Master sheng yen biography books pdf

Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Texts Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses.

Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape "Donate to the archive" User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in. Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. He entered Guang Jiao Monastery with a fourth grade education at age But, in fact the theory and practice of Chan was almost never discussed there.

As young monks, most of us did not have any clear idea of what Chan practice really was. Our training simply consisted of the rigorous discipline prescribed for monks—everyday activities such as washing clothes, working in the fields, cooking and performing daily services. Chinese Buddhism did not provide a systematic education for monks.

At age 16, because of Communist opposition in the area, he was transferred from the countryside to Da Sheng Monastery in Shanghai with his fellow monks. He ran away from Da Sheng a decision later approved by his master to study at the academy. The seminary was founded by a student of Master Taixu, one of the great revivers of modern Chinese Buddhism.

Taixu himself was much influenced by Great Master Ouyi The seminary also emphasized physical exercise with instruction in Tai Ji and in Shaolin boxing from a teacher from Shaolin Monastery. In , China was in chaos. After much deliberation, Changjin changed his name to Zhang Caiwei and took refuge in the army and left for Taiwan. Yet as a soldier, Zhang Caiwei never for a day forgot that he had been a monk; he never wavered in his conviction that he would once again take up his monastic robes and return to the path to enlightenment.

In the army, the young Zhang Caiwei closely observed life in the lay world and wondered about the origins of life. Eventually, his mind was totally immersed in a great ball of doubt. The Ven. Master Dongchu was a disciple of Master Taixu. He did not lecture, nor did he give people instruction in practice. Along the process of "gradual practice, sudden enlightenment," a practitioner starts by training the scattered mind until it gradually settles down and clears to a state of one-pointed concentration, or "unified mind.

As people differ from one another, each cultivates the Way in his or her own fashion. Therefore, during a Chan retreat, initially the master teaches several methods-counting the breath, following the breath, reciting the Buddha's name, etc. When they reach the doorstep of experiencing the insight of "no-self," Master Sheng Yen, an heir to both the Linji and Caodong lineages of Chan, primarily guides them with Linji's huatou technique and Caodong's silent illumination, occasionally resorting to the methods of calming and contemplation according to their karmic capacities.

By alternating the tense with the relaxed approaches, Master Sheng Yen has created a dynamic, vital style of Chan practice. The Master's teachings emphasize that practitioners should in their daily lives be constantly aware of the thoughts circulating in their minds. This awareness would allow them to simplify their minds and to clearly perceive the changes in themselves and their environment.

Wisdom is developed so that people may apply it in their workaday lives to face themselves and grow, to dissolve their attachments and enter into a state of "no-self. At the heart of Master Sheng Yen's Chan thought is the elucidation and experience of "emptiness" and "no-self. Out of this research, Master Sheng Yen has produced numerous significant works examining Chan theory, history and thought.

In addition, he has written many papers and treatises on the precepts and the Tiantai and Consciousness-only thought, all of which are worthy references to those researching or seeking an understanding of modern Chinese Buddhism. Advocating and Facilitaing Education. Master Sheng Yen is a forward-looking religious leader who believes: "If we don't educate today, Buddhism in Taiwan will have no tomorrow.

Moreover, he has introduced into Taiwan an international academic perspective on Buddhism, seeking to bring greater depth and breadth to Taiwan's Buddhist studies and education. And now he has founded the Buddhist Seminary of Dharma Drum Sangha University, which provides a complete and practical training environment for the cultivation of monastic talent.

With Master Sheng Yen's support, the Taisho Tripitaka and the Manji-zokuzokyo have been made available in electronic format, and a Buddhist studies database and digital museum established. These convenient tools not only will facilitate Buddhist studies, but have opened up new avenues for future research. At last, the myriad sutras in numerous tomes are no longer difficult to access.

Pure Land on Earth. In , Dharma Drum Mountain, which advocates the realization of a pure land on Earth, was established in Taiwan. This effort to build a pure land on Earth pivots on "protecting the spiritual environment. Once the people's minds are purified, the nation will be pure, as explained by Master Sheng Yen in a keynote speech delivered at the first Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders convened by the United Nations in its fifty-five-year history: "[When] individuals start by purifying their mind, filling it with gratitude for life as well as kindness and compassion.

This concept along with its methods of implementation, originated by combining the liberation and bodhisattva paths, is exactly Master Sheng Yen's proposition for being involved with the world to influence the world and benefiting all sentient beings. It allows modern people to engage in the world to transform it, completely altering the quality of their lives and relieving the spiritual poverty that afflicts most people today.

As his insight penetrates the predicament of all humanity, in recent years Master Sheng Yen frequently receives invitations from around the world to share his incisive observations to awaken the slumberous spirits of the world's people. Sparked by this boyhood thought: The Dharma is such a wondrous thing, yet few people understand it, Master Sheng Yen's desire to spread the Dharma has been burning ablaze ever since.

Now to date, Master Sheng Yen has led more than two hundred international seven-day Chan retreats, and has been invited to speak at more than seventy major Western universities. The retreat, which included participants from thirteen nations, marked the start of a new era for Chinese Chan in the Western world. These days, in many meditation halls all over the world, you can hear Master Sheng Yen's slightly reedy voice speaking to the hearts of students of Chan.

