If you look down from a high altitude, facing north and facing south, Weishan Mountain looks like the character "人".
The gathered part of the left leg, or the ankle of the foot, is Dongshan, and further downward and outward from Dongshan is Annan County, and the county seat is located at the foot of Dongshan.
While Xu Guangling and Xu Tonghui were in retreat in the compound, Xu Yishan was in retreat in Dongshan.
The compound located on Dongzheng Street in Juncheng can be described as an out-and-out mansion, truly worth a thousand dollars, but compared with Xu Yishan's retreat, it is nothing.
Looking down from a high altitude, this is a valley surrounded by hills.
In the valley, gurgling water can be found everywhere, including waterfalls, pools, springs, streams, lakes, swamps and the like. All kinds of trees, flowers and plants use water as their source and thrive in this stream.
In the valley.
Green, refreshing green.
Qing, Qing that clears the mind and calms the mind.
This is no ordinary valley, this is a spiritual place, and it is the leading spiritual place in the entire Dongshan Mountain.
Right in the center of the valley, on the edge of a small lake, stand three thatched cottages.
The outside of the thatched house is either flowers, plants or trees, completely covered by greenery. From a bird's eye view, you can't see the thatched house at all, but the inside of the thatched house is quite exquisite, either made of stone, wood, or
Wood and stone.
One of them is Xu Yishan's meditation retreat.
There was only a small door but no windows, and it was empty inside, with only a straw mat spread on the wooden floor.
The other room is a study room.
There are windows on the left and right, and a large number of books hang on the four walls, and those books are either opened or closed, and they are all written by Xu Yishan himself.
There is also a room for living and leisure, with a bed, drinks and food.
During this retreat, Xu Yishan's schedule was very regular.
Get up early in the morning and walk around the lake and through the valley, slowly and deeply reciting the old and absorbing the new among the refreshing water swamps and trees.
Occasionally, the governor of a county, a high-ranking monk with a high rank, would climb up a tree like a monkey on a whim.
Of course, he is not "climbing", and his movements are much more flexible than that of a monkey. With just a tap of his foot, he will go up to the tree, or directly to the treetop, and then touch the treetop and stand facing the sun.
Occasionally, he would extend his hand.
Then, from north to south, east to west, far or near, some birds living in this valley "flyed" towards his palm, or landed on it, or hung in front of him.
This high-ranking monk would play pranks like a child, watching the birds escape in different postures after being stunned.
And so on, after about two or three hours of activity, Xu Yishan will return to the retreat thatched cottage and spend the morning in meditation.
After finishing his meditation, Xu Yishan would go to the living thatched cottage.
Sip wine or water and enjoy the surrounding scenery through the wide-open window bars, or just lie on the bed and take a nap while sprawled out.
Xu Yishan basically spent the afternoon in his study.
He will pick up a big or small pen and write big or small words on a large or small paper.
Paper, like rice paper.
A pen is a writing brush.
This is a scene that is more than 90% similar to the ancient Chinese on Earth. It is not an exaggeration to even say it is 100%.
Xu Yishan writes according to his heart and at will.
Before this retreat, he had emptied out all the things he had written in his study before. During this retreat, he sorted out the past years, past practices and practices by writing at will.
"Books are cultivation, practice, Dharma, and Tao."
On the first day of seclusion, Xu Yishan picked up his pen and looked at the lake and mountains outside the thatched cottage, thought for a while, and then wrote these words.
He was accepted as a disciple by his teacher when he was nine years old.
At that time, because of his age, he could not practice cultivation, but the teacher's instruction was to let him write, and also told him that writing can calm his mind, calm his mind, clarify his mind, and concentrate his mind.
A word has more or less strokes, and each stroke should be written carefully, without starting or closing in a hurry, and in a slow and measured manner. This is called "cultivation".
What you need to cultivate is stroke by stroke, accumulated over time.
A piece of characters should be arranged horizontally in rows and vertically in columns. There are also specialties between characters, between rows and rows, and between columns.
Maybe this word is good and that word is bad.
It's possible that this word is good and that word is good, but when the two words are seen together, it's not good.
The teacher said back then that this is called "walking".
Action is the way forward and backward, as well as the way to gain and loss.
Think beyond one word and consider the entire word.
If there is no complete planning and vision for the entire banner, then even if every word is written carefully, conscientiously, and excellently, the entire banner may not be very good.
Or it's not just bad, it's terrible.
This means that we only know the small but don’t know the big, we only know how to advance but don’t know how to retreat, we only know how to gain but don’t know what to lose.
All these are ignorant of the "Dharma".
Dharma is measure.
There is a degree of pitching and a degree of advance and retreat.
There is a degree of gain and loss, and there is a degree of profit and loss.
As for the "Tao" besides "Dharma", the teacher didn't say much about it at that time.
After writing this word, Xu Yishan thought about it, but just shook his head and smiled.
On this day, all afternoon, Xu Yishan just wrote these few words, um, nine words.
It is just nine short characters, but in his writing, they take on ever-changing postures, whether horizontal or vertical, square or round, arranged in a row, or connected end to end.
Perhaps the sizes of the nine characters are not consistent, one character is as big as a tree, and the other eight characters are like flowers and grass, or like birds, or like clouds and water, relying on, circling, and dotted among the big trees.
Or the two characters are side by side and dependent on each other, and the other seven characters are arranged around them.
The list goes on and on.
If the image and momentum are described by water, it may be like gurgling water, or like a waterfall hanging on a river, or like a still shadow sinking into a jade stone, or like a turbid wave emptying out, or like the glistening water, or like the ebb and flow of the tide.
…
Dazzling and magnificent.
Nine characters form a complicated world of "action" and "dharma".
This is also Xu Yishan's world.
It is the world inside the body and the world outside the body.
It is the imaginative world of the heart and mind, and it is also the real world of knowledge and action.
From afternoon to evening, Xu Yishan filled the room with books. The walls and floor of the study room were all covered with these banners.
When the sun was about to set, Xu Yishan gathered these banners and burned them by the small lake outside the thatched cottage.
After all the banners were reduced to ashes, a pot of wine hung loosely on a few branches was still boiling and ready for drinking.
With the aroma of wine overflowing, Xu Yishan casually poured some wine into the lake, attracting many small fish to come up and compete for food. The lake that was calm just a moment ago suddenly became full of fish.
Xu Yishan watched the play with a smile and spent the first night of this retreat with a pot of wine.
"With great success in condensing Qi, one will not be afraid of cold and heat. With great success in unblocking meridians, there will be no disease. With great success in opening one's orifices, life will be doubled."
The next day, in the study, Xu Yishan wrote these words.
And in this line of words, what Xu Yishan was thinking about this afternoon was the experience of condensing Qi, unblocking the meridians, and opening up the mind since he started practicing.
That was a long time ago, but when I think about it now, it's still the same as yesterday.