(Ecns.cn) -- Through the haze of incense smoke the two words "doctrine" and "virtue" can be seen on the cliff at Phoenix Mountain. Located northwest of Beijing's Haidian District, the mountain is home to Longquan Temple, which has become a destination for many young, well-educated monks and lay Buddhists looking to escape secular life.
At Longquan Temple, the stereotype of poor old monks no longer exists. Many of the monks and lay Buddhists there are young, wise and rich, and have come from as far away as Europe and the US. They not only receive 'higher education' at the temple, but also blog about it in many languages.
Buddha liberates those with predestined fate
A month ago, Li Bohan, a German university professor, decided to go through a tonsure (head shaving) ceremony so that he could listen to the Buddhist scholars and enjoy the tranquility of the monastery.
A year ago, Liu Zhiyu, an undergraduate student at Peking University, gave up admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and went to Longquan Temple to become a monk instead.
Three years ago, Dong Chunxi, one of the Top Ten Experts in Education Planning in China, got tired of the noisy and busy city life and decided to venture up Phoenix Mountain.
Four years ago, Xian Wei, a postgraduate at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, abandoned his promising science career to become a monk at Longquan Temple.
These are but a few examples of the Buddhist followers at Longquan, who have given up secular society in a quest for inner peace. While practicing spiritual discipline at the temple, they are divided into four categories: kappiya-to-be, kappiya, lay Buddhist and Buddhist monk.
They rise at dawn each morning to learn lessons from the Buddhist sutras which last about 45 minutes. They also attend lessons in the afternoon and after dinner.
When news of life at Longquan Temple was reported in the media, more and more government officials and celebrities became attracted to it -- most of them are drawn there not to become monks, however, but only to escape the city for a while.
For those with a predestined fate to become monks, it is not easy to go through the six-month or even one-year probation of temple life. Those who stay to the end were truly born for it.
A campus for lay Buddhists
People usually start out at Longquan Temple through volunteer work. For example, Liu Zhiyu volunteered at the temple in 2007, and his fellow alumnus from Peking University worked as a volunteer for three years before going through the tonsure ceremony.
Many students from the Chan (or "Zen") Society of Peking University choose to volunteer at Longquan Temple on weekends. According to a master at the temple, every weekend about 100 people go there for volunteer work. Sometimes there are more than 600 volunteers, ranging from 3 to 60 years old, half of whom are there for the first time.
Apart from those who only go on weekends, the temple has nearly 200 permanent volunteers, most of whom are lay Buddhists. Some converted to Buddhism as early as 2005 when Longquan Temple was officially reopened to the public.
Zhang Wanyu, who graduated from Beijing Normal University, started her volunteer work at Longquan Temple when she was a student. From weekly volunteer to permanent volunteer, she is now a lay Buddhist at the temple.
Zhang works, studies and practices sutras in the Dechen Building, the office for all lay Buddhists. She says the work for lay Buddhists is a complete learning process, which involves reading The Four Books and Five Classics, learning the benevolence of Confucius and Mencius, doing manual work in the forest or on remote mountains, cooking vegetarian food and many other things. Zhang believes that her studies of traditional culture endow her with a modest and gentle manner.
