相书-晃晃悠悠的传承 The Precarious Transmission

公元526年，有一个40岁的老人（40岁在当时是可以当爷爷了）独自一人来到少林寺，少林寺是一个佛教教学，国际会议，国际交流，佛教研究，佛教书籍集中，高水平佛学人才汇集的这么一个近千人的佛教大学形式的地方，一个没有官方背景，没有佛教传承背景，农村小庙来的，同时也没有如何人脉关系（少林寺），可能在少林寺连正式编制都没有，寺里只提供饮食和简陋的住处，来少林寺的时间可能在526年的秋天，
为什么在526年来少林寺呢，原来在这一年的春天，这个老人在禅修中恍惚看到了一个神人，对他说，要找到你的形而上的理想，不要这么坐着了，向南找去，在这场如同梦境的遭遇中，老人自认为是神人点播，自己命名为神光，神光在出家前精通儒，道，但感觉还有提高的空间，30岁时出家为僧，在两年的佛教学习后，用佛教的方法论开始了探索的旅程，8年的密集禅修，最后到了头痛欲裂的程度，在神光的师傅要用中医的方法为神光疗愈时，被某种力量阻止，在告知神光这是一种叫脱胎换骨的过程后，头痛自愈，有了这种死亡经历，神光的行为更加从容了，反正死过，再死就要有价值的去死了。
在少林寺流言蜚语是一种传统娱乐模式，在留言中神光听说11月中来了一个印度婆罗门，在23日开始，每天在后山一个洞里静坐，为了回避打扰，面壁而坐，终日无语，开始神光也没有当回事，但流言蜚语一直到12月初，神光出于好奇，在12月9号，当时是冬天，神光所以有空闲，在和婆罗门接触后，神光在面壁婆罗门的身边学习了六年，在得到达摩的嘱托后，下山，四处瞎逛。
在72岁时把达摩的嘱托交给了一个40多岁，有严重花柳病的在家人手里，后来这个在家人也出家了，
107岁摊上一个官司，被人称为妖，斩杀，在近30年的时间，混迹在城镇，烟花酒巷，被人诟病，这也是后来被看成妖人的理由，总之是一个没溜的生活方式。

[Xiang’s Essay] - The Precarious Transmission

In the year of 526 A.D., a forty-year-old man (an old age in ancient times) came to Shaolin Temple by himself. Shaolin Temple, back in its times, was a kind of Buddhist Institute, where a thousand monks learned and studied about Buddhism, discussed and communicated with each other, and attended international Buddhist Conferences. But this man, without background, without connections, without even a formal position in the Temple, came to live here on simple food and dwelling. But why? Back in the spring of the same year, the old man met a saint during his meditation. The saint told him to get up and head south to pursue his metaphysical ideal. The old man believed he was awakened by a saint in this dreamlike encounter, and from then on named himself Shen Guang (saint’s enlightenment).

Shen Guang knew well about Confucianism and Taoism before becoming a monk in his thirtieth year. After a two-year study of Buddhism, he began to use Buddhist methodologies on his research of the world. Eight years of concentrated zen-meditation gave him a headache that nearly drove him mad. Shen Guang’s teacher, at the point of curing Shen Guang with Chinese medication, was stopped by some sort of mysterious power. After being told that this was a process of rebirth, Shen Guang’s headache was gone. Having died once, he decided to die a more valuable death. From the gossips (which was a traditional entertainment here) that spreaded around the Temple, Shen Guang learned that an Indian Brahmin had lived here since the middle of November, sat in a cave facing the wall all day, to avoid any talk or disturbance. Shen Guang took no notice at first. But as the gossips were still flying around in December, he became so curious that he finally met the Brahmin on his own on the night of December 9th.

Shen Guang studied from the Brahmin for six years. Then he came down from the mountain and toured around according to Bodhidharma’s order. At the age of seventy-two, he transmitted the order to a forty-year-old man who suffered from serious venereal disease. Afterwards, this man became a monk, too.

For thirty years Shen Guang fiddled around in the town and lingered in brothels or taverns, and was reviled by townsmen. At the age of a hundred and seven, he was committed to be evil and got beheaded.

from: zenlet.com