Yen

Yen, James Y. C., Mandarin Yen Yang-chu, 1893-1990, Chinese educator, b. Sichuan prov., China, educated at Yale (B.A., 1918) and Princeton (M.A., 1920) universities. Yen devised a simplified form of Chinese writing consisting of 1,000 characters and suitable for instructing adult illiterates. He became prominent for his work with the national association for mass education, which was organized to reduce illiteracy and encourage modern methods of farming and agricultural marketing.

Venerable Master Sheng-yen (聖嚴法師; Pinyin: Shèngyán Fǎshī) (1931-) is one of the more famous living teachers of Chan (Japanese: Zen) Buddhism. Master Sheng Yen is the 57th generation descendant of Linji in the Linji (Japanese: Rinzai) School and a 3rd generation descendant of Master Hsu Yun. In the Caodong (Japanese: Soto) lineage, Master Sheng Yen is the 52nd generation descendant of Master Tung Shan (807-869), and the direct descendant of Master Tung Chu (1908-1977).

Born near Shanghai, he became a Buddhist monk at the age of 13. He went to Taiwan in 1949, and from 1961 to 1968 he trained in solitary retreat. He studied for a master's degree (1971) and doctorate (1975) in Buddhist literature in Japan.

He became abbott of Nung Ch'an Monastery in Taiwan in 1979 and founded of the Institute of Chung-Hwa Buddhist Culture in New York City in 1980. In 1985, he founded the Institute of Chung-Hwa Buddhist Culture in Taipei and the International Cultural and Educational Foundation of Dharma Drum Mountain in 1989.

He has been teaching in the United States since 1980, and has established Dharma Drum Center at Queens, New York, and its retreat center outside New York. He also has visited many countries in Europe, as well as continuing his teaching in several Asian countries, in particular Taiwan. In this way his work has helped to bridge East and West and convey the Dharma to the West. He is known as a skillful teacher who has helped many of his students to reach enlightenment mostly through HuaTo meditation. Master Sheng-yen has given dharma transmission to several of his lay Western students, such as John Crook. His health has been quite poor since the past couple of years, although he still gave lectures at several retreats at Taiwan. He has declined kidney transplant, stating that he does not expect to live for long, and he would rather save the chance for others who need it.

Books

• Sheng-yen, Ox-herding at Morgan's Bay, Dharma Drum, 1988, ISBN 0-9609854-3-3.
• Sheng-yen, Song of Mind: Wisdom from the Zen Classic Xin Ming, Shambhala, 2004, ISBN 1-59030-140-4.
• Sheng-yen and John Crook (ed.), Illuminating Silence: The Practice of Chinese Zen, Watkins, 2002, ISBN 1-84293-031-1.
• Sheng-yen and Dan Stevenson, Hoofprint of the Ox: Principles of the Chan Buddhist Path As Taught by a Modern Chinese Master, Oxford University, 2002, ISBN 0-19-515248-4.
• Sheng-yen, There Is No Suffering: A Commentary on the Heart Sutra, Dharma Drum, 2002, ISBN 1-55643-385-9.
• Sheng-yen, Orthodox Chinese Buddhism, Dharma Drum, 2007, ISBN 1-55643-657-2. Online text

See also

• Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States

External links

• Biography and Autobiography of Chan Master Shengyen at the website of the Chan Meditation Center in New York
• Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pinebush, New York
• The Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies
• Dharma Drum Mountain in Taiwan
• The Western Chan Fellowship (UK)
• Sheng Yen education foundation