Buddhist Master Sheng Yen (聖嚴法師), founder of the Taipei-based Dharma Drum Mountain Culture and Education Foundation, died at 4pm yesterday at Dharma Drum Mountain in Taipei County’s Jinshan Township’s (金山). He was 79 years old.
On the foundation’s Web site, an announcement said: “Though the Master’s body passed today … Master Sheng Yen has not left us. His preachings touch our daily lives; at this time, what we need most is to calm our hearts and recite Buddha’s name.”
The foundation said Sheng Yen had been battling with chronic kidney ailments and had been on dialysis at National Taiwan University Hospital. After being diagnosed with urological cancer in December, Sheng Yen was hospitalized on Jan. 5.
PHOTO: CNA
The hospital said Sheng Yen voluntarily checked out of the hospital at around 3pm on Monday to return to his temple.
Although Sheng Yen had been advised by the hospital about the option of a kidney transplant, speaking of his illness in 2007, he said he declined the surgery because, “The kidney fails as a function of nature; there is no need to do unnecessary and extra procedures to [prevent it].”
Sheng Yen was named as one of the 50 most influential people in Taiwan’s history by Common Wealth magazine in 1998 and advised politicians, business leaders and celebrities.
Born in 1930 in China’s Suzhou Province, Sheng Yen was tonsured as a monk at the age of 13.
His religious career was interrupted for 10 years when he was drafted into the army during China’s Civil War. He came to Taiwan in 1949 and became a monk again in 1959.
Sheng Yen, who received masters degree and a doctorate in Buddhist literature from Japan’s Rissho University, began to preach to large crowds of followers in 1985 as the founder and the director of the Institute of Chinese Buddhism Study in Peitou (北投), Taipei.
He founded the Dharma Drum Mountain Culture and Education Foundation in 1989, emphasizing attention to techniques to command one’s “mental ways” and “self-extrication.”
The temple went through a 16-year construction process before being opened in 2005 and now has branches worldwide.
One of Sheng Yen’s unfinished legacies is the Buddhist University, a project he announced in 1996 but has yet to receive sufficient funding to establish.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) paid a visit to Dharma Drum Mountain last night to pay tribute to Sheng Yen.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS