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By Jimmy Yu, disciple of Master Sheng Yen:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
I am saddened to inform you that Venerable Master Sheng Yen of theDharma Drum Mountain in Taiwan and the Chan Meditation Center of NewYork passed into Nirvanic bliss in Taipei on February 3rd, 2009, 3 am\u00a0(Taiwan time: February 2nd, 4 pm) at National Taiwan UniversityHospital at the age of 79.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Master Sheng Yen was born into a humble farming family in NantongCounty, near Xiaoniang Harbor, in Jiangsu Province on January 22, 1930\u00a0(December 4 in lunar calendar). Master Sheng Yen became a monk at age\u00a0thirteen. He began as a frail novice, yet he was destined to become oneof the most influential Buddhist<\/a> clerics in modern Chinese history and\u00a0in the renaissance of Western Buddhism<\/a>. Master Sheng Yen was a Chinese\u00a0lineage holder of both the Linji and Caodong Chan Buddhist schools, the\u00a0founder of the Dharma Drum Order of Chan Buddhism, the founder of the\u00a0Dharma Drum Mountain Center for World Education, the first Chinese\u00a0cleric who received a Ph.D. degree in Buddhist studies from RisshoUniversity in Japan, a stellar Buddhist scholar of Ming Buddhism and of\u00a0Master Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655), and an active advocate of environmental\u00a0protection.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n