Reminiscing on Master Sheng Yen’s Conduct – Ven. Guo Shyang Shares Stories about Shifu

Ven. Guo Shyang was Master Sheng Yen's first ordained disciple in Taiwan, in addition to being his English and Taiwanese escort interpreter for 25 years. On the morning of March 5 in the Third Floor Grand Buddha Hall at Bao Yun Monastery, current DDM Vice Abbot Ven. Guo Shyang shared a story about Shifu called: "The Buddha's beloved disciple – Master Sheng Yen". She shared this story with Vice Director of Monastery Management Ven. Guo Lii, the residential monastics, and also 240 people.

Ven. Guo Shyang was both approachable and humorous while sharing stories about Shifu. She guided the audience to learn about Shifu's vision and conduct. Together, Ven. Guo Shyang and Ven. Guo Lii reminisced about the early years in Nung Chan Monastery, when Shifu guided everyone to cook, do laundry, grow vegetables, and practice living the monastic life.

At the beginning of her speech, Ven. Guo Shyang mentioned that she had been following Shifu for over 30 years, at which time she had witnessed Shifu's diligence, bravery, resilience, and incredible spiritual power, all of which are the embodiment of the Buddha’s spirit. Ven. Guo Shyang said, "Being able to function normally in the midst of extreme suffering is the highest happiness one can cultivate in life." Master Sheng Yen had certainly achieved this.
 
As a religious teacher of Chinese Buddhism, Shifu had spiritual experiences from an early age. Ven. Guo Shyang mentioned that, when Shifu first became a novice monk on Wolf Mountain, he felt that he couldn't do anything right. Therefore, his master asked him to prostrate 500 times to Bodhisattva Guanyin every day. Not long after, Master Sheng Yen had a dream in which Guanyin touched his head. After that dream, he became a completely different person; both his memory and learning abilities dramatically improved. That was his first spiritual awakening, which firmly grounded his faith in Buddhism.

Ven. Guo Shyang described how Master Sheng Yen was inspired by the fact that "Buddhism is so wonderful, yet so few understand it, and so many misunderstand it". Consequently, Shifu vowed to use plain language to help more people understand Buddhism. Ven. Guo Shyang recalled how, prior to Shifu's passing, he once said he had spent his entire life promoting the Dharma. Shifu furthermore maintained that "if someone makes suggestions from a superstitious point of view, I will not accept it, and will always return to the correct teachings.”

Because traditional Buddhist funeral rites have caused many to misunderstand Buddhism, Shifu was dedicated to promoting reforms to water and land Dharma assemblies, as well as funeral customs, in order to improve the quality of Buddhist rituals. Master Sheng Yen also hopes to fulfill the social function of Buddhist rites, so that they not only benefit the deceased but also offer social care to the living.

Fueled with the purpose of promoting orthodox Buddhism even while ill, Shifu remained busy with daily tasks throughout his life. During the construction period of the Dharma Drum Mountain headquarters, Master Sheng Yen never stopped his efforts to spread buddhadharma, and even penned many books and calligraphy during this time.

Ven. Guo Shyang said that even though Shifu was seriously ill, he still remained relaxed while preaching sermons, to the point where no one could even tell that he was sick. Ven. Guo Shyang shared Shifu's verse at his moment of death: "Busy with nothing, growing old. Within emptiness, weeping, laughing. Intrinsically, there is no 'I'. Life and death, thus cast aside." Ven. Guo Shyang encouraged everyone to learn from Shifu's spirit of being "unwilling to endure the decline of the holy teachings; unwilling to see sentient beings suffer," and to work together to benefit all sentient beings.

After the event, Xiufeng Hong shared that, having never met Shifu before, she often reads Shifu's books. In addition, she learned more stories about Master Sheng Yen, from Ven. Guo Shyang's lecture. "I felt rather moved after listening to the lecture!" Junfeng Gao exclaimed. Now, she is more resolute about doing myriad good deeds, forming benevolent affinities with people, and sharing the buddhadharma with more people.

Text: Yiqian Lee (李宜倩) 20230305
Photo: Bingyi Zhao (趙炳義) 20230305
Translated by: Shiang Shen (沈純湘)
Edited by: Keith Brown, Freya (可馨)