Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Xuan Zang (玄奘)

Sometime, life is full of co-incidents. I went to visit a photo show of Tzu Chi Foundation on 1/21. It assembled a team to retrace the footsteps of Master Xuan Zang's pilgrimage to India. I have known Xuan Zang's story over the years. Never would I know the difficulties he overcame if I didn't go to the photo show. I even bought the photo journal of their trip. Then, within a week time, my favorite knowledge site, wikipedia, put an article about "The Journey to the West", a romanticized version of Xuan Zang trek, on the first page. My favorite radio program, "Book Nail", by CRHK, had a discussion of "Ten Thousand Miles without a Cloud", another book of following Xuan Zang's footsteps. It is pretty difficult to get this book in time when I still have the passion to know Xuan Zang. However, I am so lucky that somebody has posted the whole book on a Chinese BBS site. I finished the book yesterday. I think sometime, there are so many little things are helping you when one wants to do something. Knowing Xuan Zang in the last week is another example. I am thankful for this. I guess I should spend some time on his school of Buddhism, Yogacara.