Chan Magazine

February 3, 2010

Today is a special day. The man who changed our lives left his physical form on this day last year. Let us remember him and his teachings. Even though he is not physically with us, his teachings live on in our lives.

Shifu would have wanted us to continue benefiting sentient beings through our practice, in accordance with causes and conditions, without thinking of self and…

"The practitioner in Silent Illumination is not concerned with meaning and therefore grasps at nothing. He may see a bird fly through the sky. He does not deny that the bird has flown...yet this is not a focus of his concern. The thing has happened; now it has passed by...but there is no trace of this in his mind, no grasping, no discarding. Rising from the cushion, he drinks a cup of tea, nothing…

"Holding on to the awareness that you are practicing while the practice continues without a break - this is practicing Chan. As simple as this may sound, not all can do it. People who don’t know how to meditate make a great physical and mental effort to control themselves, but this is misguided and ineffective."

From Attaining the Way: A Guide to the Practice of Chan Buddhism by Chan Master Sheng…

"When I was young, I respected old Buddhist teachers. I also felt sorry for them because they were not far from death. Now my turn to be pitied has come! Impermanence is painful when we cannot get what we seek or seek to hold on to what we have."

From Attaining the Way: A Guide to the Practice of Chan Buddhism by Chan Master Sheng Yen, Shambhala, 2006

Contents

From the Editor

The Noble…

As a conclusion, I compose the following verse:

Busy with nothing, growing old.
Within emptiness, weeping, laughing.
Intrinsically, there is no "I."
Life and death, thus cast aside.

Bhikkhu Sheng Yen 1930-2009, Founder, Dharma Drum Mountain

Contents

From Dharma Drum Mountain
   Official notification of Shifu’s passing

Last Will and Testament

Transmission
   Dharma teachers-in-training meet Shifu…

"I wandered through the city, a monk in old robes, sleeping in doorways, nodding with the homeless through the night in coffee shops, foraging through dumpsters for fruit and vegetables. I was in my early fifties, no spring chicken, but I was lit from within by my mission to bring the Dharma to the West. Besides, what did it matter? The lessons Donchu had taught me made it a matter of indifference…

"I started with one question, but suddenly there were a hundred, each more perplexing than the last. They poured from my mouth in a torrent of doubt and despair: Would I be able to become a monk again? Which teacher should I go to? With Buddhist teachings as deep and vast as the ocean, where should I start? With innumerable methods of practice, which method should I choose? "On and on I went,…

"We say the mind is a 'mind monkey' or 'thought horse' because, like monkeys and wild horses, the mind is very difficult to tame and control. Enlightenment is not possible in a state of scattered mind. Only when you collect your attention again and again from wandering and achieve a peaceful and focused state will you have a chance of attaining enlightenment. This is taming the 'mind monkey' and…

"The best, the genuine Dharma, is unspoken. We may talk about mind, about Buddha, about things, but these are not genuine Dharma. They are just like a finger pointing to the moon. We cannot take the moon from the sky and show it to you, so we use our finger to point to it. The aim is to see the moon and not the finger. So whatever we talk about — Buddha, mind, things — these are not what we are…

"Prior to partaking in our vegetarian meals, we recite an offering:

We make offerings to the Buddha,
We make offerings to the Dharma,
We make offerings to the Sangha,
We make offerings to all sentient beings.

First we make offerings to the Three Jewels, because we are grateful to them for giving us the means to practice the Way. We then make offerings to all sentient beings for their contributions…