Monastery Spiritual Teachers
To promote the study and practice of the Dharma in it’s entirety.Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk from New York City. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944, he obtained a BA in philosophy from Brooklyn College (1966) and a PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School (1972).
Drawn to Buddhism in his early 20s, after completing his university studies he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he received novice ordination in 1972 and full ordination in 1973, both under the late Ven. Ananda Maitreya, the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk of recent times. Continue Reading »
Ven. Jen Chun
Master Jen–Chun, Bodhi Monastery’s founder and spiritual leader, has written extensively on the Buddha Dharma and has lectured throughout the United States and in many other countries around the world. Born in Jiangsu Province, China, in 1919, he embraced the monastic life at age 7 under the guidance of Ven. Master Chuan–Dao. At age 20 he entered the Buddhist academy of Tian–Ning Temple. Thereafter he studied at the Ming–Nan Buddhist Academy, beginning his teaching career after graduation. In 1949, he moved to Hong Kong where he met Master Yin–Shun and became his disciple. He then moved with Master Yin–Shun to Taiwan where he taught at the Fu–yan Buddhist Academy. Continue Reading »
Ven. Yin Shun
Master Yin Shun was the teacher of Master Jen-Chun, the founder of Bodhi Monastery, and thus, though he never held any official position in Bodhi Monastery’s administration, he was in a sense the “spiritual mentor” of the monastery. It is his vision of the integral unity of the Buddha–Dharma and the themes he has highlighted in the unfolding history of Buddhism that grounds our approach to Buddhist theory and practice.
During the course of his long life, which stretched across a full century, Master Yin Shun had come to be recognized as the foremost Chinese scholar–monk of the modern age. The author of close to fifty volumes, he almost single–handedly spearheaded an intellectual Renaissance of Buddhism in Taiwan, enabling Chinese Buddhists in Taiwan to take their place among their scholarly peers from other Buddhist countries. Continue Reading »
Ven. Bhikkhu Kai Yin
Venerable Bhikkhu Kai Yin, founder and abbot of Santavana Forest Hermitage, Sabah, Malaysia, is a highly recognized master of samatha (tranquility) and vipassana (insight) meditation. With a special interest in the Theravada commentarial literature, the Sutra-Pitaka of Nikāya/Agāma collections, and the Yogacara school of Buddhism, Bhikkhu Kai Yin is well-read and has gained acclaimed expertise in the studies and teaching of Abhidhamma, Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification), Mahaprajnāpāramitā-śāstra, and Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra.
Ordained in 1987 in Ang Hock See Buddhist Temple, Penang, Malaysia, Bhikkhu Kai Yin studied at the Buddhist Institute of Malaysia and then Yuan Kuang Buddhist College in Taiwan. He practiced various meditation methods, extensively and intensively, under the guidance of a number of renowned meditation masters, including Thera Ji Cheng, Thera Xiu Jing, Thera Sheng-yen, Goenka and Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw. He was a lecturer at Yuan Kuang Buddhist College (1995) and…