Is Shen Shi'an 沈时安 a cult teacher?

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guojun
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Is Shen Shi'an 沈时安 a cult teacher?

Post by guojun »

Has anyone heard of Shen Shi'an 沈时安 before? There are a few recent facebook posts and a website about him and his heterodox Pure Land teachings. He seems to have quite a following in Singapore. Can anyone confirm this is true?

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 5082390246

https://shenshian.wordpress.com
Shen Shi’an is a cult teacher. He is promoting heterodox Pure Land Buddhist teachings to sell his products. Don’t be tricked by him!

沈时安是个邪师。他歪曲佛教净土教义以售卖个人产品。请小心别上当!
Fake Pure Land “Passport” 假净土“护照”
New “Doctrinal Classification”? 新“判教”?
The Buddha did not teach “Maha-Veganism”. This term cannot be found in the Buddhist canon! “大乘净素”非佛所说。佛教经典里并无记载!
Questionable credentials 学历不明
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sukhamanveti
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Re: Is Shen Shi'an 沈时安 a cult teacher?

Post by sukhamanveti »

guojun wrote: Mon Apr 16, 2018 4:08 am Has anyone heard of Shen Shi'an 沈时安 before? There are a few recent facebook posts and a website about him and his heterodox Pure Land teachings. He seems to have quite a following in Singapore. Can anyone confirm this is true?

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 5082390246

https://shenshian.wordpress.com
Shen Shi’an is a cult teacher. He is promoting heterodox Pure Land Buddhist teachings to sell his products. Don’t be tricked by him!

沈时安是个邪师。他歪曲佛教净土教义以售卖个人产品。请小心别上当!
Fake Pure Land “Passport” 假净土“护照”
New “Doctrinal Classification”? 新“判教”?
The Buddha did not teach “Maha-Veganism”. This term cannot be found in the Buddhist canon! “大乘净素”非佛所说。佛教经典里并无记载!
Questionable credentials 学历不明

I don't know how good Shen Shi’an is as a teacher or how accurate his courses are, but the criticisms at the link aren't fair and I see nothing to indicate that he is a "cult leader." He teaches classes, writes an e-newsletter, contributes articles to magazines, and is sometimes a guest speaker at various organizations. Students who have taken his courses call him "Brother Shen Shi'an." They don't see him as some sort of "supreme leader."

The "Fake Pure Land 'Passport'" is not intended as a literal passport. It is instead a translation of Pure Land Dharma Master Yin Guang's 临终三大要 ("Three Essentials for Those Close to Death"). This is why the "passport" is subtitled "The Three Great Essentials When Approaching Death." This is explained here: https://thedailyenlightenment.com/store ... -p57804064 . An online translation of this well-known text may be found here, at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas website: http://www.cttbusa.org/other2/3essentials.htm .'

The claim that he has "questionable credentials," because it is impossible for someone (in Singapore?) to have an MA in Buddhist Studies that "covered all major Buddhist traditions," is demonstrably false. Buddhist College of Singapore, the college at the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, where Shen Shi’an was a founding member of the Dharma Propagation Divison, offers a 2-year MA Course in Buddhist Studies and it covers Indian Buddhism, Theravāda, Chinese Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna (listed in the course overview as "Esoteric Buddhism"). This is almost certainly where he earned his MA, though the college isn't mentioned by name in his "biodata." A course overview in English may be found here on the college website: https://www.bcs.edu.sg/wp-content/uploa ... ng-ver.pdf .

Veganism is indeed found in the Chinese Buddhist canon of scripture, the Ta-ts'ang-ching ("The Great Storehouse of Scripture"), even if the word itself isn't, in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, where the teaching of it is attributed to the Buddha. For the relevant passage see 6:26-6:27 online here: http://www.cttbusa.org/shurangama/shurangama23.asp . The passage explicitly discourages the use of meat, silk, leather, fur, down, milk, cream, and butter. It is one of the reasons the contemporary Buddhist teacher Ven. Heng Sure, senior disciple of the late Ven. Master Hsuan Hua, is a vegan.
namo bhagavate śākyamunaye tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṁbuddhāya | namaḥ sarvabuddhabodhisattvebhyaḥ ||

"Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas love all beings in the world equally, as if each were their only child..." Buddhāvataṃsakamahāvaipulya Sūtra
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Re: Is Shen Shi'an 沈时安 a cult teacher?

Post by Admin_PC »

I've found a few of Shen Shi'an's teachings questionable, borderline superstition, and I find his sectarianism unpalatable - but I don't think I'd go so far as to call him a cult teacher.

I'm wondering if this is related to the shots Shen Shi'an has taken at the Pristine Pure Land school over on the Purelanders site the last couple years?

IMHO, this type of sectarian in-fighting is bad.
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