Hsing Yun Book order

In Bells, Gongs, and Wooden Fish, Venerable Master Hsing Yun grants voices to the objects of daily monastic life to tell their stories in this collection of first-person narratives. From monastic shoes to robes and alms bowls, these everyday objects tell the story of their lives and the life of Buddhism from their own perspective. Originally published in 1953, the collected sketches are both lyrical and satiric. The collection of inanimate speakers describe and criticize the state of Chinese Buddhism in the early twentieth century in which educating the laity is an afterthought and the day-to-day activities of monastics are dominated by funerary rites. Bells, Gongs, and Wooden Fish showcases the beginnings of Master Hsing Yun's work as a Buddhist reformer, and describes a path to revolutionize, modernize, and humanize Buddhism that resonates to this day.

Non-attachment is emphasized as a core Buddhist teaching, highlighting that craving leads to suffering. Venerable Master Hsing Yun explores how attachments to both material things and personal views hinder spiritual progress. He contrasts negative mental states like prejudice and envy with positive qualities such as respect and tolerance. By fostering right views and practicing the "Three Goods"—good words, deeds, and thoughts—readers are encouraged to cultivate compassion and loving-kindness, ultimately transcending self-centered concerns to connect with others.

Human beings are social; we cannot live apart from community. According to the Taiwanese Buddhist teacher Venerable Hsing Yun, when we understand that human society is nothing other than a web of human relationships we will understand just how crucial our relationships are. In Living Affinity, Hsing Yun describes the foundations of that web—whether in community relationships, love and affection, the environment, wealth and the material world, time and space, and in terms of spiritual development. Through a close examination of the some of the key sutras and stories of Buddhist doctrine, Hsing Yun provides us with a wisdom rooted in the knowledge of centuries and yet vibrantly relevant to today.