Anthony,
I don't have a way to cast the characters into type. I know that's a standard
tool that many people have, but I have never looked into it.
I suppose I could scan the letter that my shifu gave me, showing his
handwritten characters for the name, and put up an image. First, I must find
the letter. This may take a while!!
Meanwhile, again, the "Xiang" is just the "Xiang" in the Heart Sutra:
"Form". So Shifu says! I'll leave it to you to see which character that is:
you can't miss it.
BTW, in his lineage, disciples are named according to the order of characters
in a particular poem. Each new generation begins with a
particular character, which is also a word in the poem. So, in my shifu's
generation, all his disciples' names begin with "Guo", and then the next
character in the name comes according to the order or sequence of the following
words of the poem. I am Guo-Xiang.
Sorry I do not now know which poem is used! Sheng Yen's chief Chinese disciple
in the USA, Professor Jimmy Yu, would know (at Florida State University; Asst.
Prof. of Religion and Buddhist Studies; he is "Guo-Gu"; he was a monk in Sheng
Yen's line for about 20 years, and is now a lay person again and has married).
Sheng Yen was a monk, and previously a Captain in the Taiwan Army, even while a
monk. He was also a scholar, and had his PhD in Buddhist Studies from Rissho
University in Japan, the world's greatest Buddhist university: Sheng Yen was
born and raised on a farm in Mainland China, but let us not say that he is
untrained!
He was a friend of the Dalai Lama, and of Thich Nhat Hanh. The Dalai Lama came
to Sheng Yen for information and advice about how to restore
the organization of Nuns in Tibet (well, in the exile community in
India, now), because female monastic practice in Tibet had become
lost, whereas, in Ch'an, it has always thrived, and continues to
thrive. So, my shifu helped, there. He passed in Feb. 2009 in
Taipei.
In his life, he made many teachers to follow him, and built a fine new
university center (!) in Taiwan to train monastics and lay people in academic
Buddhism and Ch'an practice. The "three pillars" of Zen and Ch'an are still
the same three as ever: "Teaching; Practice; and Enlightenment". Sheng Yen
emphasizes all three: not all teachers do!
He is considered the renewer, rivalist, and reformer of Ch'an in Taiwan, and
was given a recognition by the President of Taiwan of this status and
accomplishment. His organization in Taiwan, too, is an important charity, and
feeds a lot of people; they also are very strong environmentalists. The
President also named Sheng Yen "The Environmental Monk."
--Joe
> Anthony Wu <wuasg@...> wrote:
> My Chinese writer did not work. Now it is back.
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