Mike,
It's no secret that Sheng Yen found a lot in his tradition as practiced in
China and Taiwan in the 20th Century which he felt could be returned to its
roots, and reformed.
He told us about this, and writes about this and his early training days in the
monastery, and tells about how he received little training in traditional and
effective practice methods. So, he sought this out, and put these ways into
practice.
This is one reason why Sheng Yen afterward became such a great, detailed,
teacher of practice methods: he knew the value of them!
He also felt afterwards -- and this was after he was already transmitted by
both his T'sao Tung and Lin Chi Ch'an masters -- that he needed an ACADEMIC
degree in order for him to be accepted in the West, and not just his monastic
credentials and his Inka, the authorization to teach Ch'an.
So he took the PhD in Buddhist Studies at Rissho University in Japan -- the
first Chinese National ever to do so-- and also practiced Zen in Japan with
Japanese monastics while there.
I feel Sheng Yen is a reformer of Ch'an, and I know that some progress is
occurring especially in Taiwan to train monks and nuns and lay people at Dharma
Drum University. This is the university that Sheng Yen founded in his lifetime
and dedicated to full operation shortly before he died in Feb., 2009, in Taiwan.
There may be differences between JMJM's ways, and those of Sheng Yen at Dharma
Drum and elsewhere, but I don't know how "big". Let's just say that Ch'an is
a-"chan-ging"!
JMJM may know about developments in Taiwan.
--Joe
> uerusuboyo@... wrote:
>
> Bill!, Yes, there does seem to be a big difference between Joe and Sheng
> Yen's Ch'an and JM's. I can't help but think JM's Ch'an is closely associated
> to the esoteric version of Taoism.
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