Or, you can hear him give one of his humorous yet powerful talks in the world's lecture halls, his words pounding on the hearts of audiences. Master Sheng Yen is like a wise patriarch who provides people with guidance on their journey through life and helps them find its fundamental meaning. Yet all this time, Master Sheng Yen remains an ordinary monk, holding onto the commitment of his youth.

Though his face bears the marks of time, he has never stopped giving. There is no suffering, no cause of suffering, no cessation of suffering, and no path. There is no wisdom and no attainment. In English Wikipedia:. During his time in Taiwan, Sheng Yen was well known as one of the progressive Buddhist teachers who sought to teach Buddhism in a modern and Western-influenced world.

Born near Shanghai in mainland China, he became a Buddhist monk at the age of In order to escape religious persecution from the People's Republic of China, he went to Taiwan in by enlisting in a unit of the Nationalist Army out of necessity. He became a monk again in and from to he trained in solitary retreat in southern Taiwan. He then completed a master's degree and doctorate in Buddhist literature at Rissho University in Japan.

He also visited many countries in Europe, as well as continuing his teaching in several Asian countries, in particular Taiwan. In this way his work helped to bridge East and West and convey the Dharma to the West. He was known as a skillful teacher who helped many of his students to reach enlightenment mostly through meditation.

Master sheng yen biography books pdf

Sheng Yen gave dharma transmission to several of his lay Western students, such as John Crook. Sheng Yen's health was poor in the last couple years of his life, although he still gave lectures in Taiwan. He declined a kidney transplant, stating that he did not expect to live for long, and he would rather save the chance for others who need it.

In accordance with East Asian age reckoning methods, the Dharma Drum Mountain organization states that Sheng Yen died at the age of Officially, according to the Western way of reckoning age, Sheng Yen died at the age of In alphabetical order of the books' title:. What stands out in this newly constructed Dharma Drum Lineage is a focus on moral education, an important feature of Chinese Buddhism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries Taiwan.

This focus on education is a distinct outcome of the impact from the Buddhist reforms and thinkers of the Republican period His Chan is a synthesis and reformulation of the foundational teachings of the Three Studies of precepts, morality, and wisdom found in the early gamas and traditional Chan teachings. The aim of this reformulation is nothing short of ensuring the survival of Chinese Buddhism in the modern age, but the process of this reformulation was complex and gradual.

The whole process is a paradigm shift in the development of Chinese Buddhism. The aim of this essay is to historicize the conditions that have led to his construction of Chan, the ingredients of his teachings, and the core identity of the Dharma Drum Lineage. While he has inherited the general trajectory of the movement that sought to modernize Buddhism that began in the Republican period, he is more interested in how to implement these ideas and reforms concretely so that Chinese Buddhism can flourish on a global level.

His vision and reconstruction of Chan as the apex of Chinese Buddhism was his solution to the perceived crisis. Yet, the complex history of the process of this reconstruction is not easily traceable to specific and deliberate decisions or planning. It appears that he simply responded to the problems he saw in Buddhism. He drew from his personal Chan experiences, lessons from his intellectual predecessors, and interest in education to formulate a viable form of modern Buddhism.

He consistently looked to them in order to articulate his own teachings. They were all great Chan masters who not only made significant contributions to Chinese Buddhism but also shaped the course its development. These last two figures were innovators of Chan methods of practice, and doctrinally very well informed, as demonstrated in their discourse records.

Their impact is most prominent in subsequent lineages of Chan in China, Korea, and Japan. Through him he understood the teachings of Tiantai and other schools of Chinese Buddhism. In his fivefold doctrinal classification, he included the teachings of humans and gods from Confucianism and Daoism. The impact of this classification is extremely far reaching.

This system was a way for Chinese Buddhists to arrange the Buddhist teachings in such a way that each teaching served as an expedient measure to overcome the particular shortcoming of the teaching that preceded it while, at the same time, pointing to the teaching that was to supersede it. In this fashion, a hierarchical progression of teachings could be constructed, starting with the most foundational and leading to the most profound.

Also interesting is how Sheng Yen sees himself in alignment with Zongmi, both intellectually and genealogically through his immediate predecessors such as Taixu, who was also inspired by Zongmi. For articulating a practical Chan approach to practicing the Buddhist doctrine, Sheng Yen looked to the work of Chan Master Shenhui, the disciple of Huineng, who is the sixth patriarch of Chan.

In the history of Chan Buddhism, Chan master Shenhui plays the role of someone who inherits the wisdom of the past and inspires the future generation of Chan practitioners. After Huineng passed away, even though he had quite a number of disciples, no one can compare with Shenhui. He was fully conversant with both practice and doctrine, and well read in Confucian and Daoist works.

Moreover, he was fully immersed in the collections of Buddhist scriptures, commentaries, and monastic codes, and at the same time socially and politically enthusiastic about the welfare of the nation emphasis mine. Only then will a person be able to expound the inconceivable Dharma that is pure. This is not the place to discuss the provenance of the text.

