If you happen to travel to China, according to Andy Matson, visit Gaomin Temple (a Zen temple), located in Yangzhou of Jiangsu Province. Andy, on a scholarship, visited a number of Buddhist temples in China. Of all the temples he visited, he found Gaomin to be on of the more interesting temples. Unlike most Buddhist temples, Gaomin survives on private donations. For Westerners like Andy, it best represents the ideals of Zen.
According to Andy, who lived in Japan, Gaomin Temple is not like a Japanese Zen temple where formality rules. Believe it or not, farming plays a prominent role in temple life (yes, there are chickens walking around in the temple grounds). Both monks and nuns help with the farming. Some of the crops grown are cucumbers and melons.
Meditation is done in a circle around four Buddhas. There are two circles with the monks sitting closer to the four Buddhas, the nuns making up the outer circle. In the summer both, while in seated meditation, hold a small section of bamboo to help dissipate the heat from the body.
Andy visited many more temples in Wutaishan which is located in the northeast of Shanxi. Perhaps you could say of this area that it is the land time forget which is a good thing since Wutaishan represents the changeless, eternal truths of Buddhism.
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