Old Monk Xuyun 09

Old Monk Xuyun 09

Therefore, the old monk has very strict requirements for us.

I feel that the blessings of being a monk now are so great.

In terms of life, clothing, food, housing, and transportation are countless times more abundant than in the past.

Therefore, we should pay more attention to cherishing this blessing.

People with merit will practice more smoothly.

If there is no merit, no matter which method you practice, there will be various obstacles.

The old monk once told us: He only shaves his head once every year on the 30th of the twelfth lunar month and washes his feet only once on the 30th night of the twelfth lunar month.

So in the photo, you can see that his hair and beard are very long, that's why.

But since 1952, he has shaved his head and washed his feet every two months, or sometimes once a month.

His eyebrows were very strange, with several long hairs growing at the end of them.

In less than half a month, they had grown six or seven inches in length, hanging down to his chin.

Sometimes he felt it was getting in the way of washing his face and eating, so he would pull it out with one hand.

But soon after, it grew back. At that time, we kept his hair and long eyebrows until the Cultural Revolution, when they were confiscated.

The old monk also said that he would never take a bath in his life.

So what should you do if you sweat on a hot day? Sometimes he would sweat on hot days, but every time he would have to push us again and again, and it would take him several days to reluctantly change his clothes.

The strange thing was that the clothes he changed didn't smell of sweat at all.

Especially the cloth socks he wears, which are often changed only once every half a month or a month, and they don't smell at all. His conduct as an old man is unique.

所以老和尚對我們的要求是很嚴格的。

我覺得我們現在的出家人福報太大了，生活上，衣、食、住、行各方面比過去不知道充裕了多少倍。

因而，我們在這個福報當中，要更加註意惜福。有福德的人，修行起來也會比較順利。

如果沒有福德，無論修那一種法門，都會有種種的障礙。

老和尚曾經對我們說：他在每年的臘月三十才剃一次頭，三十晚上才洗一次腳。

所以在相片上，看到他的頭髮和鬍鬚都是很長的，就是這個原因。

但自從五二年以後，他每兩個月、或許有時一個月便剃一次頭，洗一次腳。

他的眉毛很奇特，在眉尾長了幾根長毛，不到半個月的時間，已長了六、七吋長，垂至下顎。

有時他感到洗臉吃飯礙事，便一手把它拔掉。

但不久後，它又長出來了。

當時，我們把他的頭髮和長眉毛都收藏起來，直至「文革」才被抄走。

老和尚又說自己終生不洗澡。

那如果是在大熱天，出汗了又怎麼辦呢？在大熱天有時他也會淌汗，但是每次都要我們一再催促，好幾天才肯勉強更換一次衣服，奇怪的是他換下來的衣服，一點汗臭味也沒有。

尤其是他穿的布襪子，經常半個月或一個月才換一次，也沒有一點臭味。

他老人家的行持是與眾不同的。