Yet, because many earlier scholarly and popular writings on Buddhism were influenced by Zen sectarianism, Shenhui is not usually thought of as a representative of Chan. Most people conceive of Chan as an iconoclastic tradition free from ritual and doctrine, since it focuses exclusively on the enlightenment experience. Conceived of in this manner, Shenhui would not fit the image of Chan.

Recent scholarship, however, has revealed that this image of Chan is shaped largely by how Buddhism was transmitted to and studied in the West. His dual emphasis on doctrine and practice, understanding and methods, came from his formative years of studying early Buddhism. His integration of early Buddhism with Chinese Buddhism and the altruistic path of the bodhisattva stemmed from his experiences in Japan.

His career as a Chan master began in America and kept on evolving until his death. His promotion of Chan came from his wish to promote Chinese Buddhism. Chan Buddhism was merely a gateway front for him to reconstruct a more effective form of Chinese Buddhism for the modern world. While the conditions that facilitated this long process of developing his thought and teachings are complex, we can discern three general phases to this development.

I characterize this period as the Early Formation of his intellectual development. During these thirteen years, he published 11 books, two of which are works on comparative religion comparing Buddhism and Christianity, published in and Responding to this criticism has prompted Sheng Yen to reflect and examine the foundation of the Buddhist teaching as a whole.

Arguably these two books represent the foundation of his understanding of Buddhist doctrine. His later interpretation of Chan is rooted in this formative period of his life. I characterize this period as the Integrative Years of his intellectual development, from At the same time he realized the daunting task Chinese Buddhism faced in trying to integrate Buddhism with the modern educational system.

He was determined to improve the educational level of Chinese Buddhists. His Ph. In particular, Sheng Yen saw Ouyi as responding to the same crisis in the deterioration of Buddhism. He responded vociferously to the challenges of those Buddhists and non-Buddhists who misinterpreted and misappropriated Buddhism. He was a defender of the faith in every sense of the word.

His response to misappropriations of Chan teachings was particularly strong. Through the works of Huisi and Ouyi, Sheng Yen understood and appreciated the wealth of materials in the Tiantai tradition. He states:. Whether it is doctrine or methods of practice, it is tightly organized. Sheng Yen witnessed the vibrancy in Japanese academic studies of Buddhism.

These two books, particularly the second one, strengthened his historical awareness of the development of Chinese Buddhism. The vinaya and history are inseparable. The vinaya consists of documentation of the livelihood and activities of the sa gha and its continuation. This is precisely history… I am neither a vinaya master nor a historian.

But because of the decline of modern Chinese Buddhism, I engaged in the study of Buddhist history in the hope of finding inspiration to develop Buddhism in the future. On the level of practice, Sheng Yen saw how the Japanese reinterpreted and integrated different forms of Buddhism into their society. The new schools proselytized like Christians, knocking on doors to try to get people to join them.

During his breaks form graduate studies, he went to a variety of Buddhist institutions to participate and observe their practice retreats. Sectarian boundaries between different schools of Japanese Buddhism are strong, even among different lineages of Zen. For a lineage to combine the teachings of two distinct lineages of Zen is unheard of in Japan.

I will return to this point below. He was also inspired by the ways in which the Japanese articulated the educational, social, and spiritual roles of Buddhism in modern life. He absorbed everything he could. The impact of these experiences began to blossom in December when he accepted the invitation of Dr. In his twenties, Sheng Yen was a vociferous critic of traditional forms of Chinese Buddhism.

Most clerics were content with the way things were in Taiwan. Shen to teach Buddhism in America. Prompted by several young Americans, Sheng Yen began to teach Chan. Only the format of my teachings comes from what I observed in Japan. It was just this quickly that I transformed from a recent doctor of literature into a Chan Master transmitting the teaching of Chan.

Such a speedy transformation was not something I could have ever imagined. Later, beginning in , he started to also lead retreats in Taiwan. Within ten years, he was leading intensive Chan retreats in Europe and other parts of the world. His teachings, however, kept evolving through trial and error. During the last phase, he began to apply his Chan teachings to his broader interests in education and social and philanthropic programs for Taiwan, applying his vision to the practical and social issues of modern life.

Further research is required to refine these stages of his Chan development. Initial Period of Chan Teachings. His first American students were a mixture of graduate students, artists, teachers, and people interested in martial arts. He derived his format from what he had observed under Ban Tetsugyu in Japan. Examples of this may be seen in his adoption of the signals and formalities involved with the beginning and ending of each period of sitting, how to enter the interview room, slow and fast walking meditation, etc.

Studying Ouyi had influenced the way Sheng Yen taught Chan in that he emphasized the inseparability of precepts, meditation, and wisdom—the basic tenets of Buddhism. He incorporated the correct understanding of Buddhadharma into his spontaneous retreat talks. The supreme realization of the original nature of mind. It neither affirms nor negates any conceptual point of view; hence it does not need language for expression.

One can exhaust the resource of language and still not express ultimate Chan. This is because Chan transcends knowledge, symbols—the entire apparatus of language. Yet this Chan is never apart from, is all of a piece with, our everyday world.