Discovery of Wisdom Lake
靈泉湖的由來
Wutai Shan Buddhist Garden is beautiful with lovely rolling hills, but Elder Master Sing Hung felt it lacked a water feature, so a site was chosen for Ven. Dayi Shi to arrange to have a lily pond built. An Italian contractor named Peter was hired and began the excavation. One day while he was working alone, he heard a loud “Stop!” in English out of nowhere. He got off his excavator to investigate, and discovered that the path ahead was actually a swamp. If he had not stopped in time, he and his machinery would have sunk into the swamp, with no one else onsite to help him. Further surprise awaited him when he saw a bubbling stream of water gushed out from where he was excavating, revealing a hidden underground springhead. Subsequent nearby excavations revealed 2 more underground springheads, and thus the beautiful Wisdom Lake was formed, with an approximate dimension of 3.5 meters deep, 70 meters wide and 600 meters long. This lake is named after the site patron Bodhisattva Manjusri with his blessing of wisdom.
當初性空長老希望五台山有山有水最為殊勝,所以達義大和尚就想挖一個荷花池來完成長老的願望。選好地址後,便請人開挖。一天早晨,在工地施工的一位義大利工人,名叫彼特,開着大型挖掘機向指定地點開去,突然聽到有人清晰地用英文說了一聲「Stop!」,他感覺很奇怪,在荒山野地中只有他一人施工,怎麼會有聲音呢?下車後,發現在大鏟車前面就是沼澤地帶。如果沒有聽到「Stop!」,鏟車就會陷入沼澤地中,後果不堪設想。彼特定了定神,對着沼澤地挖下去,頓時一股泉水噴湧而出,鏟車正好挖到了泉眼上。性空長老和達義大和尚聞訊趕來,欣喜不已,特命名為「靈泉湖」。之後,湖越挖越大,從100米到400米,然後就有了如今碧波蕩漾的靈泉湖。如今湖長近600米,寬70米,水深也有6-7米,湖內有魚和水獺等。為了感謝菩薩發聲救人,達義大和尚就在靈泉湖的四周發願建起了四大菩薩的聖像,以便大眾朝拜,予以紀念。