Dharma Master Yin Shun (印順法師), who is credited leading a renaissance in Chinese Buddhism, passed away in Hualian's Tzu-Chi Hospital on Friday, aged 100.
Yin Shun was a mentor to Master Cheng Yen (證嚴法師) the founder of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu-Chi Foundation, and was honored by Tzu-Chi members as their "Shih Kung" (Teacher Patriarch).
He was a pioneer in developing the concept of "humanist Buddhism," the need for the monastic community to engage with the mundane world.
PHOTO: TSAI CHANG-SHENG, TAIPEI TIMES
At a press conference yesterday, Master Shih Chao-hui (
Chao Hui said Yin Shun was a harsh critic of the superstition and idolatry into which Mahayana Buddhism had sunk, and abhorred the conflicts between various sects within the faith.
Although Yin Shun is closely associated with the Tzu-Chi Foundation, he has had a decisive influence on others of the new generation of Buddhist masters such as Master Sheng Yen (聖嚴法師) of Dharma Drum Mountain and Master Hsin Yun (星雲法師) of Fu Guang Shan, who are active in humanitarian aid, social work, environmentalism and academic research.
Yin Shun was born in 1906 in Haining County, Zhejiang Province. He became a monk in 1930 and pursed his religious studies at the Nantuo Temple in Xiamen, developing into a formidable scholar.
His is credited with raising the status of Mahayana Buddhism through his extensive writings and his insistence on theoretical rigor. In 1972, with the publication of his History of the Chinese Ch'an School (
Yin Shun traveled widely in Asia and lectured at many academic and religious organizations.
In March last year, he was awarded the Order of Propitious Clouds Second Class, for his contributions to the revitalization of Buddhism in Taiwan.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
RSS