East Asian Buddhist Leaders Should Support Thich Nhat Hanh

Associated Press, yesterday

…The embassy statement contradicted Vietnam’s description of events at Bat Nha monastery in Lam Dong province, from which followers of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh were evicted on September 27.

Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry has said the eviction was nonviolent and that police ensured the safety of the monks and nuns. But the embassy described the expulsion of the monks as “violent” and decried the Vietnamese government’s “failure to protect them from assault.”

The embassy said the government’s actions in all three cases “contradict Vietnam’s own commitment to internationally accepted standards of human rights and the rule of law.”

Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese born, France-based Buddhist who has popularized Buddhism in the west and sold millions of books worldwide. He was expelled from South Vietnam during the war and has lived in exile for four decades. ….

It is not simply the laws of East Asian countries, but the personal tendencies of East Asians in general, that are despotic. That is, each East Asian has an almost overwhelming tendency, from birth, to become either a despot or a passive supporter of despotism by others. This includes all East Asian Buddhists, but most especially lineage holders, who have risen to positions of social authority, not in general by recognition of their Enlightenment, but by beating themselves out on top of the fundamentally despotic societies that are theirs, by embodying the despotic tendencies and dynamics of those societies in their own cases.

Thich Nhat Hanh and his followers have proven themselves to be exceptions to this. It is unfortunate that other Asian Buddhist lineage holders, because of their own despotic tendencies, have not come out in support of him in this crisis. It is absolutely appropriate that the American ambassador has stepped in for them in this. But as Buddhists, we should not be satisfied with that. WE SHOULD HOLD EAST ASIAN BUDDHIST LINEAGE HOLDERS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR DESPOTIC ACTIONS, AND IN THIS CASE, THEIR THOROUGHLY DESPICABLE AND THOROUGHLY DESPOTIC FAILURE TO ACT.

In general, the politics of East Asia continue to be barbaric, and East Asian Buddhists have proven themselves unable to address it effectively, with the exception of Buddhists on the Chinese mainland. The recent liberalisation of Chinese policy, as glacial as it may seem to us, is largely the result of Buddhist influence on the central government of China. At the national level, it would be appropriate to seek China’s pressure on Vietnam, in the matter of its barbaric treatment of its Buddhists.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

Oh, and hey, nuns don’t rule either.

What we’re looking at here is the top of Fo Guang Shan’s administrative hierarchy, on a trip to Xuecheng Fashi’s bailiwick in Beijing with Ven. Xing Yun in 2005. If they look worried, they should. They’re being confronted with an ilk of Buddhism in which nuns don’t rule, and in which renunciation still means that you own nothing. N.O.T.H.I.N.G. For these precious creatures, “renunciation” is a cushy life style, including virtually unlimited travel priveleges, and the ability to tell your numerous underlings anything you want, with no fear of retribution.

I am sure that if this kind of shot were taken in Taiwan, for example, the numerous underlings would have automatically suppressed it. That’s considered “meritorious action” where they come from. I consider it stupid.

For some other shots of this trip, shamelessly ripped from the Chinese web by never humble enough yours truly, including some great shots of Ven. Xing Yun, see my Xing Yun in Beijing 2005 Album.

I cannot tell a lie. I did it with my spiffy little Firefox web browser, avec le Gimp, the totally awesome open source image editor.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

Meet the Reigning Dragon-Elephant

At the age of 42, Xuecheng Da Heshang holds more administrative power than any Buddhist monk in history. More than Nagarjuna. He is the executive secretary and vice-chair of the China Buddhist Association that was established by the last Dragon-Elephant, the unutterable Xu Yun （虚云）, and he has other titles and roles throughout the Chinese government too numerous to mention. He basically is capable of heading any committee on anything, and frequently does so. His grasp of orthodox Buddhadharma, by the way, also happens to be absolute. And his Dharmic sphere of influence is the largest Buddhasangha on earth, and the largest Buddhasangha in history.

So far what is known of Xuecheng in the English-speaking world is primitive. The best information is still available on this blog, in the first twelve pages in the “Pages” list in the right sidebar.

