President, premier pay last respects to Yin Shun

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) and other government officials yesterday paid homage to Dharma Master Yin Shun (印順法師), who died on June 4 at the age of 100.

They offered incense to a picture of Yin Shun and paid their last respects to his remains in a ceremony held at the Fu Yan Monastery in Hsinchu, where Yin Shun had resided for several decades and where his ashes will be kept permanently.

Born in Haining, in China's Zhejiang Province in 1906, Yin Shun became a Buddhist monk at the age of 24. As one of the most venerable Dharma masters in the Buddhist world, Yin Shun is remembered most for his core philosophy of "humanizing Buddhism and bringing bodhisattvas into the world."

Known to his followers as the "savior of the world," Yin Shun's teachings include the idea that "benefiting others is the priority of all deeds and thoughts."

Yin Shun received a doctorate from Japan's Taisho University for his book The Zen History of China, published in Taipei in 1971, one of several books he wrote.

Yin Shun had a simple and spartan lifestyle, so his disciples decided to keep his funeral simple but solemn, a Fu Yan Monastery spokesman said.