Buddha Jewel Monastery opened in Seattle, Washington in September, 2008. A branch of the Chung Tai monastic order, it was built as an outreach effort from the Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Taiwan. It is, in fact, Chung Tai’s largest of seven United States branches. Both monastic residents and lay members gather at the monastery in the peaceful neighborhood of south Seattle to practice and learn in community. Its constituents come from the Greater Seattle area and are steadily increasing in number. They are ethnically varied and include speakers both of English and of Mandarin. Buddha Jewel offers Zen meditation and Buddhism classes, Sutra study, and youth classes, all in both languages. In addition, the lead abbess holds meditation retreats and religious ceremonies. Participation is always free, as the monastery is fully supported by donations. Buddha Jewel Monastery welcomes all to its events and aims to help the community find insight and peace through meditation and Buddhist teachings.
Founder of the Chung Tai Order: Grand Master Wei Chueh
The Grand Master Wei Chueh founded the Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Puli, Taiwan. This first Chung Tai Monastery opened in 2001 after 3 years of planning, and today celebrates fifteen branches internationally, from Thailand to Australia, California to Texas. The Venerable Grand Master, as his followers respectfully refer to him, was born in Sichuan Province of China in 1928 and passed away in 2016, at the age of 88 years old. A successor to the Linji Chan, or Zen, lineage, he was ordained in 1963 at the Great Enlightenment Chan Monastery in Keelung, Taiwan and continued to devote his life to the practice and teaching of Zen Buddhism. Following his ordination, he remained in solitary seclusion for over ten years in the mountains near a Taipei suburb, where he accumulated followers who gradually learned of him. In 1987, he founded the Lin Quan Chan Monastery, and his constituency eventually outgrew it, prompting him to expand into a new monastery, Chung Tai Chan Monastery. He came to Seattle to teach in 1998 and eventually initiated the establishment of Buddha Jewel Monastery in 2008. The Master’s accomplishments are numerous, having helped revitalize Zen Buddhism in Taiwan in the late 20th and early 21st century, established meditation centers throughout Taiwan and around the world, presented lectures at universities and other organizations, and founded both the Chung Tai Buddhist Institute and a Buddhist education system for youth. A strong proponent for Sangha education and preservation of the Dharma for future generations, he founded Pu Tai Elementary and Junior High School and had plans for setting up Buddhist education through 12th grade. The Chung Tai Chan Monastery is now led by Master Jian-Deng, who was appointed as the new abbott in May of 2005.
Practices
The Monastery holds weekly classes in twelve-week terms that each consist of an hour of sitting and walking meditation and an hour of Dharma lecture. The classes are offered at three different levels and are taught in both English and Mandarin. Meditation methods taught range from breath mindfulness to compassion contemplation to middle way reality; Dharma topics covered include Karma and causality, the Four Noble Truths, the Three Refuges, the Five Precepts, the bodhisattva ideal, the six paramitas, and sutras such as the Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters and the Heart Sutra. In addition, Buddha Jewel Monastery offers one-hour drop-in guided meditation sessions on Wednesday mornings and evenings and Sunday mornings. Every few weeks, there is a ceremony or meditation retreat. One such ceremony is the Samadhi Water Repentance, an opportunity to cleanse oneself of past faults and hatred. All of the monastery’s events are free and bilingual.
The monastery also offers the opportunity to make a Lamp Offering to the Buddha for a one year period by giving a donation. This practice honors the Buddha, helps clear negative Karma, and supports the teaching of the Dharma.
Buddhist practice and monastic training at Buddha Jewel appears to be modeled on Chung Tai’s three frameworks, as set out by the founding Master Wei Chueh. These frameworks, which are outlined in greater detail on Chung Tai Chan Monastery’s website, are considered important guiding principles for practitioners of Zen Buddhism in the Chung Tai tradition:
Three Links of Cultivation: Deeds of Beneficence (Good deeds and service to the community), Scriptural Studies, and Meditation
Four Tenets of Chung Tai
Chung Tai Chan Monastery’s website lays out these tenets as concrete guidelines for applying mindfulness to daily life, as is customary in the Zen tradition:
“To our elders be respectful: Respect subdues arrogance.
To our juniors be kind: Kindness dispels anger.
With all humanity be harmonious: Harmony overcomes rudeness and violence.
In all endeavors be true: Truthfulness eradicates deceit.”
~http://www.ctworld.org.tw/english-96/html/a4TRADITION2.htm
5 directions of Buddhism
Founding Master Wei Chueh worked to preserve and proliferate Buddhism in the modern world and urged his followers to promote the religion through the following areas: Academic Research, Education, Culture and the Arts, Science, and Daily Living (exemplified by the Four Tenets of Chung Tai). The Five Directions are to serve as expedient means for helping other beings attain awakening.
Buddha Jewel Monastery is led by Master Jian-Yan. A spiritual advisor to the community, she leads meditation retreats, teaches classes, and directs ceremonies. Leading alongside her are Executive Director Master Jian-Lu, Finance Director Master Jian-Gan, and Docent Director Master Jian-Jie.
The Zen Tradition
Buddha Jewel Monastery, as part of the Chung Tai Chan Buddhist organization, identifies itself within the Linji/Rinzai Zen tradition. The founding abbot Master Wei Chueh traced his lineage to the Zen Master Linji.
Views
Community members at Buddha Jewel Monastery strive to live out Zen teachings, including the Sudden Enlightenment method and patient meditation. Sutra study draws from both Theravada and Mahayana traditions. The monastery’s positions on a few key issues follow below:
Vegetarianism
Buddha Jewel Monastery strongly encourages vegetarianism as an important spiritual practice. They provide vegetarian recipes and cooking tips on their website, offer classes in vegetarianism, and promote vegetarian cuisine at special events involving food. According to the Chung Tai founding Master Wei Chueh, practicing vegetarianism is essential to acquiring a mind of compassion and equality. He furthermore asserts that right intention, the intention to show compassion for all sentient beings, is necessary in order to benefit from vegetarianism.
Sudden Enlightenment
Zen Buddhist practitioners at Buddha Jewel and Chung Tai primarily strive to follow the path of Sudden Enlightenment, as recommended by Grand Master Wei Chueh. However, the Chung Tai order views Sudden Enlightenment and Gradual Cultivation as complementary methods to spiritual awakening. The founding Master Wei Chueh describes Sudden Enlightenment as the initial realization of one’s own Buddha nature, to be followed by gradual and sustained perfection of action and application of the enlightened perspective to all aspects of daily life in order to attain full Buddhahood. Gradual Cultivation, on the other hand, involves the gradual realization of one’s own Buddha nature through the perfection of action. Grand Master Wei Chueh has said that the Buddha himself suffered greatly on his gradual path and did not want the same for his followers; rather, Sudden Enlightenment is the more admirable path, in his view. At the same time, he points out that Gradual Cultivation is always accessible and that it can be practiced at times when Sudden Enlightenment is not possible. Gradual Cultivation is achieved through the Six Paramitas: charity, moral conduct, tolerance, diligence, meditation, and prajna/wisdom.
Expedient Means
The Chung Tai order acknowledges that there is an ultimate method to attaining awakening, but emphasizes the importance of teaching multiple different methods, or skillful means, to people according to what suits them. The purpose of this is to help other sentient beings achieve enlightenment. As Master Wei Chueh pointed out, the ultimate method, the Mahayana way, benefits the self while employing expedient means benefits others. He outlined five levels of enlightenment to keep in mind: “fundamental bodhi”-everyone’s inherent awareness; “initial bodhi”-transcending mundane existence through recognition of the mind’s ability to overcome suffering; “sambodhi”-eliminating the six afflictions of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, doubt, and false views from the mind; “virtually perfect bodhi”-practicing compassion and eventually realizing the principle of the Middle Way; “ultimate bodhi”-eliminating any last traces of ignorance.
Science
One of Chung Tai’s five directions for propagating Buddhism is science. Indeed, the position of the Chung Tai order is that scientific methods are congruent with the Buddha’s empirical approach to understanding reality. As such, science is considered something to be embraced.
Reflections from Buddha Jewel community members, posted on the website for the monastery, illustrate the blending of eastern and western spirituality, culture, and philosophy through Chung Tai’s expansion to Seattle. Many describe the gradual inner transformation they have experienced through increasing focus on breath in meditation. One remarks that the “western mind” is more accustomed to thinking of the future and the past, and that his experiences at Buddha Jewel Monastery have challenged him to more fully situate his sense of self in the present. Others recount renewing kindness and compassion in their lives, finding serenity in the wake of remorse, and embracing quietness. While some lay members have backgrounds in Buddhism, most have come to Buddha Jewel as beginners. The monastery is open and appealing to the entire local neighborhood, from artists and art appreciators, to adults interested in learning meditation or dharma principles, to children. It responds to community interest by offering classes in flower arranging, ceramics, and vegetarianism.
Written by Beth Planert
References
Buddha Jewel Monastery. Chung Tai Zen Center in Seattle. Retrieved from buddhajewel.org
Chung Tai Chan Monastery. (2009). The Establishment of the Monastery. Retrieved from http://www.ctworld.org.tw/english-96/html/
Ocean Sky Chan Monastery. (2014). Chung Tai Lineage. Retrieved from http://oceanskyzen.org/wp/about-us/chung-tai-lineage/
Buddha Gate Monastery. (2016). Chung Tai Branches. Retrieved from http://buddhagate.org/about-us/links-to-other-branches/
Avatamsaka Vihara. (2005). The Compassionate Samadhi Water Repentance. Retrieved from http://www.avatamsakavihara.org/waterRepentenceEN.php
Pictures retrieved from buddhajewel.org.
Links to Master Wei Chueh’s teachings:
“From Bodhi Mind to Ultimate Enlightenment:” http://www.ctworld.org.tw/english-96/docs/DharmaLectures1.pdf
“Gradual Cultivation and Sudden Enlightenment:” http://www.ctworld.org.tw/english-96/docs/DharmaLectures2.pdf
“Abide in the Mahayana Mind:” http://www.ctworld.org.tw/english-96/docs/DharmaLectures3.pdf
“Buddhism and Vegetarianism:” http://www.ctworld.org.tw/english-96/docs/DharmaLectures4.pdf