[Buddha-l] Master Sheng Yan passed away

[Richard Hayes]

On Monday Feb 2, 2009 Wong Weng-Fai reported:

> Founder of Dharma Drum Mountain in Taiwan, the Venerable Master Sheng 
> Yan passed away today (3 Feb 2009) around 4pm Taipei time.

Venerable Sheng Yen was such a refreshing teacher. He was a Chan master
who was not ashamed to have a PhD and to have the uncanny ability to
speak in full paragraphs that even a dimwit such as I could easily
understand. He apparently felt no need at all to put on Channish airs by
speaking in riddles, punctuated by grunts and shouts. He once gave a
two-hour lecture on Chan at University of Toronto in which he did not
once bring up the subject of dogs, with or without Buddha-nature---a
feat that borders on the miraculous.   

Twice I had the pleasure of eating lunch with Ven. Sheng Yen at a
Vietnamese temple in Toronto. He had rice.

Oh, and he was very good at using chopsticks.  

-- 
Richard