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Humanistic Buddhism: Plurality and Humanistic Buddhism in the Context of a Buddho-Christian Comparison
On the morning of July 27, 2015, Venerable Master Hsing Yun met scholars and other devotees attending the Third Symposium on Humanistic Buddhism on the third floor of the Dharma Transmission Center, during which he gave a speech “How I Realized Humanistic Buddhism,” (originally titled “The Causes and Conditions that Guided Me to Humanistic Buddhism”).1 I had the great fortune of personally listening to this speech, during which Venerable Master responded to doubts (eight of them) on Humanistic Buddhism raised by those who do not quite understand it, covering topics such as tradition and modernization, laity and monastic, transcendence and engagement, origins and contemporary, spiritual cultivation and activities, etc.
National Recognition of a Religious Festival: Comparing Buddha’s Birthday Celebration Organized in Taipei to the Northern Wei Buddha’s Birthday Parade
Festivals make up a major feature of all religions1 and human societies. A festival means to most people a “special day or period, usually in memory of a religious event, with its own social activities, food and eremonies,” or an “organized set of special events, such as musical performances.” A religious festival presents a unique opportunity to gain insight into the confluence of religion, culture, and politics. Among Buddhist festivals, Buddha’s birthday stands out as the most popular and most public. When religious celebrations go outside the temple gates, it is an indication of wide acceptance of Buddhism by its host populace. In this paper, I shall compare two significant Buddha’s birthday celebrations: one in antiquity and one in recent times. These two circumstances are significant because the heads of state are conspicuously present outside their symbols of power and the entire capital city observed the occasion. By comparing large-scale commemoration of Buddha’s birthday celebrations held before the Office of the President in contemporary Taipei with a city-wide parade held in Luoyang during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534), this paper will identify the factors critical to indigenous Chinese people accepting major festivals of a foreign religion.
Call for Papers: A Life Remembered—Tribute Issue to Venerable Master Hsing Yun
Call for Papers: A Life Remembered—Tribute Issue to Venerable Master Hsing Yun We are pleased to announce that the 2026 issue of Studies on Humanistic Buddhism will be a tribute to.....
Humanistic Features in Contemporary Chan Practices: Using Fo Guang Chan as an Example
From the transmission and lineage of the Chinese Chan School, the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order founded by Venerable Master Hsing Yun derives from the Linji School. The “Fo Guang Chan” initiated by Venerable Master Hsing Yun, emphasizes equal attention to faith and practice, the development of meditation and wisdom, and the practice of compassion and wisdom. This is evident in its method of teaching, curriculum design, setting, and delivery. It fully integrates with modern society, contemporary knowledge and conditions, and has started a new practice of Chan.
Transnational Networks of Dharma and Development: Engaged Buddhism in the Era of Globalization
The various Buddhist social reformation and liberation movements are broadly referred to as Engaged Buddhist movements. While addressing issues concerning their communities, they have also acquired global dimensions as evident from the transnational networking among Buddhists/Buddhist organizations in Asia, as well as in the West, and the multicultural following that has come to characterize these contemporary Buddhist social movements.
The Relationship Between Buddhism and Chinese Culture
Buddhist culture is part of Chinese traditional culture. The issue of culture has recently become a hot topic of discussion in intellectual and cultural circles. Concerning this discussion, my understanding is shallow and my thoughts immature. However, I believe that the development of human culture is a continuous process, thus traditional and contemporary culture cannot be completely separated. We should draw out all the valuable essentials of traditional culture to enrich and develop a socialist-oriented national culture. My view is that traditional Chinese culture should also include Buddhist culture. At present, there is a biased opinion of equating the former with Confucian culture, and entirely eradicating the role and contribution of Buddhist culture in traditional Chinese culture. This is unfair and not reflective of historical facts.
Humanistic Buddhism and Contemporary Chinese Art
As we enter into the third decade of the twenty-first century, at least two observations can be made. On the one hand, the human condition faces its own extinction as artificial intelligence and climate change substitute basic human habits and habitats. These substitutions simulate—but can arguably never replace—natural human ones. It is not surprising, then, that fundamental aspects of the human world buried by progress into the ashcan of history have risen from the dead. The current renewal of human tribalism and authoritarian systems challenge assumptions of what “progress” and “modernity” as defined by Western Enlightenment is and can be. Indeed, cultural critics have discussed the phenomenon of postmodernity as characterizing the late twentieth century. Can we speak of neo-tradition and post-progress as veins running through the early twenty-first century? We clearly feel the pulse of these veins, but remain unsure of their paths or purpose.
Chinese Origin of Humanistic Buddhism and Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s Contribution in the Contemporary Humanistic Buddhist Movement in Taiwan
Humanism has been defined in various ways. It is a contemporary cult or belief calling itself religious but substituting faith in man for faith in god.1 Similarly, humanism is also explained as the faith in the supreme value of self-perfectibility of human personality. However, humanism broadly indicates to a shifting of focus from supernaturalism to naturalism, from transcendental to the existing, from absolute reality to the living reality. Humanism is the term for those aspirations, activities and attainments through which natural man puts on “super nature”.
Rethinking the Precept of Not Taking Money in Contemporary Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese Buddhist Nunneries
Around two and half millennia ago, the order of nuns was established when the Buddha allowed women to join the Buddhist monastic community. Buddhist nuns play prominent and respected roles in the Therīgāthā (Verses of the Elder Nuns) from ancient India. The historical work the Biqiuni zhuan 比丘尼傳 (Biographies of Nuns) reports how Buddhist nuns influenced and contributed to Chinese Buddhism in the medieval era. In recent decades, there has been a strong revival of Chinese Buddhism, amid which Buddhist nuns have exerted an ever-growing impact on the monastic environment, and their opinions have gradually become very influential, particularly in Taiwan. Indeed, as aptly put by Chün-fang Yü (Light 1), “Taiwanese nuns today are highly educated and greatly outnumber monks, characteristics unprecedented in the history of Chinese Buddhism.” In Mainland China, some prominent nuns (e.g., Shi Longlian) have held posts in the official organization of Chinese Buddhism or made significant contributions to Buddhist education and Dharma teaching. However, contemporary Mainland Chinese nuns’ religious life has scarcely been explored or discussed. This study aims to rectify this imbalance by examining a central ethical issue of monastic daily life to which scant scholarly attention has hitherto been paid.
Chan Buddhism During the Times of Venerable Master Yixuan and Venerable Master Hsing Yun: Applying Chinese Chan Principles to Contemporary Society
Linji Venerable Master Yixuan 臨濟義玄 (d. 866) and Fo Guang Venerable Master Hsing Yun 佛光星雲 (1927–), although separated by more than a millennium, innovatively applied Chan teachings to the societies in which they lived to help their devotees discover their humanity and transcend their existential conditions. Both religious leaders not only survived persecution, but brought their faiths to greater heights. This paper studies how these masters adapted Chan Buddhist teachings to the woes and conditions of their times. In particular, I shall review how Venerable Master Yixuan and Venerable Master Hsing Yun adapted the teachings of their predecessors, added value to the sociopolitical milieu of their times, and used familiar language to reconcile reality and their beliefs.
