Thousands of followers, both from Taiwan and abroad, gathered to pay their final respects to one of the foremost contemporary Buddhist teachers of our times.
Sheng Yen, originally named Chang Baokang, was born in 1930 to a peasant family in Jiangsu Province, mainland China. He became a monk at the age of 12. In 1949, shortly before the communist forces took over mainland China, he decided to join the Nationalist army and moved to Taiwan. While in the military, he continued his religious studies. He retired in 1959 to join a monastery in Beitou, on the outskirts of Taipei, headed by Master Dong Chu who practiced Chan Buddhism, a form better known as Zen.
In 1969, he left Taiwan to study at Rissho University in Japan where he obtained his postgraduate degrees in Buddhist literature.
Upon his return in 1975, Sheng Yen was invited to teach Buddhism in the United States. This was the beginning of a series of travels that took him around the globe. Two years later, upon the death of Dong Chu, he became the abbot of the Beitou monastery, keeping alive the master's teaching.
As the number of followers increased, Sheng Yen purchased a piece of land in Jinshan Township, Taipei County, and founded Dharma Drum Mountain in 1989. The DDM World Center for Buddhist Education was officially opened in 2005 to spread the teaching of Zen Buddhism in Taiwan and around the world. There are currently nine monasteries on the island and three abroad, as well as 14 liaison offices, according to the organization.
Sheng Yen taught what he called "spiritual environmentalism," which is the essential task of cleansing the environment by first purifying the mind, explained Jimmy Yu, assistant professor in Buddhism and Chinese Religions at Florida State University. "Many people in Taiwan and abroad have responded to his teaching with great enthusiasm," he added.
In 1998, Common Wealth, a magazine published in Taiwan, named Sheng Yen one of the island's 50 most influential people in the past 400 years. The Buddhist priest also received many awards from different countries in recognition of his humanitarian, cultural and academic contributions. In August 2000, he was invited to give a keynote speech at the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Master Cheng Yen, founder of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, another large Buddhist organization on the island, said she admired Sheng Yen's contributions to Buddhism and society, adding that she and all Tzu Chi followers around the world will remember him with utmost respect.
In his final years, Sheng Yen, despite his declining health, was still planning to build a Dharma Drum University. The master was unable to fulfill his dream, but as he once told his followers, "What I am unable to accomplish in this lifetime, I vow to push forward through countless future lives; what I am unable to accomplish personally, I pray for everyone to join forces to promote."
Write to Jean Yueh at yueh@mail.gio.gov.tw