An Enlightened Story – The Sincere Reminder from the God of Lotus Pool (Part 1)

The source of this story: The Commentary of Great Wisdom Rescue / The Author: Bodhisattva Dragon-Tree (South Indian; 2nd century AD)

Translator-editor: Tao Qing Hsu (A Buddhist at home;Taiwan; Since AD 1971-- )

 

There is a Bhikkhu who moves and takes a walk complying with the practice of scripture along the poolside of lotus in the forest. He smells the aroma of lotus, feels joyful, and likes it very much. The lotus-pool spirit tells him,” Why you abandon the seat with clean Zen under the forest but steal the aroma of my lotus? All of the annoyance is arisen because of attaching the aroma.”

 

Then, the Bhikkhu sees a man who goes into the pool of lotus, picks a lot of lotuses, and leaves the pool of lotus after trampling and ruining it. The lotus-pool spirit keeps silence without talking.  

 

The Bhikkhu says to the spirit of lotus pool,” This person has spoiled your pool of lotus and takes your flowers. You do not say anything. I just walk along the poolside and you scold me that I steal your aroma.”

 

The lotus-pool spirit says,” A worldly evil person is often in the dirty droppings of sin. He is always without clean and without brain. I do not talk with him. You are a good person with the practice of Zen. However, you have broken your good behavior because of obsessing the aroma. That is why I scold you. Such as a black-dirty thing on a clean-white cloth, people would see it and try to clean it. An evil person is such as black ink sprinkled on black clothes, which cannot be seen by people, and who would care and ask about this person?”

Travel in Taiwan, eat in Wuqi Fishing Harbor, walk in Gaomei Wetland, Taichung city

This video records two places.

One is Wuqi fishing harbor. The other is Gaomei wetland.

We can go these two places easily by bus. 

We take the #309 Bus of BRT, from the start station-Taichung railway station-to the final station, Wuqi fishing harbor. It takes about one hour and more.

We must have one Easycard, which can be used in taking the short-distance train, subway and the bus. We have to go to the exit toward the road of TaiwanBoulevard. Then, we go to the Platform B and down stair to wait for the Bus#309. There will be a bus in 25 mins. 

In Wuqi fishing harbor, there is a fish market, where we can buy the fresh fish, and then take it to the seafood restaurant and ask the chef to cook it for us. We have to pay it. 

There are also the shopping streets to sell many kinds of cooked seafood. We can find those places easily when we walk around. 

We could walk around to see the fishing boat and the sea. We can buy a ticket and take a boat trip, to see the white dolphin, and the final destination is Taichung harbor, where is also a good place to trip. There is a Ferris wheel and shopping mall. 

If we eat too much in the Wuqi fishing harbor, let us go to the Gaomei wetland, and take a walk in the long way so as to have the digestion and weight loss.  Because we take the return Bus from the Wuqi fishing harbor, when we arrive at the bus station of Gaomei wetland, we have to go back to find the way toward the Gaomei wetland.

Gaomei Wetland is located at the exit of the Dajia stream into the sea, is a large area, and is wildlife sanctuary. There are the various landscapes in the high tide and low tide with the change of climate, season and time. It is also a public area to open for the public. But sometimes it would be closed, if the area is dangerous.  

There are many different species of small crabs, and bouncing fishes, in the wetland. There are also many different species of birds flying to find food and walking in the wetland. It is a safe and beautiful place for the family or lover to hike or to ride a bike. And it is also a good place to do the observation of ecology. 

Gaomei wetland is also a very special landscape in Taiwan and in the internationally. The sunset in here is also a very beautiful landscape. However, it is raining today. The sky is covered by dark clouds. There is no sunshine. But, don’t worry. Be happy. Every day is good day. Every moment is good moment. Let us live in the moment. The landscape of Gaomei Wetland in the raining day is also good and beautiful. It is cool today and suitable to take a walk.

If we take a walk under a big sun, it is too hot and not suitable to take a walk in the wetland.  We should be careful and avoid the heat stroke under a big sun. If you do not like to take a walk, but like to ride a bike, there are bikes in the roadside. After completely registering our smartphone number in the machine only one time with the Easycard, we can ride the bike in the whole Taiwan.

This is the Gaomei wetland visitor center. There is the coffee shop and ecological exhibition hall in the center. We can park around this center, if we drive a car to be Gaomei wetland.

There is the breakwater and gazebo. It is good place to see the landscape and the sunset.

There are windmills in the distance. In Taiwan, we promote wind power and solar power. On the western coast in Taiwan, we can see windmills or solar panels everywhere. 

When we go up into the bus, I recommend you to sit in the behind. The seat is relatively high, and you can see the street landscape of Taichung city. Mostly, we don’t use the cash, when we take the bus. We have to use the Easycard, to sensor the machine, when we get on and off the bus.