Field Visit: Buddhist Meditation
Date and time: 10.00 a.m. Nov 9 (Sat), 2019
Address: 2/F, Block B, Alexandra Industrial Building, No. 23-27 Wing Hong Street, Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon
Quota: 35
Host: Venerable Yanqing
Address: 2/F, Block B, Alexandra Industrial Building, No. 23-27 Wing Hong Street, Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon
Quota: 35
Host: Venerable Yanqing
Visit programme and remarks
10.00 a.m.-10.30 a.m. Part 1—The Fundamentals of Buddhism
Venerable Yanqing will deliver a presentation on the basic teachings of Buddhism. He will teach us about the Four Nobel Truths: The Truth of Suffering, the Truth of the Origin of Suffering, the Truth of the Cessation of Suffering, the Truth of the Way Out of Suffering. How can these principles be related to the spiritual practices of Buddhist meditation? How can one reconcile the teachings with DDM’s “spiritual environmentalism” as mentioned above? You are encouraged to take note of the presentation.
10.30 a.m.-11.00 a.m. Part 2—The Basics of Chan Practice
Venerable Yanqing will further teach us the basics of Chan Practice (Buddhist meditation) which includes (i) the principles of Chan, (ii) the methods, (iii) three stages of meditation, (iv) the effects of Chan meditation, (v) Chan practices in daily life, and (vi) the seven points sitting method. You are encouraged to take note of the presentation from which you can also notice the set of Chan practices developed by Dharma Drum Mountain.
11.00 a.m.-11.15 a.m. Break
11.15 a.m.-11.45 a.m. Part 3—Chan in practice
We will have the opportunity to feel what Chan practice is. Under Venerable Yanqing’s guidance, we will enter a brief sitting meditation. And then, as another form of meditation practice, each of us will have the chance of carrying a bowl of water and gently walk around the hall. How does it feel? Try to be aware of your feelings.
11.45 a.m.-12.00 n.n. Q&A
10.00 a.m.-10.30 a.m. Part 1—The Fundamentals of Buddhism
Venerable Yanqing will deliver a presentation on the basic teachings of Buddhism. He will teach us about the Four Nobel Truths: The Truth of Suffering, the Truth of the Origin of Suffering, the Truth of the Cessation of Suffering, the Truth of the Way Out of Suffering. How can these principles be related to the spiritual practices of Buddhist meditation? How can one reconcile the teachings with DDM’s “spiritual environmentalism” as mentioned above? You are encouraged to take note of the presentation.
10.30 a.m.-11.00 a.m. Part 2—The Basics of Chan Practice
Venerable Yanqing will further teach us the basics of Chan Practice (Buddhist meditation) which includes (i) the principles of Chan, (ii) the methods, (iii) three stages of meditation, (iv) the effects of Chan meditation, (v) Chan practices in daily life, and (vi) the seven points sitting method. You are encouraged to take note of the presentation from which you can also notice the set of Chan practices developed by Dharma Drum Mountain.
11.00 a.m.-11.15 a.m. Break
11.15 a.m.-11.45 a.m. Part 3—Chan in practice
We will have the opportunity to feel what Chan practice is. Under Venerable Yanqing’s guidance, we will enter a brief sitting meditation. And then, as another form of meditation practice, each of us will have the chance of carrying a bowl of water and gently walk around the hall. How does it feel? Try to be aware of your feelings.
11.45 a.m.-12.00 n.n. Q&A
A Buddhist Group in Contemporary Taiwan
Dharma Drum Mountain, along with Tzu Chi, Buddha’s Light Mountain and Chung Tai Chan Monastery, can be known as the four main symbolic contemporary Buddhist groups in Taiwan that emerged in the post war period when the island had undergone industrialization that fostered an uprising middle class. A historian explained that the industrialization had brought on a sense of spiritual alienation among modern people who needed to live a busy life in the city, where they found the upcoming Buddhist meditation practices spiritually fulfilling for urban lives.[1] Dharma Drum Mountain is the youngest group among the four established by a charismatic intellectual Buddhist Master Sheng Yen. In the year of 1989, Sheng Yen started his plan of building up a major Buddhist centre in a mountain valley in the northern part of Taiwan, and through years of land acquisition and construction, the centre was officially opened in 2005 by which time the 120-acre site included a Buddha Hall, a Chan meditation hall, a lecture auditorium, retreat facilities and a Buddhist university.[2] Please watch the YouTube video “How great is the Dharma Drum Mountain” where the group introduce itself and interpret the meaning of “Dharma Drum”—like the boom of the Dharma Drum, the sound of its teachings shall reach afar, delivering countless sentient beings and creating a pure land on earth.
