I have heard people talk about Dalai Monastery many times, and some have recommended that I should go there, especially the Dharma assembly held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which attracts many people. As a non-Buddhist, I am more devoted to the worship of nature and mountains, drawing strength from them, so my desire to visit Dalai Monastery was not very strong.
Coming out of the secluded wilderness of Dongsangka and onto the main road, three cars sped from another road behind me. The leading white car stopped beside me, and the driver was a monk in a red robe. He asked where I was going and then kindly took me back to the village committee. From our chat, I learned that he was Gongqiu Shiluo, the abbot of Dalai Monastery, a native of Bazhu Village, and his home was near the village committee.
Through the brief conversation on the way, I learned that many important experiences in Master Gongqiu Shiluo's life were related to his dreams, including his feat of rebuilding Dalai Monastery against all odds and the search for the reincarnated tulku. When he described his dreams to me, every detail was as clear and profound as the lines on a palm. He always acted on these dreams, turning the ethereal fantasies into reality one by one. He is a devout practitioner who brings every dream into reality.
A few days after first meeting Master Gongqiu Shiluo, I followed the mountain path to Dalai Monastery beyond the mountains. Sitting by the warm stove, I listened to him tell stories about dreams and the past and future of Dalai Monastery. Master Gongqiu Shiluo said that his thought of becoming a monk began at the age of 15. At that time, due to poverty and extremely backward medical conditions, he witnessed several peers in the village die unfortunately due to lack of treatment.
This incident dealt him a heavy blow. At 15, he began to doubt the meaning of life and ponder deeper questions about the essence of life, thus conceiving the idea of becoming a monk. On the first day of the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar in 1984, he and seven or eight others from the same village formally became monks at the Damo Patriarch Cave, taking Gongqiu Zhaoyang as their teacher to study Buddhism. He was 17 then. Later, he studied at the Zhigong Ti Monastery in Lhasa and the Diqing Prefecture Buddhist Academy. In 1993, he returned to Laiyuan Monastery at Damo Patriarch Cave and served on the temple management committee for three years.
Before becoming a monk, Master Gongqiu Shiluo had only five years of schooling. At 13, he started helping his family with farm work, herding sheep and horses. He had a special affection for horses since childhood and was good at riding and raising them. After becoming a monk, Master Gongqiu Shiluo engaged in mule and horse trading for a long time, dedicating all the proceeds to the Buddha.
To facilitate trade, he would take off his monk's robe and dress like an ordinary person to go to the market. One night, the sacred mountain Bengbushige behind the village entered his dream, sternly rebuking him and warning him never to take off his monk's robe again. After waking up, Master Gongqiu Shiluo felt enlightened and never took off his robe again, no matter the occasion. That day, Bengbushige Mountain was wearing a suit, the master said.
Once, while on a mule and horse trading trip with an elder, he suddenly told the elder to go home immediately without any stops, as fast as possible. Although puzzled, the elder complied. After returning home, he expressed his confusion and doubt to those around him. But within a day, the elder suddenly passed away for unknown reasons, astonishing everyone. The master said he himself didn't know why he had the urge to tell the elder to go home immediately.
There is a white horse in Dalai Monastery that Master Gongqiu Shiluo bought two years ago. At that time, the white horse was very sick, with little chance of survival, and its owner was at a loss. Master Gongqiu Shiluo bought it and kept it in the monastery. With his日夜 care, the white horse gradually recovered and is now full of vitality.
Regarding the reconstruction of Dalai Monastery, the master also recounted a dream, but I couldn't remember it clearly. I only recall that the location of a large white stupa near the pond in front of the monastery was also related to a dream. In the dream, a little girl carrying a bundle of firewood placed it on the grass and told Master Gongqiu Shiluo that there was a white stupa there. So the master built a solemn white stupa at the spot where the firewood was placed.
Chanting sutras, meditating, performing rituals—from six in the morning to ten at night, Master Gongqiu Shiluo is always busy. Before he could finish his story, he had to go meditate. He is not only a practitioner but also a craftsman of dreams, a solitary explorer who measures the eternal distance between mind and matter with his own body. In the sound of sutras and wind at Dalai Monastery, he quietly builds one ethereal dream after another into stone, metal, and time, and also into the imagination of "possibility" of every fortunate listener.
