School, it focus on monastic discipline, famous modern time Buddhist master HongYi came from Nanshan law school. (With regards to law school alone, in China there is Nanshan, Dongta and Xiangbu, three schools, their monastic disciplines are different from each other)

The exact details of Buddhist’s monastic discipline is very complicated, there are frequent dispute among various sect in India, it undergo considerable change after successive generations. The most debated controversy is whether or not monk can touch gold and silver as it is termed “silver money prohibition”, this prohibition is not easy to abide by in normal daily life. In India and Thailand, monks depend on Dana (Buddhist practice of giving) for food, thus they cannot refrain from eating non-vegetarian food, moreover they live in tropics region, food rot easily, as a result they adhere strictly to “prohibition of no eating after noon”, in modern times, there are still quite a number of monks in China who maintain these prohibition, in reality if not for the humid weather such prohibition is unnecessary in northern part of China. A Buddhist leader once told the author (Jinyong), when he attended a Buddhist conference in a foreign country, a foreign monk delegate suddenly withdraw from the event because the conference is held in a grand hotel, the monk’s sect had a monastic discipline: “one may not share the same room of the same roof with woman”. This prohibition make sense in ancient India, however modern hotel will surely have woman tourist staying, thus the foreign monk had no alternative but to withdraw from the conference to abide by his monastic discipline.

There is a scenic place in Xi’an known as Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, reportedly when Buddhist master Xuanzang and his disciples set off their journey from Chang’an (ancient name of Xi’an), they saw a wild goose drop on the ground and die. His disciples debated, some say that since the goose is dead to feed on it is not regarded as killing; some believe they must not eat non-vegetarian food, although the goose is dead but they cannot eat it. A pagoda was erected later in remembrance of this matter.

In a critique from a physics professor in Jilin prefecture, the monastic discipline of burning incense scar onto the head of monks originated from Mongol dynasty, Northern Song dynasty have yet to adopt such practice, thus the burning of incense scar on Xu Zhu’s buttocks by Ye ErNiang did not conform to historic records. In reality, the ideology of China’s Zen Buddhism is extremely open, there is the theory of “killing Buddha when meeting Buddha, killing ancestor when meeting ancestor”, however it does not really mean to kill Buddha or ancestor, rather it is to eliminate the notion of “inviolability of sacred Buddha” from one’s heart and not become rigid in religious dogma, the so called “abusing Buddha and scolding ancestor” is the tradition of Zen Buddhist. Zen Buddhist put emphasis on breaking the inherent logic and thinking in one’s mind, this is to avoid entering the dead end of rationality, when your thinking is lively you will comprehend and become aware. For example, there is a famous phrase from Zen Buddhism: “ZhangSan drink wine but LiSi become drunk”, “How can you make sound by clapping with a single palm?”, “Empty-handed and holding a hoe, walking and riding water buffalo, man walking on the bridge, bridge flow but water does not flow”, etc, these questions are undoubtedly unreasonable and illogical, it is to make people study carefully so that they can comprehend the truth. A physics perspective on [Six Meridian Divine Swords] , one will immediately understand that energy does not have conductor (air cannot become a conductor), it cannot take effect through object. Shaolin monks in Northern Song dynasty does not burn incense scar, however Ye ErNiang said: “Old lady is not Shaolin monk, old lady like to burn my son’s buttocks, you outsiders dare to interfere?”

Ascetic practice is the tradition of ancient Buddhism, when Buddha first meditate under the Bodhi tree, he went 40 days without food and almost died, a female herder fed him cow’s milk to save him, as a result Buddha instructed his disciples they must not use ascetic practice for cultivation. However the head disciple of Buddha, JiaYe, is famed to be number one in ascetic practice. There are also Buddhists from China who mutilate themselves to demonstrate their sincerity towards Buddha, for example using blood to write scriptures, burning of eight finger tips as sacrificial offering to Buddha, piercing of arm to suspend stone censer, etc, burning of incense scar on head is a custom, it is one type of traditional ascetic practice, it is unrelated with monastic discipline in historic records. Shaolin Temple practice Zen Buddhism, Zen Buddhist focus on comprehension and not rigidly hold onto monastic discipline, however because they are a famed ancient Buddhist temple with thousand years of history they also have clear rules and regulation.

For the rules governing the daily life of Zen Buddhist in China, the most renown is drawn up by great master BaiZhang, it is known as “Clear Discipline of BaiZhang”, it is followed by most Zen Buddhist monks in China, among the rules there is a regulation necessitating planting of crops for own consumption (in the past China’s Buddhists deemed the ploughing of soil to be killing insects or ants residing within, a violation of prohibition against killing, thus farming is prohibited, this rule was abolished later on). Shaolin practice Zen Buddhism, their primary monastic discipline forbids use of martial arts to bully the good and innocent, etc. The author (Jinyong) wrote a stele for Shaolin Temple, the author was invited to participate in the unveiling ceremony for the stele and hence met with eminent monks from the temple, master YanWang instructed the author in “Tendon Changing Sutra” and “Marrow Washing Sutra” (ashamed of infrequent practice, due to laziness and no habit of practicing martial arts), in addition the author consulted abbot YongXin with regards to Shaolin’s monastic discipline, he learnt that Shaolin’s monastic discipline had change with time to suit the current age, it is suitable for Buddhist cultivation as well as modern livelihood, moreover many monks no longer burn incense scar on their head.

Even for scientist, their thinking should be open and lively, only then they can contribute great inventions, if not there are merely teachers who pass on knowledge. Naturally science teachers should be respected, however their status is somewhat lower, they are not at the same level with great scientist who create. Such scenario is the same in whichever academic discipline.