Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

Here should begin the account of my inward biography
dealing with the mental training I received under the
various teachers who guided me.
At that time there were no regular schools organized in
China but fortunately a rich man lived locally who could
afford to employ a teacher well-versed in the Confucian
books. I was able to study with him and since my
memory was very flourishing then, I was always placed
first out of ten boys. We finished our study of four
classics and afterward I went to the new primary school
opened in the town by the government. While this school
taught the usual range of subjects, young Chen liked the
study and recited with a teacher by the name of Mr. Lu
Bo Wen, poems of ancient Luo Hong Xian. He was a
young man who had risen to great official eminence
through the ancient system of examinations in the
Empire to become the Chief Minister. After he had
attained this he found his position unhappy and wished
only to renounce it together with fame and power, and go
to live as a hermit in the mountains. This he did, and his
poems, teaching a mixture of Taoism and Buddhism with
much of his renunciation, were well known and much
appreciated.
I wished very much to renounce everything and follow
his example, but how could I? My mind was stirred, too,
by masters at school, who said I was clever but weak and
would die soon. But I was only eleven at that time and
did not want to die so early. I studied very hard,
sometimes getting up in the middle of the night to begin,
and to overcome my sleepiness, I would smoke a village
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