The mission of religion education at the Harvard Divinity School is to provide quality training for religious teachers; its ideals and vision behind the training are: to reduce suffering around the world, stepping out of comfort zones, breaking presuppositions, and to generate more compassion. This nonsectarian school of religious and theological studies reflects the current social status and religious needs of the diverse population in America; its international student body represents numerous religious traditions and denominations from all over the world. As the curriculum requires engaging in extensive, in-depth open and active dialogues, the Venerable realized that in order to be of benefit and to learn from this experience, she must possess a compassionate heart, open-minded spirit, discard all presuppositions, respect and accept the differences in foreign cultures and traditions.

On the perspectives of world Buddhism, the Venerable observed the variety and diversity in American Buddhism, as well as the healing effects of Buddhism and Chan practices to its followers, with a gradually growing interest in learning about Buddhism teachings other than Chan meditation. Thus, ways to adapt to different cultures and needs from diverse backgrounds have become our focus of learning in providing the Dharma teachings. At the same time, she felt the necessity for Chinese Buddhism to spread out and be understood; people frequently asked her about the significance of her attire, with as many as eight pedestrians inquiring in one day while she was out with fellow Venerables from the Chan Meditation Center and Dharma Drum Retreat Center in New York, which lead her to think, "We are spreading Chinese Buddhism even while taking a walk."

Caring for the world; Providing Dharma wisdom

In view of world Buddhism, as today's America is advocating religious pluralism, the Venerable seized the opportunity to participate in different religious ceremonies such as the Catholic Mass and Islamic worship etc. On top of that, the Center for the Study of World Religions sponsors weekly colloquia on religion, whereby every visiting scholar took turns to present their topic for discussion. Her first year's presentation coincided with the presidential election day, so the Venerable shared the "non-dualistic" concept in the session, encouraging kindness and compassion in place of opposition and rage when dealing with the external environment. At the end of her report, the listeners were touched, citing, "Such a view is exactly what the people needs!"

Throughout the course of these exchanges, the Venerable further affirmed with the teachings of Master Sheng-Yen, "When we meet up and interact with different religions, we do not emphasize the beliefs in Buddhism, nor highlight its religious doctrines; instead, we should try to harmonize, accept, tolerate and understand the fact that multi religions are co-existing, and focus on the common needs of people in the contemporary society." Reviewing Master Sheng-Yen's original intentions of reverting back to Buddha's aspiration to transform the world, where he proposed the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan Buddhism with two objective: (1) to interrelate Chan Buddhism with the Buddhism doctrines studies; (2) establish common grounds between Chan Buddhism and world Buddhism, adopting and building on the strengths of the different Buddhism lineages. Venerable Chang Shen appealed to everyone to ponder on its significance, and the means of putting it into practice.

Texts: Venerable Yan Hua (演化法師) / Dharma Drum Monthly (法鼓雜誌)
Photos: Li, Jia-Chun (李佳純)
Translation: Chang, Cheng-Yu (張振郁)
Editing: DDM Austrailian Editorial Team

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