南岳古刹进香

壬子岁八月随叔父蒲堂。进香南岳衡山诸名胜。古刹朝拜菩萨。每有所至。则恍若旧地重游。夙昔所识之家门者。然以此推之。公或宿世生中。主化南岳。教诸众生。咸令发心精进勇猛求无上道。

宣化偈曰：
南岳衡山妙高峰。历代相传出圣僧。
三生石伴谁识谁。万劫生中亲复亲。

Offering incense in the ancient monasteries of Nan Yo

In the eighth lunar month of the cyclical year Jen Tuz (1852), the Master, at thirteen, joined his Uncle on a pilgrimage, visiting temples. He offered incense at all of the famous places of Heng Shan, Nan Yo Mountain, and bowed to the bodhisattva in the ancient shrines. As if he were roaming through familiar ground, he was happy wherever he went, and was attracted as if seeing relatives whom he had known in the past. Who knows? Perhaps in a previous life, the Master was at Nan Yo Mountain, teaching and causing living beings all to resolve themselves on vigorously and courageously seeking the Unsurpassed Way.

The verse says:
Nan Yo (Southern Peak), Heng Shan Mountain-that marvelous towering peak-
Is where the successive transmission produces sagely monks.
The granite friends of the past, present, and future-who recognizes them? 
Within the lives of ten thousand kalpas, relatives return to relatives.