Source of Clouds and Water Realising Humanistic Buddhism 每 Venerable Master Hsing Yun
Venerable Master Hsing Yun, the founder of Fo Guang Shan Monastery, was born in Chiangxu province in China in 1927. Tonsured under Venerable Master Chih Kai at the age of twelve, he received his formal monastic training at Jin-shan, Chiao-shan and Chi-hsia Vinaya Colleges. In 1952, he established the Buddha Recitation group in Ilan and reinforced the foundation of Dharma propagation in Taiwan.
In 1967, Venerable Master founded Fo Guang Shan Monastery, with the principles of Humanistic Buddhism, steered Buddhism towards education, cultural, charity and religious practice, realising his ideals of ※Buddha＊s light shinning across the three thousand realms, Dharma water flowing through the five continents§.
Venerable Master has a good understanding of the contemporary society, and using simple methods, he was able to propagate Humanistic Buddhism, providing a guiding light to people around the world. Over the 50 years of Dharma propagation, Venerable Master has been internationally recognised and have received many praises for his work. He has also received many honorary doctorate degrees from various universities round the world and has been known as the first person to practice Humanistic Buddhism. In addition, he has also many outstanding achievements as follows:
• Establishing 16 Buddhism colleges, cultivating more than 1200 monastics, with the best quality and global-view sangha community in the history of Buddhism;
• Fo Guang Shan has 190 temples around the world, with more than 2 million devotees;
• Establishing three universities in Taiwan and the United States of America. In addition, Venerable Master also set up two colleges, two primary schools, four kindergartens and over fifty Chinese schools around the world.
• Publishing Buddhist canons, dictionary and simplifying sutras. Venerable Master also established a publishing house, libraries, television station, satellite television program BLTV, Merit Times Newspaper and nine art galleries;
• Delivering Humanistic Buddhism to all parts of the society through Buddhist hymns, arts, calligraphy and Buddhist songs;
• Conducting more than 4500 Buddhist lectures and Dharma talks internationally in the past 50 years, with more than 10 million audience.
Venerable Master is an all rounder religious practitioner who has dedicated his life to benefiting the society through having a good heart, doing good deeds and saying good words. His efforts in the propagating the Dharma have surpassed religion, international boundaries and time. Many have praised the Venerable Master to be:
A practicing religious revolutionary who is decisive;
A compassionate creator who has successfully disseminated Buddhist theories;
An educator who is loving and promotes knowledge.