Dragon-Elephants are where you find them. They don’t go around publicizing themselves. But if your karma is good enought to encounter one, and it is that good if you read my blog, please have the fundamental intelligence to understand what the person means. Xuecheng means the fundamental value of the mental clarity that results from Buddhist practice for government, and administrative functionality in general, in our times. He has forbidden the mideveal magic that is still practiced at Fo Guang Shan, in the form of apocryphal “Repentance” texts. He has forbidden it because it doesn’t work. Any competent psychiatric professional can tell you that these practices are destructive with respect to the normal development and functionality of the individuated human personality as we understand it in the modern era.

But besides all that, from my comparatively primitive point of view, these texts are not the word of the Buddha, and they should not be heard in Buddhist temples. Their chanting constitutes the ritual pollution of the temple, and such pollution, when deliberatly perpetuated and held stubbornly in the minds of reactive nuns, whose motive is simply to demonstrate their capacity to do this, is just as polluting as the Japanese practice of keeping human remains in the main Buddha Hall. That they do this in the name of “Humanistic Buddhism” only makes them ridiculous.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

Dharma Drum goes to the Chinese Mainland

Dharma Drum is a Buddhist organization from Taiwan which is dedicated to bringing Buddhism to the West.

For those who can’t live without the obligatory East Asian group photo of the occasion, you’ll find it here: 台湾法鼓山方丈果东大和尚一行参访北京龙泉寺( 2009年09月24日 11:00龙泉寺).

I’ve long since predicted this movement. Taiwan Buddhism in general, left to its own devices, simply is not strong enough, or pure enough, to be transmitted to America. It has to return to the strength and purity of the Chinese mainland first. Taiwan might be an “economic miracle,” but it is a Buddhist backwater in which precious Buddhaharma has been hammered to to its social and ideological (not to even mention liturgical) knees by Confucianist funding sources. Nothing in that condition will ever be transmitted to America.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing PIng

Proof that orthodox Taiwan nuns exist

This graphic is off Xuecheng Fashi’s blog.

I don’t know whether there are any members of Fo Guang Shan’s nun cohort involved in this — frankly I doubt it because they seem to have become unhinged from the Chinese Mahayana mainstream — but this is nuns from the Buddhist Nuns’ Progress Association of Taiwan visiting Long Quan Temple in the Beijing District. This bodes well for the dharmic health of Taiwan Buddhism, because Long Quan Temple is one of the seats of Xuecheng Fashi, one of the most traditional and powerful Buddhist leaders in the modern era, and these nuns’ presence there cannot mean something other than their determination to hew to the Buddha’s meaning about nuns — i.e., that they must remain subject to the direction of the monks in the Buddhasangha.

善哉，比丘尼们，善哉也！
Well done, nuns, well done indeed!

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

What. It. Is.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

American-Style Buddhism in China

China Tibet Online

They are lawyers, entrepreneurs, engineers and artists, different in their weekday worlds, but sharing a common identity as “weekend Buddhists.”

Taking time out to live a simple temple life has become popular with professionals and executives in recent years, all keen to escape their hectic city lives.

In the past few years, temples such as the Huayan Temple in Chongqing have begun to accept a special group of visitors, everyday people wanting a taste of part-time religious life.

Not completely converting to Buddhism, the weekend visitors stay for a few days, wear traditional clothing, enjoy simple vegetarian meals and potter about, contemplating the universe and relaxing their minds.

Chaoyang Temple in Huairou district, Beijing, has 20 guest rooms for visitors, mainly occupied by weekend Buddhists.

“Generally 10 to 20 people come here every weekend. Apart from shaving their heads, they live the same way as monks do in the temple,” said lay Buddhist Yaorong, a volunteer at Chaoyang Temple.

Liu Gang runs his own private enterprise and began to make temple visits two months ago. At first, the hard bed, strict regiment and time schedule at the temple were almost impossible to bear. “I immediately went back home that night,” Liu explained. However, with perseverance, everything got easier.

“Master Mingzhuang told me that calm comes from gradual practice. I realized that it was a waste of life to sleep after attending daily morning service. Their rules and commandments also taught me that living on the wild side is not so great after all.”

“After the short-term monk life, I can face pressure with a calm mind and I am not as anxious as I was before.”

