盤串不如盤人

早上在城北體育公園做自然換氣法，途中遇到有一個人，騎著電動車，兩手戴著兩串棕紅色的大念珠，嘴裡叼著煙。他的電動車裝了兩個大喇叭，大聲放著驚爆的歌，從我身邊騎過去，我回頭看了一眼，車尾還貼了一面五星紅旗彰顯自己的愛國心。

路上，還碰到另外一個大爺，手上也戴著一串錚光發亮的串。我想，好像身邊盤串的人真不少：挺哥就對盤串很著迷，還送了我一串菩提子串珠；安福寺的常師姐也送了一串。醫院裡同事出來吃飯，不少人手上也戴著一串佛珠。有次上班閒聊和陳穎說起這事，我自嘲變成了中老年人，開始盤串了，沒想到她說也有在盤串，她女兒也在盤。回家問了予真，她說同學們也都在盤串，不過盤的都是十塊錢的串，還給我演示了盤法。

一路走來，我突然出現一個想法，這串的功能，無非是念佛時的計數器，唸一聲佛號撥過去一顆，唸完一百零八次就撥過去一圈。而念佛的功能，是讓人放下一切，把心意集中在念這聲佛號上，是專注訓練。當這項訓練時間長了，手上的佛珠也被磨的發亮，加上手上的油脂拋光，以及念佛時心念的持續投注，佛珠彷彿熠熠生輝、充滿靈氣。

那麼拋棄前面這一套實操，把手皮拋光當門技藝，每天挑一個時間出來，洗乾淨手，或者戴上手套，專門把佛珠每一個面都摸幾遍，目的是把它拋成鏡面，然後充滿成就感的在串友面前展示成果，我覺得這事挺好玩、好笑的。（好笑不是嘲笑的意思，是覺得挺有趣的。）

所以，早上我走路中我就冒出一個念頭，與其這麼盤串，還不如盤人。身體十二條正經是一條串，任督二脈也是一條串，縱軸、橫軸、交叉軸的筋膜鏈也是一條條串，這幾條串每天花幾時分鐘盤一盤，把他們盤的鬆柔、順暢，錚光發亮（氣血充沛的時候人看起來就是會亮一些），甚至據說氣血通暢，身體組織間的廢棄物代謝掉之後，身體還會發出香味。這樣投注心力來盤自己身體，不比盤外物划算嘛！ 

Polishing Yourself Beats Polishing Beads

This morning, while practicing the Natural Breathing Method at Chengbei Sports Park, I ran into a guy riding an e-bike. He had two large strings of reddish-brown prayer beads on his wrists and a cigarette dangling from his mouth. His bike was rigged with two huge speakers blasting loud music. As he rode past me, I glanced back and noticed the Five-Starred Red Flag plastered on the back of his bike, showing off his patriotism.

Further down the road, I bumped into an older gentleman who was also wearing a string of gleaming beads. It got me thinking—it seems like everyone around me is into rolling beads these days. My colleague Ting is obsessed with it and even gave me a string of Bodhi seed beads. Sister Chang from Anfu Temple gave me one, too. When I go out to eat with my colleagues from the hospital, I notice a lot of them wearing Buddhist beads on their wrists. Once, while chatting at work, I brought this up to Chen Ying, joking that I was turning into an old man now that I’ve started playing with beads. To my surprise, she told me she does it too, and so does her daughter! When I got home, I asked Jen about it. She said all her classmates are rolling beads as well, though they just play with cheap ones that cost about ten bucks, and she even showed me their technique.

Walking along, a thought suddenly struck me. The original purpose of these beads is simply to serve as a tally counter while chanting. You chant a mantra and move one bead over. You finish 108 chants, and you've completed a full circle. The point of chanting, in turn, is to help you let go of everything and focus your mind entirely on that one phrase—it’s an exercise in concentration. Over time, as you keep up this practice, the beads get worn and shiny. Thanks to the natural oils from your hands acting as a polish, combined with the continuous mental energy poured into the chanting, the beads start to gleam, as if infused with a spiritual energy.

But nowadays, people have ditched the spiritual practice altogether. Instead, they treat hand-buffing these beads like some kind of craft. They carve out time every day, wash their hands thoroughly—or even put on gloves—just to rub every single side of the beads over and over. The goal is to polish them to a mirror finish, just so they can proudly show off the results to their fellow bead enthusiasts. I find the whole thing pretty funny. (I don't mean that in a mocking way; it's just an amusing phenomenon.)

So, as I was walking this morning, it hit me: instead of putting all this effort into polishing beads, why not polish ourselves? The twelve primary meridians in our body are like a string of beads. The Ren and Du energy channels are another string. The vertical, horizontal, and diagonal fascial chains are all strings, too. If we spent just a few dozen minutes a day "polishing" these internal strings—making them relaxed, supple, and gleaming (After all, when your Qi and blood are abundant, you naturally have a gleam about you). Word has it that once your energy flows freely and your body flushes out metabolic waste, you might even give off a pleasant, natural scent. Pouring your heart and energy into refining your own body—isn't that a much better payoff than polishing an external object?