Upon entering the hall, they were greeted by two enormous murals facing each other, one to the east and one to the west. The eastern mural depicted a peerless beauty lying in the wilderness with her eyes closed, naked, voluptuous, and alluring. Her magnificent brocade outer robe lay scattered on the ground, covering the lower half of her body.
Opposite her, on the western wall, was a skeleton in exactly the same posture. Its bare bones lay in stark disarray. Long hair like a mass of dark clouds had detached from the skull and mingled with the soil like weeds. The splendid robe, too, had grown filthy and decayed, resembling the rags worn by famine victims.
Guanshan pressed his palms together and explained reverently, "Beauty and bare bones, dependent arising and empty nature-all return to impermanence. However peerless the beauty of the flesh, one day it must turn to bone. These two murals are our teacher's work, and embody his understanding of Buddhism. They depict the first phase, the 'newly dead phase,' and the final phase, the 'bare bones phase,' of the nine contemplations, the most important Dharma treasure of our Great Chan'guang Temple."
Beneath the newly dead phase was a verse: In life, her beauty enthralled all beings; newly dead, her fragrant body seemed asleep. The lovely blossom suddenly faded in summer's fifth month; the leaf of life fell all too easily in a moment of autumn.
The verse beneath the bare bones phase read: Sparse, creeping weeds entwined the bones; scattered there, abandoned here, scarcely could they be gathered. Her fragrant soul, guarding the grave, flew beneath the night moon; beside her mound, old friends' tears were first to redden.
Baozhu was shaken by the meaning of beauty and bare bones. Only after a long while did she