Director of a consulting company in Beijing, Luo Jingxin and her friends spent a week at Guangren Temple on Wutaishan, Shanxi Province last year and she has made several temple visits since.

“During those days in the temple, we were so far away from the neon lights in the city. No radio, no TV. Living there was an opportunity to think quietly: What do I want? What on earth could make me happy?” Luo explained.

Wang Yuan said that she enjoys temple life as it is free from competition and simple frugality can provide a mental massage.

“I learnt Za-zen, tasting tea and playing the ancient Chinese zither at Chaoyang Temple. Real life should be clean and simple like this,” Wang added.

Cheng Ran is one of the organizers of a Buddhist summer camp. According to Cheng, since the 1990s Chinese people have began to pay more attention to activities that involve the heart and spirit and have sought consolation and help from books, philosophy and religion.

The popularity of Nan Huaijin, a famous Chinese writer whose books are zen-based, is an example. “In recent years, Buddhism, which has intimate links with Chinese culture, has gained the favor of high-income, high-education and high-rank groups,” Cheng said.

Aside from these groups, temples are extending their hands to people from all sectors of the community.

In 1993, monk Jinghui of Bailin Temple in Henan Province started a Buddhism in Life summer camp aimed at college students. The camp advocated Buddhist traditions and taught young people how to carry the teachings into everyday life.

In the past four years, many Buddhist holy lands including Emeishan, Wutaishan and Jiuhuashan began holding similar summer camps and Being a Weekend Buddhist activities to help spread their message and relieve people from pressure. …

Now that this is happening in China, maybe Asian lineage holders can stop whining pathetically and inappropriately about “weekend warrior” Buddhists in America trying to “change the teaching.” American Buddhism is what it is for the same reason that Chinese Buddhism is what it is; both things are the result of adaptation to the modern era. Before long, the more affluent members of both cohorts will start jumping continents to go to Buddhist programs. A Chinese Buddhist is different from an American Buddhist, but not paradigmatically different, and the more vigorous the Buddhist practice is, the more the cultural differences disappear.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

The Largest Buddhasangha on Earth

Buddhism thrives as China relaxes religious policy

…”Twenty years ago, as we started recovering from the Cultural Revolution, the total number of monks here was just a few hundred,” said Yi Bo, spokesman for the Wutaishan Buddhist Association.

“Since then Buddhism has not stopped developing. More and more monks have come. The numbers hit 1,000, then 2,000, then 3,000. Three years ago we hit 5,000.”

At that time the government stepped in and began restricting the number of monks who could study here, he said.

Meanwhile, 2.8 million visitors came to Wutaishan in 2008, bringing in 1.4 billion yuan (206 million dollars) in tourist revenues, according to government figures. This year more than 3.1 million visitors are expected.

“The government supports us mainly with policy, but funding for our growth mainly comes from donations from the Buddhist faithful,” said Miao Yi, a nun at the Buddhist Institute at the Pushou Temple, China’s largest convent.

More than 600 nuns are studying in the Buddhist Institute which has received generous funding from Buddhists in Hong Kong and Taiwan, she said.

Still the government remains wary over religion and monks here refused to discuss Tibetan Buddhism or its spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who once asked communist leaders if he could make a pilgrimage to Wutaishan’s 10 Lama temples.

“We must work to support patriotism and national unity. We must embrace the leaders of the Communist Party and the socialist system,” Gen Tong, a senior Buddhist leader said on the occasion of 50th anniversary of the Wutaishan Buddhist Association in late 2007. …

Three years ago there were 5,000 *monks* studying at this pilgrimage site which hosted 2.8 million visitors last year. There are many such sites in China. And unlike in any other country on earth, Chinese Buddhism is non-sectarian. The Buddhists there are one unified and cohesive Sangha, and they speak with one voice. One of the things they say is “Only orthodox Buddhism is real.” Another thing they say is “We love our country and we support its government.” This most definitely signifies that dissident lamas who foment civil disorder in Tibet will not prevail. It would be futile to fail to hear the voice of the largest Buddhasangha on earth, if we claim to be Buddhist at all.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

Monks are Coming From the Chinese Mainland

Chinese monks get formal English training at university in Shanghai
www.chinaview.cn  2009-06-28 15:19:09
xinhuanet.com

SHANGHAI, June 28 (Xinhua) — A group of Chinese monks, most of whom hold bachelor’s and even master’s degrees, completed an eight-month English training course at a Shanghai language university Saturday and were awarded certificates.

