frugally, and it takes quite a bit of money to sew a new sash. If you lose your sash, it becomes a problem." Then, in their meeting, a not-so-intelligent Patriarch said, "I have an idea. We can sew a clasp and a ring onto the sash, and when we fit them together, the sash won”t fall off." That”s how the Chinese-style sash was invented. With the clasp and ring, the sash could now be worn without falling off. From then on, this became the model for the sash of left-home people. The sash originally had no clasp and ring. These were added on in China. So you can see that Theravada leff-home people from India wear the sash without a clasp and ring. From this, we know that when Buddhism is transmitted to a place, many reforms are made according to the region and the customs of the people.

　　But in China, after the reforms were made, people regressed and stopped wearing the sash. This was because at that time, most of the left-home people of China farmed to sustain themselves. When they worked, it was rather inconvenient to wear the sash, so they took it off, and only wore the shirt. They set the sash aside when they worked, but after awhile, they didn”t wear it even when not working. Some people still adhered to tradition and put on the sash when they entered the Buddha Hall or took their meal. But in the present-day tradition, people don”t even wear the sash to take their meal or enter the Buddha-hall, yet they feel qualified to be left-home people. In fact, nowadays, left-home people in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam and all the areas of Mahayana Buddhism just wear a long robe and consider that to be the uniform and attire of a Buddhist. This is a big mistake! If a left-home person does not wear his sash, it”s just like he”s returned to lay-life. He”s no different from a layperson. Ah! Wearing a robe with an arched collar doesn”t prove that you are a left-home person. And even if you do wear your sash, you still break the precepts everyday, and are always dishonest. How much more so when you don”t wear a sash!

　　Eating Once a Day at Noon is the Teaching of the Buddha

　　So now, there is virtually no Buddhism in China, nor in any of the places to which "Buddhism" spread from China. They have all lost the original appearance of Buddhism. When I contemplated this situation, I wanted to reform the trend in China, but I knew that I was just an insignificant person whose words carried no weight. I didn”t have any status, and nobody would listen to what I said. Even if I shouted until my throat was sore, no one would believe me.

　　Therefore, I vowed that I would reconstruct Buddhism in the West, and make it flourish once again, so that people could know what Buddhism is all about. Therefore, as soon as I came to America, I alone advocated wearing the sash and eating one meal a day. Since Americans constantly crave comfort and convenience, they didn”t like it too much when told to wear the sash. Nevertheless, in America there were few left-home people who didn”t wear there sash, so I was able to advocate wearing the sash. I also promoted the practice of eating one meal a day, because even before I left home, I ate one meal a day as a layman. And in all these years since I left h…

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