YouTube clip - How Great is the Dharma Drum Mountain (2013)
Please also watch “The beauty of Architecture” which displays the landscape and architectural design of the Mountain in northern Taiwan. For the overall design, Sheng Yen in elsewhere explained, “I grasped one principle: the lines should be simple and not be complicated, the colour should be simple and not be complicated, and the space should be grand but practical; and that is just the ‘original face.’”[3]
YouTube clip - Dharma Drum Mountain: The Beauty of Architecture
The Founder: Master Sheng Yen
The Founder Master Sheng Yen was born near Shanghai in mainland China in 1930 and was later sent to the monastery in Wolf Hills at the age of thirteen by his family who were too poor to raise him. It was a time of war and turmoil in China when Sheng Yen determinedly made his path to acquire Buddhist teachings. In his early years, he entered a Buddhist academy in Shanghai; and after about three years when the Communists occupied Shanghai, Sheng Yen fled to Taiwan and joined the KMT army where he served the military for more than ten years. In 1960, he left the army and was then re-ordained as a monk and undertook training at the Buddhist Culture Center in a suburb of Taipei. After two years, Sheng Yen embarked on a six-year solitary retreat in a hermit hut in southern Taiwan, where he spent his days reciting sutras, prostrating, meditation, and writing books. He later began his doctoral studies at the age thirty-eight in Japan and received his degree in 1975, which brought him a well-known appellation in Taiwan—“The First Doctoral Monk.” Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Master was a frequent traveler between Taiwan and the United States and started developing Chan (Zen or Buddhist meditation) practice in New York. His Buddhist community in Taiwan had also been steadily growing and reached a formidable size of three hundred thousand lay members in addition to about one hundred monks and nuns by the end of the millennium.[4] Sheng Yen died in 2009 on his way back from the hospital to Dharma Drum Mountain.
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The Master called himself “an itinerant monk pressing ahead through the wind and snow,” and the Dharma Drum Mountain website reads, “In these tumultuous times of ours, Master Sheng Yen, taking the Bodhisattva Guanyin of myriad manifestations as his model, has been seizing every chance to lead people to inner liberation, guiding them through life's turning points and towards a meaningful life of transcendence and giving.” To learn more about the life of Master Sheng Yen, please browse “About—Master Sheng Yen: An ordinary monk, an extraordinary life”: http://www.dharmadrum.org/content/about/about2.aspx?sn=43
Spiritual Environmentalism
A historian in Taiwan observed that the Dharma Drum Mountain is “a mix of modern Buddhist meditation teachings and city enterprise” which promotes “spiritual environmentalism” and “pure land on earth” among entrepreneurs. [5] Indeed, the group advocates a four-fold interpretation of environmentalism which includes the “spiritual environment,” “natural environment,” “living environment,” and “social environment.” Sheng Yen once quoted the Vimalakiriti Sutra, “If the mind is pure, then the land is pure,” and “if sentient being is pure, then the land is pure.” He explained that the purification of the world should start from the purification of the mind first. In the contemporary world, the heart of human is the largest pollution source and it was the five poisons “greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and doubt” that pollute our spiritual space.[6] Please watch the YouTube clip “Spiritual Environmentalism and its basis in Buddhist sutras” and see how the Master explains the concept. Check also the webpage “About Dharma Drum Mountain” for the interpretation of “spiritual environmentalism” at http://www.dharmadrum.org/content/about/about.aspx?sn=110
Under the mission of spiritual environmentalism, the group has redefined several Buddhist traditions and rituals that might harm the environment. Sheng Yen instructed his group to burn less incense and replace it with electric lamp, and advocated cremation rather than burial for the dead. Many believed that the Buddhist practice of “fangsheng”—releasing captive animals such as fishes, birds, turtles—can help one accumulate good dharma. The Master explained that such practice will only harm the environment since the artificially raised animals cannot survive in the wild and will eventually become dead bodies that cause pollution; instead, Sheng Yen redefined “fangsheng” as a practice of animal care—taking in wounded animals or endangered species and release them back to the wild after they have recovered. He called upon Taiwan people to “cherish every bowl of rice and every cup of water” and protect the three gems from nature—“light, air, and water.” People should not dispose dead animal wastes and bodies in river, should not use plastic bags excessively, and should use recycled paper.[7]
YouTube clip - How can we realize Spiritual Environmentalism in our daily lives
The Master taught that all beings, be it animals, plants or animals, are all part of our body. Shakyamuni Buddha in the uncountable past had lived many lives among different sentient beings, such as deer, elephant, rabbit, and bird. When we see animals we should assume that they might be the future Buddha who has made his Bodhi’s wish of saving other beings, and therefore, we should treat animals well in the way we respect all future Buddha. A forest is the world where future Buddha reside in. When we see a forest fire, it is just like seeing Taipei city or a village catching fire.[8] Karma is related to our behavior in this life and the result we receive in future life. We may see the consequences in this life, or in next life, or in the generation of our children. From a Buddhist perspective, we must prepare for the future life and therefore, we must cherish the blessings we currently have and also cultivate more blessings for the future life. In other words, in rainy season we should save up water for drought.[9]
Social Engagement
Get going Taiwan! The advertisement was being put up after the earthquake in September 1999.
