Mount Spirit 靈山: The Most Ideal Place for Self-Cultivation

When I was little, I watched a Chinese television drama and heard a Buddhist verse (佛偈) for the first time. It goes like this:

佛在靈山莫遠求，

靈山只在汝心頭，

人人有個靈山塔，

好向靈山塔下修。

The buddhas are in Mount Spirit, so don't look far for them.

This mountain lies deep in your heart.

On each person's Mt. Spirit, there is a sanctuary.

Under that sacred roof is the best place for self-cultivation.

Here is a sanctuary on one of the mountain peaks, matching the imagery in the Buddhist verse about Mt. Spirit. Image from Shutterstock

As a kid, this verse felt mysterious to me. I caught a few important words: buddhas, mountains, and mind, but I didn't understand what it meant. As fate has it, someone explained it to me some years later. Since then, my life has never been the same.

One key lesson from this verse is that our inner buddhas live in our minds. The Chinese character "頭 tou" means the source or beginning. This shows that the source of our minds is where our spirits are. This is where the journey of improving ourselves begins. All sages and buddhas started their paths here.

Here is the video of the translation.