The 22 monks, all from monasteries in the Chinese mainland, studied English language skills and attended Buddhism classes given in English at the Shanghai International Studies University (SISU).

It was the first time in China that a university provided formal foreign language training to monks.

Sheng Jianyuan, director of the teaching and research office of the training department at SISU, told Xinhua Sunday that the idea of the program came up last summer, when monks across the country gathered in Shanghai for an English speaking contest.

“Increasing exchanges between China’s Buddhist circle and its overseas counterparts mean Chinese monks need better English skills,” Sheng said.

The language classes were given by teachers in SISU and the Buddhism classes were taught by instructors from the Buddhism research center of the University of Hong Kong.

Tuition was covered by the Shanghai Buddhist Association.

The monks also translated for the second World Buddhist Forum at end of March and beginning of April. That forum opened in Wuxi of east China’s Jiangsu Province and concluded in Taipei.

There’s a certain refreshing attitude afoot here. This is what you do when you intend to transmit; you learn the language of the people you’re trying to transmit to. Guru Rinpoche learned Tibetan for the purpose of bringing Buddhism to Tibet, Bodhidharma learned Chinese for the purpose of bringing Buddhadharma to China, and Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Chogyam Trungpa learned English for the purpose of bringing Buddhadhama to America. That’s how it works.

And why do I even have to notice this? Because there have been probably thousands of Asian monks who have come to America, supposedly to transmit, and yet have failed and refused to learn English, some after decades of the purported spreading of Dharma here. THE ONLY REASON THESE FAKES HAVE THRIVED AND BATTENED IN AMERICA IS THE LACK OF THE REAL ARTICLE HERE!

The transmission of the Buddhadharma to America was not completed by Suzuki Roshi and Trungpa because they represented cultural-extremist lineages. The broad Chinese Mahayana, the religion of the Chinese mainstream, is the only form of Buddhism that is full, complete, and ordinary enough to really enter the American religious mainstream, and when it does that, it will take all these splinter lineages from the edges of the Chinese cultural sphere of influence along with it, by giving them a broader sympathetic cultural context in which to make sense and thrive. And these full Mahayana American Sanghas will have English for their primary language of instruction from the very beginning.

See my Knight’s Move across the Pacific page.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

The Houston Mahayana Dharma Realm

Check out this charming first-hand account of the Chinese Mahayana Buddhist world in Houston, by a Chinese-language blogger called Wei Dedong. This excellent piece of work contains some pretty trenchant criticism of Fo Guang Shan, to which I’ve added my own criticism. In the following case, I even wrote it first in Chinese before translating to English.

((我很明显，佛光山之特点就是为他人服务。惨的是，佛光山的方丈尼们大班还没晓得，美国人所须要的究竟是什么样的服务。她们非常好打算的 『节日』对我们往往会当成一席忍不住的困难, 华侨包括在内。为什么呢？因为她们还猜不得美国人民主义的基本性，华侨包括在内。It’s obvious to me that the distingushing characteristic of Fo Guang Shan is serving others. What’s sad is that the Abbess’ of Fo Guang Shan mostly still have not woken up to what kind of service it is that Americans need. The “Festival Days” that they so like to plan often turn into a whole scene of intolerable misery for us, Chinese-Americans included. And why? Because they still can’t guess the fundamental nature of American democracy, Chinese-Americans included. -xp))

Translation completed 16 Jun 09. This is a really great piece of work, thank you Dedong. I’d also like to take this opportunity of thanking my Blog host, WordPress, for allowing me to write Chinese here. I probably would not last 10 seconds on a Chinese-language blog, because the kind of criticism that I’ve written above would tend to be thoroughly and immediately squashed administratively by Fo Guang Shan Central’s trogdolytes.

It would be well to remember that Texas is among the top three US states in number of Buddhist Dharma Centers:

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping