Publication

BEING  GOOD

The following books are written by Master Hsing Yun:
Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life
A Guide to Chinese Buddhist Meditation
An Interpretation of Ch'an Poems
Lotus in a Stream

Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life
By Venerable Master Hsing Yun
Translated by Tom Graham

Published by WEATHERHILL, 1998, 176 pages,  SFr.15.-

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The aim of this book is simple: to invite readers to consider what it means to lead a good life, and to offer practical advice, based on the Buddhist teachings, as to how this can be accomplished. In each of more than thirty brief essays, Master Hsing Yun treats a specific moral or ethical issue, using quotations from the rich treasury of the Buddhist scriptures as a point of departure for his discussion.

Among the topics he considers are control of the body and of speech, overcoming greed, ending anger, patience under insult, how to manage wealth, how to get along with others, what it means to practice Buddhism, and the blessings and joys of that practice. The Buddhist precepts are introduced as guideposts along this path of liberation, and friendship, gratitude, and service to others are presented as essential elements of a common quest to discover and to embody our innate goodness and humanity.

Only a Great Rain

A Guide to Chinese Buddhist Meditation

Very little has been published to date on China's rich traditions of Buddhist meditation. Inspired by the need to increase meaningful dialogue between China and the West, modern meditation master Hsing Yun here brings this vast legacy to life in straightforward and engaging language. He begins by showing us the intimate connections between ethical conduct, meditation, and wisdom and goes on to describe a variety of meditation techniques, drawing on the insights of the Ch'an (Zen), T'ien-t'ai, Hua-yen, and Pure Land traditions. Professor McRae's introduction provides a helpful context for understanding Chinese Buddhism and Master Hsing Yun's place within it.

Cloud and Water

An Interpretation of Ch'an Poems
By Venerable Master Hsing Yun
Translated by Fo Guang Shan International Translation Center

Published by Hsi Lai University Press, 2000, 72 pages  SFr.15.-

Clouds float by water flows on. In movement there is no grasping, in Ch'an there is no settling. The cloud and water life is a life of living in the moment, always fresh and ready to experience. These poems have been grouped together because of the tone and feeling that they share. Many of these poems were set down by celebrated masters, while for others their authors remain unknown.

Lotus in a Stream

By Venerable Master Hsing Yun
Translated by Tom Graham

Published by WEATHERHILL, 2000, 173 pages, SFr.15.-

Over the centuries, Buddhism has produced an enormous quantity of teachings, doctrines, and highly complex systems of thoughts, making it very difficult to obtain a grasp of the full range of Buddhist philosophy and practice. In Lotus in the Stream, Chinese Buddhist Master Hsing Yun offers a Buddhist primer that organized the major ideas and practices of Buddhism, from the most basic to the most complex, and presents them in concise, accessible, yet highly insightful mini-essays. An accomplished scholar of Buddhism, Master Hsing Yun also illuminates Buddhist doctrines with the light of decades of practice. Whether read straight through of flipped through as a handy encyclopedia, Lotus in the Stream is the perfect reference for beginners and advanced students of Buddhism alike.

Opening the Mind's Eye

Opening the Mind's Eye:
Clarity And Spaciousness in Buddhist Practice (Paperback)

by Hsing Yun, Amy Lam

Book Description
Many of us view the world through a murky filter, unaware that a glimpse through the lens of the Dharma removes the cloudiness, revealing brilliance, clarity, and indescribable joy. Venerable Master Hsing Yun has dedicated his life to helping innumerable people put on "Dharma glasses" and look at their precious lives through new eyes—eyes that see the true nature of the universe and human existence.

In Opening the Mind’s Eye, Master Hsing Yun invites us to find ease in every moment and "face life and the future with confidence and radiance." We discover that each precious moment of our lives has either the potential to enshroud us in confusion, distress, and an atrophied mind, or to invite us into peace, joy, and boundless freedom.

Through expounding upon basic teachings that help us understand conscious and conscientious Buddhist practices and perspectives, Opening the Mind's Eye gives us tools with which to access our true nature, realize its infinite dimensions, and manifest its perfection and beauty in every moment, bringing unlimited joy to ourselves and others.

