Cottage

Yun Huai

When you are bored and want to walk out of the Still Thought's Hall, in addition to look at the fish in the lotus pond and feel the comfort and leisure of the Still Thoughts bamboo bungalow, don`t forget to walk in the little shack next to it. 
A devoted Buddhist, Mr. Hsu Tsung-Min, built a small wooden shack measuring 10 by 12 feet behind Pu Ming Temple for Master Cheng Yen. Upon completing 32 days of total precept cultivation for Buddhist nuns in 1963, the Master returned to Hualien to continue her spiritual cultivation. In this little shack, she venerated and studied the Wonderful Lotus Sutra.
The Master chanted the sutra every day and hand-copied one set of the sutra each and every month. She scarred her arms with burnt incense to confirm her loyalty to the Buddha. She led a harsh, ascetic life of spiritual cultivation, with only one meal and two hours of sleep each day. 
On March 24 of the lunar calendar, 1966, Master Cheng Yen and her deciples founded the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu-Chi Foundation.The life of the Master and her disciples was very difficult at that time. Once they could only spend fifty cents on salt-marinated bean curd to eat for a whole week. The four nuns had only two straw mats to sleep on. They lived in the temple for almost eight years, until the Abode of Still Thoughts was completed. To firmly maintain her commitment to Buddhist compassion and to restore dignity to Buddhist nuns and monks, the Master established the rules of not asking for alms and not performing public Buddhist ceremonies. She also followed Master Pai Chang's philosophy of "no work, no meal," according to which one must not eat on those days when one has not performed any labor. The Master and her followers led very simple, ascetic lifestyle in this little shack. In August 1975, the shack was destroyed by typhoon Nina and was never repaired. 

In March 1996, when preparing celebration for the thirtieth anniversary of the Tzu Chi Foundation, members of Tai-Chung branch planned a building similar to the little shack behind Pu Ming temple where Master Cheng Yen stayed when she just arrived at Hualien in 1963 to remember her harsh, ascetic life of spiritual cultivation. They also planned the Still Thoughts Bamboo Bungalow, situated between the magnificent gray buildings of the Still Thoughts Hall and Tzu Chi University, for visitors or people coming for ceremony to take a break and enjoy the tea. As soon as people walk into the woods, they can smell the fragrance of bamboo. The roof and wall is all made of bamboo. When Master Cheng Yen looked around the tradition preservation bungalow, she praised the work. 
When people look at the cramped and barely furnished, the hard , ascetic life more than 3 decades ago comes back to life.