“A thousand arms to protect, a thousand eyes to perceive.” The website of the Dharma Drum Mountain Social Welfare and Charity Foundation borrows the phrase which refers to the ability of the Guanyin Bodhisattva (Avalokiteśvara) that can look around and reach out in every direction to answer the cries of those who call for help. The group has been conducting a wide range of social services, including home care visits, disaster relief, family care and so on. The website recalls a remarkable achievement of social services after the 1999 earthquake that struck Taiwan so hard on September 21. Dharma Drum Mountain provided emergency relief for the victims of the disaster and helped them rebuild their lives. An American sociologist in Taiwan reported Sheng Yen’s speech in his congregation session two weeks after the earthquake, “We don’t have as many resources as other Buddhist organizations. So we’re concentrating our resources on what we’re best at: cultural work, healing the spirit, counselling, psychological work.” The Master also explained the meaning of the calamity that the earthquake was an opportunity for Taiwanese people to acquire good karma by responding generously to the needs created by the tragedy, and that the victims who had lost their lives were, indeed, bodhisattva whose suffering would warn people about the need to be better prepared for natural disasters in future.[10] For more information of their social engagement, please browse their webpage: http://www.dharmadrum.org/swcf/default.aspx
[1] Jiang, Renshi Taiwan Bentu Fojiao, 80-3.
[2] Madsen, Democracy’s Dharma, 95.
[3] Translated from Sheng Yen, Fagushan Gushi, 75.
[4] For a brief account of Sheng Yen’s story, see Madsen, Democracy’s Dharma, 89-95
[5] Translated from Jiang, Renshi Taiwan Bentu Fojiao, 110-1.
[6] Translated from Sheng Yen, Xinling Huanbao, 60-4.
[7] Translated from Sheng Yen, Xinling Huanbao, 29-43.
[8] Translated from Sheng Yen, Xinling Huanbao, 68-9.
[9] Translated from Sheng Yen, Xinling Huanbao, 72-73.
[10] Madsen, Democracy’s Dharma, 87.
[2] Madsen, Democracy’s Dharma, 95.
[3] Translated from Sheng Yen, Fagushan Gushi, 75.
[4] For a brief account of Sheng Yen’s story, see Madsen, Democracy’s Dharma, 89-95
[5] Translated from Jiang, Renshi Taiwan Bentu Fojiao, 110-1.
[6] Translated from Sheng Yen, Xinling Huanbao, 60-4.
[7] Translated from Sheng Yen, Xinling Huanbao, 29-43.
[8] Translated from Sheng Yen, Xinling Huanbao, 68-9.
[9] Translated from Sheng Yen, Xinling Huanbao, 72-73.
[10] Madsen, Democracy’s Dharma, 87.
Suggested further reading
Madsen, Richard. Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan, 85-103. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
madsen._democracys_dharma.pdf | |
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Online resource
Dharma Drum Mountain website: http://www.dharmadrum.org/
Master Sheng Yen website: http://old.shengyen.org/index.aspx
YouTube Channel Master Sheng Yen: https://www.youtube.com/user/DDMTV05
Dharma Drum Mountain Social Welfare and Charity Foundation website: http://www.dharmadrum.org/swcf/default.aspx
Master Sheng Yen website: http://old.shengyen.org/index.aspx
YouTube Channel Master Sheng Yen: https://www.youtube.com/user/DDMTV05
Dharma Drum Mountain Social Welfare and Charity Foundation website: http://www.dharmadrum.org/swcf/default.aspx
References
Jiang, Can Teng江燦騰. Renshi Taiwan Bentu Fojiao: Jieyan yilai de Zhuanxing yu Duoyuan Xinmao 認識台灣本土佛教:解嚴以來的轉型與多元新貌 [Understand the Local Buddhism of Taiwan: the transformation and new varieties after the martial law period]. Taibei臺北: Taiwan Shangwu臺灣商務, 2012
Madsen, Richard. Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
Sheng, Yen聖嚴. Fagushan Gushi 法鼓山故事[The story of Dharma Drum Mountain]. Taibei台北: Faguwenhua法鼓文化, 2007.
Sheng, Yen聖嚴. Shengyan Fashi Xinling Huanbo聖嚴法師心靈環保 [Master Sheng Yen’s Spiritual Environmentalism].Taibei臺北: Faguwenhua法鼓文化, 1999.
Madsen, Richard. Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
Sheng, Yen聖嚴. Fagushan Gushi 法鼓山故事[The story of Dharma Drum Mountain]. Taibei台北: Faguwenhua法鼓文化, 2007.
Sheng, Yen聖嚴. Shengyan Fashi Xinling Huanbo聖嚴法師心靈環保 [Master Sheng Yen’s Spiritual Environmentalism].Taibei臺北: Faguwenhua法鼓文化, 1999.