Keys to Living Well

Dharma Words I (Keys to Living Well)

Book Description
A selection of translated articles that Venerable Master Hsing Yun originally wrote for a special column in The Merit Times, Keys to Living Well represents the launching of a new vehicle for transmitting the Dharma. Arranged in an accessible style, this selection addresses moral, spiritual, and social questions that are central to our day-to-day existence. Whether it is a matter of cherishing our good fortune with humility or cultivating tolerance for others, Venerable Master Hsing Yun imparts his wisdom in a pithy and unambiguous manner. Like a diagnosis that precisely identifies a malady and a prescription that effectively cures it, each chapter in Keys to Living Well penetrates the core of problems we all encounter in life, while offering us effective solutions to overcome them. Through maxims on ethics, mottoes for conduct, and injunctions against transgressions, Keys to Living Well provides us direct access to the wisdom of the Dharma, equipping us with the means to handle all kinds of situations in life. As such, it serves as a useful manual for our conduct.

Humanistic Buddhism

Book Description
The rationale for Humanistic Buddhism derives directly from the Buddha, “because the Buddha was born, cultivated the path, became enlightened, and strived to enlighten others in this world.” It is with this understanding that Venerable Master Hsing Yun proceeds to elaborate on the many ways in which the Buddha’s teachings can guide us through challenges in life. In doing so, he affirms the basic spirit of Humanistic Buddhism that centers on the conviction that the Dharma is of crucial pertinence to humanity.

Humanistic Buddhism is a book that not only embodies this spirit, but also discusses how it can be infused in life. As a “blueprint” of sorts for conduct and ethics, it is a handy manual for guiding us, as well as a lucid exposition of some of the main tenets in Buddhism.

Through illuminating examples and references to Buddhist teachings, Venerable Master Hsing Yun provides insights into many facets of the human condition. He shows how emotions, ethics, family, society, government, and the environment are all areas for contemplation and cultivation. In short, what Humanistic Buddhism reminds us of is that Buddhism is part of life, not separate from it.

About the Author
Venerable Master Hsing Yun
Founder of the Fo Guang Shan (Buddha’s Light Mountain) Buddhist Order and the Buddha’s Light International Association, Venerable Master Hsing Yun has dedicated his life to teaching Humanistic Buddhism, which seeks to realize spiritual cultivation in everyday living.

Master Hsing Yun is the 48th Patriarch of the Linji Chan School. Born in Jiangsu Province, China in 1927, he was tonsured under Venerable Master Zhikai at the age of twelve and became a novice monk at Qixia Vinaya College. He was fully ordained in 1941 following years of strict monastic training. When he left Jiaoshan Buddhist College at the age of twenty, he had studied for almost ten years in a monastery.

Due to the civil war in China, Master Hsing Yun moved to Taiwan in 1949 where he undertook the revitalization of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism. He began fulfilling his vow to promote the Dharma by starting chanting groups, student and youth groups, and other civic-minded organizations with Leiyin Temple in Ilan as his base. Since the founding of Fo Guang Shan monastery in Kaohsiung in 1967, more than two hundred temples have been established worldwide. Hsi Lai Temple, the symbolic torch of the Dharma spreading to the West, was built in 1988 near Los Angeles.

Master Hsing Yun has been guiding Buddhism on a course of modernization by integrating Buddhist values into education, cultural activities, charity, and religious practices. To achieve these ends, he travels all over the world, giving lectures and actively engaging in religious dialogue. The Fo Guang Shan organization also oversees sixteen Buddhist colleges and four universities, one of which is the University of the West in Rosemead, California.

Over the past fifty years, Master Hsing Yun has written many books teaching Humanistic Buddhism and defining its practice. Whether providing insight into Buddhist sutras, human nature, or inter-religious exchange, he stresses the need for respect, compassion, and tolerance among all beings in order to alleviate suffering in this world. His works have been translated into English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Sinhalese, and Thai.

Living Affinity

(Nurturing the Environment,
Our Relationship and the Life of the Spirit)

Book Description
Human beings are social; we cannot live apart from community. According to the Taiwanese Buddhist teacher Venerable Hsing Yun, when we understand that human society is nothing other than a web of human relationships we will understand just how crucial our relationships are.

In Living Affinity, Hsing Yun describes the foundations of that web—whether in community relationships, love and affection, the environment, wealth and the material world, time and space, and in terms of spiritual development. Through a close examination of the some of the key sutras and stories of Buddhist doctrine, Hsing Yun provides us with a wisdom rooted in the knowledge of centuries and yet vibrantly relevant to today.