Newsmakers: Sheng Yen reaches out to world

Local Buddhist Master Sheng Yen (聖嚴法師) is among religious leaders participating in this year's World Economic Forum meeting in New York.

This is the first year the forum has included religious leaders in its discussions on global economic matters. The initiative, proposed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the US, is aimed at gaining insight on solving religious conflict.

The only Buddhist representative at the forum, the 72-year-old Sheng Yen provided suggestions and solutions for transforming the outlook of fundamentalists in a speech he delivered to participants yesterday.

Sheng Yen said that ignorance is often related to poverty and that poverty bars access to modern, pluralistic and global information.

"This may then lead to the isolation of culture and thinking, and result in discriminating against, belittling and rejecting whoever is different," Sheng Yen said.

Sheng Yen said that because of poverty, jealousy of the US and other capitalist countries can arise.

"A sense of inferiority is trans-formed into extreme arrogance, which then leads to the detesting, despising and attacking of whoever is different," he said.

Sheng Yen said that while military retaliation to such problems might have a temporary deterrent effect, it would not likely result in a lasting peace. He suggested instead that economic aid be given to poor countries in order to raise their productivity and improve their education and access to global information.

He also suggested encouraging fundamentalists to reinterpret their holy scriptures and teachings through cultural exchange so "they themselves will adjust their values."

Sheng Yen enjoys high status in Taiwan's society.

He founded the Dharma Drum Mountain religious group (法鼓山教團) in 1989, which has attracted many followers by preaching Chan (禪), or Zen, meditation in northern Taiwan.

Dharma Drum engages in a variety of activities including the propagation of Buddhism and Chan meditation.

Sheng Yen was born in China's Jiangsu Province and left home to become a monk at the age of 13. During the communist revolution, he was conscripted into the Nationalist Army, with which he moved to Taiwan. Ten years later he returned to his spiritual life once again and became ordained through his master, Tung-chu (東初老人).

At age 39, Sheng Yen pursued further study at Rissho University in Tokyo and received a doctorate in literature, becoming the first Chinese monk to attain a doctorate.

Since then, Sheng Yen's profound influence could be seen in various fields. An opinion poll in Common Wealth, a leading Taiwanese magazine, named him as one of "the 50 most influential people in Taiwan in the past 400 years."

Since Sheng Yen is a widely renowned expert on traditional Chinese Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, met with Sheng Yen regarding the common characteristics and differences between the two branches in 1998.

Sheng Yen also acts as a spiritual teacher to many of the nation's politicians. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) visited Sheng Yen just a few days after the presidential election in May 2000. Chen thanked Sheng Yen for his support after he lost 1998 Taipei City mayoral election. "I would have been the loser in the presidential election were it not for his words of encouragement then," Chen said.

In addition, KMT lawmaker Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才), the son of former independent lawmaker Lo Fu-chu (羅福助), has sought Sheng Yen's advice on the controversy surrounding his father's connections to the Tiendaomeng (天道盟) organized crime group.