Understanding the Buddha's Light Philosophy. This item is unavailable.Understanding the Buddha's Light Philosophy

The Buddha's Light philosophy describes the spirit, growth, and direction of Fo Guang Shan, the monastery, and Buddha's Light International Association (BLIA), the organization for lay devotees. It is rare to have an inside look at how a modern monastery functions in today¡¦s society. The Buddha's Light philosophy offers contemporary thoughts, future goals, and the organizational structure of the Buddha's Light International Association. The practice of Humanistic Buddhism, which is the emphasis of this Buddhist Order, is demonstrated through activities and social events, as well as the merger of traditional and contemporary approaches to practice and management.

Venerable Master Hsing Yun was born in Jiangdu, Jiangsu province, China, in 1927. Tonsured under Venerable Master Zhikai at age twelve, he became a novice monk at Qixia Vinaya School and Jiaoshan Buddhist College. He was fully ordained in 1941, and is the 48th Patriarch of the Linji (Rinzai) Chan school.

He went to Taiwan in 1949 where he undertook to revitalizing Chinese Mahayana Buddhism on the island with a range of activities novel for tis time. In 1967, he founded the Fo Guang shan (Buddha¡¦s Light Mountain) Buddhist Order, and had since established more then a hundred temples in Taiwan and on every continent worldwide. His Lai Temple, the United States Headquarters, was built outside Los Angeles in 1988.

At present, there are nearly two thousand monks and nuns in the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order. The organization also oversees sixteen Buddhist colleges; five publishing houses including, Buddha¡¦s Light Publishing, His Lai University Press; four universitiesk one of which is His Lai University in Los Angles: a secondary school; a satellite television station; and orphanage; and a nursing home for the elderly.

A Prolific writer and an inspiring speaker, Master Hsing Yun has written many books on Buddhist sutras and a wide spectrum of topics over the past five decades. Most of his speeches and lectures were compiled in essays defining Humanistic Buddhism and outlining its practice. Some of his writings and lectures are translated into different languages, such as English, Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean, etc.

The Venerable Master is also the founder of Buddha¡¦s Light International Association, a worldwide organization of lay Buddhists dedicated to the propagation of Buddhism, with over 130 chapters and more than a million in membership.