When he was fourteen years old, Xuyun announced that he wished to renounce the material world in favour of monastic life.
After reading the book, he was deeply influenced and was inspired to leave home and practice Buddhism as a monk.
On a winding mountain path, he encountered envoys sent by his uncle who successfully intercepted Xuyun and escorted him back home.
"[7] When Xuyun was nineteen years old, he began the journey to Gu Shan (Drum Mountain) in Fuzhou, accompanied by Fu Guo.
When his father sent agents to find him, Xuyun concealed himself in a grotto behind the monastery, where he lived in solitude for three years.
At the age of twenty-five, Xuyun learned that his father had died, and his stepmother and two wives had entered the monastic life.
In his thirty-sixth year, with the encouragement of Yong-jing, Xuyun went on a seven-year pilgrimage to Mount Putuo off the coast of Ningbo, a place regarded by Buddhists as the bodhimaṇḍa of Avalokiteśvara.
By age forty-three, Xuyun had left home life for more than twenty years, but had not yet completed his practice in the Path.
From Fa Hua Temple all the way to Qingliang Peak at Mount Wutai of the northwest, the bodhimaṇḍa of Manjushri, he made one full prostration every three steps.
After returning to China at age fifty-three, Xuyun joined with other Venerable Masters Pu Zhao, Yue Xia, and Yin Lian (Lotus Seal) to study together.
They climbed Mount Jiuhua (bodhimaṇḍa of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva) and repaired the huts on Cui Feng Summit, where Dharma Master Pu Zhao expounded the Mahavaipulyabuddha Avatamsaka (Flower Adornment) Sutra.
[10] When Xuyun was fifty-six, the Abbot Yue Lang of Gaomin Temple in Yangzhou was going to convene a twelve-week session of continuous dhyana meditation.
As he walked along the river's edge, he suddenly lost his footing and fell into the rushing water, where he bobbed helplessly for a day and night [11] before being caught in a fisherman's net.
When asked by Yue Lang whether he would participate in the upcoming weeks of meditation, he politely declined, without revealing his illness.
One evening, after meditation, I opened my eyes and suddenly saw I was in brightness similar to broad daylight in which I could see everything inside and outside the monastery..." But he knew that this occurrence was only a mental state, and that it was not at all rare.
In the winter of 1942, Xuyun held a "Protect the Nation, Quell the Disaster, Mahākaruṇā Dharma Assembly" that lasted over three months in Chongqing, the capital of China at that time.
He stayed after the rise of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to support the Buddhist communities rather than retreat to the safety of Hong Kong or Taiwan.
"[14][15] In 1953, with Dharma Master Yuan Ying and others, Xuyun formed the Chinese Buddhist Association at Guangji (Extensive Aid) Monastery where he was Honorary President.
The meeting also elected a chairman, four honorary chairmen, seven vice-chairmen, a secretary general, three deputy secretaries-general, eighteen members of a standing committee, and ninety-three directors.