Currently sitting on my bookshelf is a beautiful photo of a temple located just outside of the Tibetan region in China. It is very cautiously placed between sets of Chinese Language books and other journals so as nothing will damage it and I regularly check to make sure it has not fallen down or been creased. It is just a piece of paper, but when I received it as a gift, I was asked to always keep it safe. In addition, I also received a necklace and a phone number, just in case I ever needed someone to talk to. This was not at all what I expected when meeting Jia Muzhi, a Buddhist master and a reincarnation of Buddha.
I met him when I attended one of the secret temple gatherings of his followers in Beijing. When I first saw him, he was sitting upright, dressed in traditional Tibetan Buddhist robes patting the head of a layman who was kneeling on the floor beside him. He looked up, and with a large grin, gestured my teacher, Wang Laoshi, to sit in his presence and me. Others began to gather, and it was then that he began to tell the story of his life.
He was born and raised at a small temple in the Tibetan region after he was orphaned at the age of 7. At age 13 he was discovered to be Buddha’s reincarnation, and after becoming a monk at 15, accepted his holy name Jia Muzhi and has identified as such ever since. But in 1958 his studies and worship came to a halt when he and his fellow monks were forced to flee their temple from the Communist invasion. After a number of years of running, Jia Muzhi was declared enemy number one by communist forces and was caught and imprisoned in a labor camp. He continued talking about the labor camp, that party members kept a strict watch over him to make sure he refrained from chanting or preying, from assuring others that Buddha would keep them safe. His years of studying did not help him with the physical demand of hard labor, but he was able to use his knowledge of Tibetan medicine to treat other laborers, and was eventually was able to live as a barefoot doctor to his fellow inmates.
And there he stayed; treating sicknesses, tending to wounds, holding secret chanting gatherings, until he was finally set free—40 years later.
Upon his release, Jia Muzhi returned to him home and was appointed temple master. But in the wake of destruction and suffering, he needed to find peace once again. So just above the ruins of his temple, he built a small, brown hut where he spent another 12 years meditating.
He recalled that he often could not distinguish between day and night, and that when he emerged, he carried with him a task.
He has since traveled throughout China, visiting his followers and sharing his story with countless others. His goal now, at the age of 75, is to restore his temple to the magnificent beauty it once was and provide a home for the orphan Buddhists he cares for, before he takes his final leave.
Beijing Awakening 