Dharma Drum Conferences

Simon Child, Teacher of the Western Fellowship, attended the 3rd Dharma Drum Mountain Monastic and Followers conference in Taipei, Taiwan, June 27-28.

There were about 400 people attending, including most of the DDM sangha and students. There were presentations and discussion panels involving several of Chan Master Sheng Yen's Dharma heirs such as Chi Chern Fashi, Simon Child, Žarko Andricevic, Guo Yuan Fashi, Guo Huei Fashi, and several other Dharma heirs were also present.

The overall theme of the conference was, "Traces of Dharma Drum: Sharings from Abroad", to consider the spreading of Master Sheng Yen's teachings abroad from Taiwan.

On the afternoon of 27th Simon presented the WCF activities (see short excerpt at 4min 23sec on youtube clip), on the theme of "Chan in East, Chan in West: Same? Different?" He described and explained how differing culture, education, and other factors mean that adjustments to the traditional Eastern practices may be appropriate and even necessary for Chan to take root in the West. As examples of these he described the structure and rationale of the WCF Koan retreat and Western Zen retreat. There followed lively questions and answers with general interest and approval of our innovative approaches, with requests to describe these in greater detail on a future visit to Taiwan.

Other topics covered were various descriptions of experience of practising with Master Sheng Yen both in Taiwan and elsewhere. Also a presentation by Guo Gu (Prof Jimmy Yu) on unpublished documents (which Guo Gu is now preparing for publication) in which Sheng Yen charted the sytematised basis for his teaching, drawing from texts from many forms of Buddhism.

On the afternoon of 28th there was a panel session where all the previous speakers responded to questions from the audience on diverse topics such as: interest and relevance of Pure Land practice in the West; transmission and training of future generations of teachers; class and financial issues; relevance of practice to psychological problems; etc.

Following this two-day event, another two-day conference followed on June 29 and 30, this one with a more academic focus: the Fifth International Sheng Yen Educational Foundation. Over 60 papers were presented by academics from various countries including Taiwan, China, and USA.