Ven. Cheng Kuan

Venerable Cheng Kuan, an ordained Buddhist monk, born in 1947 in Taipei, is the abbot of both Americana Buddhist Temple in Michigan, and Mahavairocana Temple in Taipei. He is also the 53rd-Generation Lineage-Succeeding Acharya Koyasan Singon Sect, as well as the 42nd-Generation Lineage Successor of both Hua-yen Sect and Sole-Cognizance Sect.

So far the venerable has already published 22 books, consisting of 13 in Chinese and 9 in English. His Chinese works are mostly commentaries on prominent Buddhist Sutras, which are reputedly so abstruse as to baffle most Buddhist readers through ages, such as “The Lankavatara Sutra” and the like. His English books, excepting “A Trilogy of Ch’an,” are mostly English translations of preeminent “must-read” Buddhist Scriptures, such as “The Diamond Sutra,” “The Sutra of Consummate Enlightenment” and “The Lotus Sutra,” which are all absolutely indispensable for serious Buddhist practitioners.

From his adolescence onward, the venerable has exhibited quite extraordinary versatile feats in various facets: Academically, he was able to attend one of the first-rate junior and senior high schools, college and graduate school in Taiwan. After graduation, he taught high school English, and then was enlisted in the Army, wherein, as a Second- Lieutenant Reserved Officer, he worked as a News Officer and the Leader of a Translation Group, where he finished translating two books (“Persuasion: Experiments in Behavioral Psychology,” and “The Principles of the US World Psychological Warfare,” published by the US Department of Defense) from English into Chinese in three months. These achievements won him a medal at the end of his service, and enabled the leader of his unit to be promoted from colonel to major general.

Subsequently he went to the US for higher study, with the honor of University Fellowship from the Graduate School of Texas Christian University.

In college, he earned the second-place in the Contest of English Short- Story Writing, and the Contest of English Poetry-Recitation.

While in TCU, he won the second place in the University English Poetry Writing Contest, with a 300-plus line poem called “The Tempest Night,” written overnight.

At present, the septuagenarian Venerable still keeps translating Buddhist Scriptures into English, so as to benefit all people in world with the Buddha’s Supreme Wisdom.