Contemporary Chan Teachers (Comparison?)

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ylee111
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:30 pm

Contemporary Chan Teachers (Comparison?)

Post by ylee111 »

I have been reading many books lately on Rinzai and Soto Zen (ie on Ikkyu, Hakuin, Ryokan, and Alan Watts), but confess despite being Chinese not knowing much about Chan Buddhism in the modern (20th Century and on) Sinosphere.

How do the writings and views of Nan Huai-Chin, Hsuan Hua, Hsu Yun, Yin Shun, Sheng Yen (of Dharma Drum Mountain), Hsing Yun (of Fo Guang Shan), Cheng Yen (of Tzu Chi), and Wei Chueh compare and contract with each other in terms of social issues and transmission of the Dharma? I am guessing Hsuan Hua was the most socially Conservative given his political views (such as on Marriage Equality) but am not sure. (I define Social Conservatism [Regressivevism] as both the Tea Party, One-Percenters, and Neoliberalism. Socially progressive would be how Iceland restructured their government in 2012 and then arrested all the corrupt bankers. So something akin to [but more successful than] Occupy Wall Street).

Who are the prominent Cantonese and Hong Kong Chan teachers and writers?
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Huifeng
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Re: Contemporary Chan Teachers (Comparison?)

Post by Huifeng »

ylee111 wrote:I have been reading many books lately on Rinzai and Soto Zen (ie on Ikkyu, Hakuin, Ryokan, and Alan Watts), but confess despite being Chinese not knowing much about Chan Buddhism in the modern (20th Century and on) Sinosphere.

How do the writings and views of Nan Huai-Chin, Hsuan Hua, Hsu Yun, Yin Shun, Sheng Yen (of Dharma Drum Mountain), Hsing Yun (of Fo Guang Shan), Cheng Yen (of Tzu Chi), and Wei Chueh compare and contract with each other in terms of social issues and transmission of the Dharma? I am guessing Hsuan Hua was the most socially Conservative given his political views (such as on Marriage Equality) but am not sure. (I define Social Conservatism [Regressivevism] as both the Tea Party, One-Percenters, and Neoliberalism. Socially progressive would be how Iceland restructured their government in 2012 and then arrested all the corrupt bankers. So something akin to [but more successful than] Occupy Wall Street).

Who are the prominent Cantonese and Hong Kong Chan teachers and writers?
Hi,

Perhaps remove Ven Cheng Yen from the list, no? Probably Ven Hsing Yun would be the most "progressive", but that would be relatively speaking. These people are almost all born in 19th and early 20th century China, after all. Using an American definition of conservative or progressive may just not fit the bill.

In HK, Ven Jueguang is "the Elder" (I'm using Hanyu, Cantonese would be Kok Kwong, I guess.) However, a number of the Elders in HK are more affiliated with Tiantai than Chan, due to the old influence of Master Dixian (and Master Tanyun, Master Zhumo??) http://www.hkbuddhist.org/ You could check out the people at Baolian Si, and there are a number of Master Hsuan Hua's disciples in HK, too. Ven. Hin Hung is also around, and he has lineages from Chan and also Dzogchen (if I recall correctly).

~~ Huifeng
ylee111
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:30 pm

Re: Contemporary Chan Teachers (Comparison?)

Post by ylee111 »

Well actually Huifeng, I am using a more Euro definition of labels. So a moderate in the US would be conservative in say Sweden (despite my living in NYC). :shrug:

But isn't Shih Chao-hui, who performed the first same-sex wedding in Taiwan, affiliated with Tzu Chi?

Thank you for your introduction of HK Mahayana. I did not know Tiantai (the Chinese iteration of course) was so strong anywhere in the modern era (Wikipedia made it seem barely extant). With that said Wikipedia is not the least biased source these days.
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Huifeng
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Re: Contemporary Chan Teachers (Comparison?)

Post by Huifeng »

Ven Chao-Hui (Zhaohui) is usually more closely associated with Ven. Yinshun, though not the groups that now carry on Ven Yinshun's works.

~~ Huifeng
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Contemporary Chan Teachers (Comparison?)

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

ylee111,

While I have an admittedly limited exposure to things Chan (as my practice is centered around Vajrayana), I always found my Chan teacher, Guo Gu, to be very helpful. Since you asked about contemporary and progressive teachers, I can't think of anyone better.

Guo Gu was the long-time attendant of Master Sheng Yen of Dharma Drum Mountain, as well as his monastery's disciplinarian, before he became a family man and lay teacher within the lineage. He currently teaches as a professor at Florida State University, leads the Tallahassee chapter of Dharma Drum (a.k.a. the Tallahassee Chan Group), and is a pillar of the local Buddhist community as a whole. In the relatively conservative Florida panhandle area, Guo Gu has managed to attract many students---of all different ages and from all walks of life---which I assure you is no small feat, and speaks to the effectiveness and realization behind his teaching style.

In my humble opinion, you'd do well to check him out. Here's a short bio from his website (which also includes a bio of Master Sheng Yen and several of his teachings, too):
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Guo Gu is one of Master Sheng Yen's senior and closest disciples, and assisted the master in leading activities at the Chan Meditation Center, Dharma Drum Retreat Center, and Dharma Drum Mountain in Taiwan, and other parts of Europe and Asia.

Guo Gu first learned meditation when he was four years old in 1972. He studied with one of the most respected Chinese meditation masters and ascetics living in Taiwan, Master Guangqin (1892-1986). In 1981, due to his family's relocation, Guo Gu moved to the United States.

In 1982, he began learning meditation from Master Sheng Yen, who was residing in New York at the time. Beginning in 1989, Guo Gu began to attend intensive Chan retreats with him. After the first retreat Master Sheng Yen gave him the Dharma name, Guo Gu, which means, "results from being the valley." In 1991, after college, Guo Gu was ordained as a monk and became the Sheng Yen's first personal attendant who traveled with the master. In 1995, he received inka (the seal of approval) for his first Chan experience, and was given permission by the master to teach Chan independently. He has subsequently received several affirmations of his experience in 1996, 1997, and 2007. In a chance meeting in June 2007 his experience was verified by the Rinzai Zen master, Roshi Noritake Shunan, of the Myoshin-ji Zen lineage.

In 2000, Guo Gu left monasticism and re-entered the world. In 2008, he received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Princeton University and began teaching Buddhism and East Asian religions academically as an Assistant Professor at Florida State University. In 2009, he founded the Tallahassee Chan Center. He is the guiding teacher for the Western Dharma Teachers Training course at the Chan Meditation Center in New York and the Dharma Drum Lineage.

More info, teachings, and texts can be found on the following websites:

http://www.tallahasseechan.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/Tallahasseechan
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_473937640500


Hope this helps!
</ :soapbox: >
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"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
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