Ep. 113: Two Monks at Lingyin Temple

It's not all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats...

Squeezed in among the supernaturals in any temple--the cosmic Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas and Arhats, the Hindu and Daoist gods, and so on--one will occasionally find a genuine, historic personage, albeit one who has most likely be "legendized" (is that a word?). There are at least two at Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, prominently placed, and I'd like to share them with you.

The first is an old friend of mine: Kukai ("Sky-Sea") the Japanese founder of the Shingon sect (also mentioned in Ep. 112). I traipsed around an 88-temple pilgrimage dedicated to him in Japan (see Ep. 039: The Sacred Pilgrimage of Shikoku), and visited several sites associated with his travels in China (you can read about that, too: Ep. 047: Kukai: A Japanese Monk in China).

Let me share some writing revised from a piece I placed in the Shenzhen Daily back in November of 2015: