Report by Evie Tsow
Introduction:
The Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple of North Carolina is located in Raleigh. The temple is a branch of the international group Fo Guang Shan, a Chinese Mahayana Buddhist organization and monastic order which is based in Taiwan. Fo Guang Shan is part of the Linji Chan (Rinzai Zen) school of Buddhism, although it more heavily emphasizes an approach called Humanistic Buddhism (“Founder > Overview.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web).
Fo Guang Shan Background:
According to the New York Times, Fo Guang Shan, also known as Buddha’s Light Mountain, was founded by Master Hsing Yun in 1967 in the city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The international Fo Guang Shan order has over one million followers in branches in at least 50 countries around the world (Johnson, 2017). The first U.S. branch of Fo Guang Shan, Hsi Lai Temple, was opened in 1988 in Los Angeles (“Self-Guided Tour.” Fo Guang Shan Temple, NC). Since then, a total of 26 branches have been established in the United States, including the North Carolina temple (FGS America page). The organization not only promotes Buddhism, but also gets significantly involved in charity work and cultural education (“Fo Guang Shan.” Wikipedia). The Fo Guang Shan website states that “the goal and its aims are to promote Humanistic Buddhism around the world by the four founding principles: To propagate Buddhist teachings through cultural activities. To nurture talents through education. To benefit societies through charitable programs. To purify human hearts and minds through Buddhist practices” (“Objectives.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web)
The order belongs to the Linji Chan school, with the founder Hsing Yun serving as the school’s 48th patriarch (“Founder > Overview.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web). However, Fo Guang Shan does not strongly delineate itself from other Buddhist traditions or exclude others; it strongly promotes universalism. Hsing Yun described his order as an “amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism” (“Fo Guang Shan.” Wikipedia). Furthermore, the stated goal of the North Carolina branch is “peaceful coexistence to benefit all sentient beings,” (FGS self tour) not restricted to a particular school of Buddhism, to the Buddhist religion, or even to just human beings – the temple also promotes ethical treatment of animals (“Fo Guang Shan Temple NC.” Fo Guang Shan Temple, NC). The organization believes in equality among all people, which is reflected in its broad international presence and in its inclusion of female monastics – Fo Guang Shan has the greatest number of nuns of any Buddhist order in the world (“Founder > Overview.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web). These principles are part of the order’s ideals of Humanistic Buddhism, which originated in a Chinese spiritual movement that holds that Buddhism should focus on serving the living rather than the dead (Johnson, 2017).
Founder Hsing Yun:
According to the Fo Guang Shan website, Venerable Master Hsing Yun (1927-present) was born in Chiangsu Province, part of eastern China near Shanghai. When he was twelve years old he joined a monastery, and he became fully ordained shortly afterward. He later relocated to Taiwan in 1949 after civil war broke out in China. In Taiwan he more seriously began to practice Humanistic Buddhism, which applies spiritual practices to daily life through promoting “altruism, joyfulness, and universality” (“Founder > Overview.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web). In 1967, he purchased the land in Kaohsiung, Taiwan upon which the first monastery of Fo Guang Shan would be built, marking the founding of the organization. He has extensively lectured and written on Buddhist principles, having authored over 100 books (Ibid.).
Key Beliefs:
Master Hsing Yun’s book The Core Teachings explains many of the basic beliefs of the Fo Guang Shan order. In spite of the organization’s heavy emphasis on and praise of its founder, Hsing Yun taught that people should not rely entirely on any individual teacher, but rather rely first on themselves and on the Dharma in order to understand the Buddhist path. He also emphasized that what matters in studying Buddhism is not the particular words of a teaching, but rather the meaning – one should not get tripped up in surface-level details, but rather try to understand the deeper message. These ideas are fitting of the internally-focused Linji Chan Buddhist tradition to which Fo Guang Shan belongs, which often uses surficially-confusing methods such as koans in order to teach Buddhist principles.
Also following in the Linji tradition, Hsing Yun wrote that awakening lies in simply realizing one’s true nature: “When we awaken to the truth, everything we do is the Way. We do not need to go far away in search of the Way, for it is in our lives and in our minds” (Hsing Yun, 2012). This idea ties in closely with Fo Guang Shan’s Humanistic principles, which emphasize “not needing to ‘go some place else’ to find enlightenment (paradise), for we can realize our true nature right here and now, within this precious human birth and this world.” (“Objectives.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web). Hsing Yun also wrote that “all beings have Buddha nature within, and that it cannot be sought outside of ourselves” (Hsing Yun, 2012). This concept of virtue within all beings explains several of Fo Guang Shan’s other guiding principles – their belief in universality and promoting equality, their protection of animals, and their emphasis on individual, internal understanding of the Dharma.
As a Mahayana Buddhist order, of course Fo Guang Shan encourages its followers to pursue the Bodhisattva Path. Interestingly, Master Hsing Yun explains that one can become a bodhisattva via two routes: either by liberating oneself first and then liberating others, or the other way around. He names Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, known in Chinese as Guanshiyin, as the most important bodhisattva role model.
Hsing Yun also seems to apply the ideas of the famous Mahayana Buddhist writer Nagarjuna in regards to emptiness, or “no-mind.” Nagarjuna explained that true wisdom is understanding emptiness – the realization that nothing fully exists or does not exist, but rather lies somewhere in between, in the Middle Way. Correspondingly, Hsing Yun writes that one must study the Dharma with a completely non-differentiating mindset in order to see without bias the world as it truly is; the mind of wisdom is one that “transcends the duality of existence and non-existence.”.
To finish his book The Core Teachings, Master Hsing Yun provided a more in-depth discussion of one of the defining aspects of Fo Guang Shan, Humanistic Buddhism. He states that this concept involves six key characteristics: first, humanity – the Sakyamuni Buddha chose to be born as a human, and so his teachings are relatable and applicable for the rest of us. Second, daily life – the Buddha guided people on how to apply the Dharma in every aspect of daily life, and so believers should strive to apply those lessons. Third, altruism – the Buddha believed in helping each other. Fourth, joyfulness – the goal of Buddhism is to relieve suffering and bring joy to all. Fifth, timeliness – the Buddha was born at the right time for his teachings to reach us now, and they can still be applied in modern times. Finally, universality – the Buddha aimed to liberate all beings, including not only humans but also all other states of being such as animals. In short, Humanistic Buddhism holds that Buddhist principles are attainable and can be applied right here, right now, to people like us (Hsing Yun, 2012).
North Carolina Temple:
The construction of the North Carolina temple, completed in 2007, was initiated and funded by local Buddhists in the local area. Since many of the materials on the website are written in both Chinese and English, it seems that this temple largely caters to people of Chinese and Taiwanese descent, although others are also welcome. There are no official counts on the website of how many practitioners and visitors frequent the temple, but the center’s Facebook page has about 500 likes. It does not appear that any monks or nuns live at the North Carolina temple, but it seems that some members of this temple, including both adults and children, go on short-term monastic retreats at other Fo Guang Shan temples around the country (“Fo Guang Shan Temple, North Carolina.” Facebook).
The temple is a Buddhist cultural and educational center meant to serve both Buddhists and the general public, and the facilities include “a Buddha and meditation hall, a tea room/book store, a dining hall, classrooms, meeting room, library, and parking lots” (“Fo Guang Shan Temple NC.” Fo Guang Shan Temple, NC). This branch engages in all the activities that the Fo Guang Shan organization as a whole promotes – religious services, charity work, cultural education, etc. (“Self-Guided Tour.” Fo Guang Shan Temple, NC). The temple complex provides many spiritual and secular functions to the local community, including “devotional services and Buddhist lectures, … family visits, the Fo Guang Choir, social caring programs, art classes, study programs, chanting services, emergency salvation, and assistances in wedding and memorial services, etc.” (“Fo Guang Shan Temple NC.” Fo Guang Shan Temple, NC). In addition, the temple celebrates Buddhist holidays such as Buddha’s Birthday (Vesak), cultural holidays like Chinese New Year, and secular holidays such as Earth Day (“Self-Guided Tour.” Fo Guang Shan Temple, NC). The temple also hosts other non-Buddhist-specific education events to promote Chinese cultural traditions such as paper cutting, flower arranging, and tai chi (“Fo Guang Shan Temple, North Carolina.” Facebook).
Sources:
“Fo Guang Shan Temple NC.” Fo Guang Shan Temple, NC, IBPS NY – IT Dept., 2018, http://www.ibpsnc.org/fgsnc/EN/subpage.html?filename=ibpsnc.
“Fo Guang Shan Temple, North Carolina.” Facebook, 2020, www.facebook.com/northcarolina.ibps/.
“Fo Guang Shan.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fo_Guang_Shan.
“Founder > Overview.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web, 2013, www.fgs.org.tw/en/Founder/Overview/.
“Homepage.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web, Fo Guang Shan, 2013, www.fgs.org.tw/en/.
“Introduction to Fo Guang Shan.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web, 2013, www.fgs.org.tw/en/Organizations/Introduction/.
Johnson, Ian. “Is a Buddhist Group Changing China? Or Is China Changing It?” The New York Times, 24 June 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/world/asia/china-buddhism-fo-guang-shan.html.
“Objectives.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web, 2013, www.fgs.org.tw/en/Organizations/Objectives/.
“Self-Guided Tour.” Fo Guang Shan Temple, NC, IBPS NY – IT Dept., 2018, http://www.ibpsnc.org/fgsnc/EN/selftour.html?filename=tour1.html
“Welcome to Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple of NC.” Fo Guang Shan Temple, NC, IBPS NY – IT Dept., 2018, www.ibpsnc.org/fgsnc/EN/index.html.
“Worldwide > America.” Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web, 2013, www.fgs.org.tw/en/worldwide/America/.
Yun, Hsing. The Core Teachings: Essays in Basic Buddhism. 4th ed., Buddha’s Light Publishing, 2012. https://hsingyun.org/books/core-teachings/.
