The Will of Chan Master Sheng Yen

  1. I was born in 1930 in the Jiangsu Province of China, and my family's surname is Chang. After I pass away, do not issue the obituary notice, make meal offerings, build the grave, stupa, or monument, erect my statues, or collect my relics, if any. Please invite one to three eminent elder Dharma masters to respectively preside over the rituals of sealing the coffin, bidding farewell, cremation, ash burial, and so forth. All this must be carried out in a simple, frugal manner, and never in an extravagant and wasteful way. In the mourning hall, only hang an elegiac plaque with the words "Quiescent Cessation Is Blissful" written by a calligrapher as an encouragement. Request people not to present flowers or elegiac couplets, but just recite "Namo Amitabha Buddha" to form pure affinities for rebirth in the Western Pure Land.
  2. If, after I pass away, there is any cash offered to me by Buddhist believers and any revenue from my copyright royalty, they should be donated to Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Foundation and Dharma Drum Mountain Cultural and Educational Foundation. I have no personal properties during my lifetime. All my belongings have been offered to me by the general public, so they should all go to the Dharma center of Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM), and be handled according to both the codes established by the Buddha and my will, which has been notarized by the court.
  3. All the Dharma centers that I have founded and have been in charge of belong to the Dharma lineage of Dharma Drum Mountain. Except that they are financially independent in their operation, they should adopt a unified mechanism with respect to the sustaining of DDM's Dharma tradition, education of talents, mutual loving care, and personnel arrangement. However, the branch Dharma centers overseas should take as its principle to have a uniform style of Chan and make use of local manpower, so that the pure, authentic Chan teachings will not decline and Chan practice will take roots and spread in societies of different cultures.
  4. Whether the post of the abbot president of DDM's headquarters is assumed by one who is elected internally or is an eminent bhikshu or bhikshuni invited from outside of DDM's system, he or she, while succeeding to the post, also succeeds to DDM's Dharma orthodoxy, and shall inherit and carry on DDM's Chan lineage, and shall not relinquish the vision and aims of Dharma Drum Mountain, which all shall abide by permanently. The Buddha said, "I don't lead the assembly; I am a member among the Sangha." The abbot president is the Sangha's spiritual nucleus, as well as supervising and advancing the monasteries' operation and Dharma affairs of the Sangha, making sure that they are resolved and executed by monastic members in accordance with the Dharma, precepts, and regulations, and that all live in joyful harmony, diligence, and purity.
  5. In order to avoid misuse and adulteration, any manuscripts of my writings which have not been reviewed by me personally shall not be compiled into books hereafter, except for those that have already been published and can be included in the complete collection of my works.
  6. After I pass away, please request Professor Lin Qixian and his wife to complete the "Chronicle of Master Sheng Yen's Life" up to the time of my death, as historical materials for the reference of future generations. Therefore, please do not compile or print any commemorative collections and the like.
  7. DDM's Sangha is entrusted to carry out the instructions in my will. Please perform the ceremony for my death not as a funeral, but as a solemn Buddhist ritual.
  8. My monastic and lay disciples have nothing to dispute over regarding properties, funds, power, and positions. Rather they are expected to act in compassion, wisdom, harmony, and respect, and carry out the education based on the Four Kinds of Environmentalism. Virtuous followers, please cherish yourselves. We have the good karmic roots and blessed causes and conditions to walk the bodhisattva path together, and we have formed affinities while practicing under the guidance of innumerable Buddhas in our past lives. We will also be cultivating together the supreme enlightenment at the assemblies of innumerable Buddhas as fellow practitioners for one another in the right Dharma.
  9. The wills that I made prior to this one can be used as a reference. However, this Will shall be the standard one.

As a conclusion, I compose the following verse:

"Though nothing happens,
we've grown old in our busy lives. 2
We cry and laugh, all in emptiness.
There is originally no self,
So both life and death can be cast aside."

Bhikkhu Sheng Yen, Founder, Dharma Drum Mountain.

2 See alternative, improved translation by Jimmy Yu in Valedictory Address.

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