Venerable Master Fayun (also romanized as Fa Yun) (Traditional Chinese: 法雲法師; Simplified Chinese: 法云法师; Pinyin: Fǎ Yún Fǎ Shī) (1933–2003) was a Chinese Buddhist monk and thirteenth generation successor in the
Yunmen (雲門; Cloud Gate) lineage of the Chan (
Zen) school of
Chinese Buddhism
Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a Chinese form of Mahayana Buddhism which has shaped Chinese culture in a wide variety of areas including art, politics, literature, philosophy, ...
.
Early life and monkhood
Master Fayun was born in 1933 in Jiangxi province, China. His
lay name
A legal name is the name that identifies a person for legal, administrative and other official purposes. A person's legal birth name generally is the name of the person that was given for the purpose of registration of the birth and which then ap ...
was ''Yu Heng-sheng''. He entered the Buddhist monastic order at thirteen years of age and received the religious name ''Fayun'' meaning ''Dharma Cloud'' (Cloud of the Buddha's Teachings).
He was a disciple of the eminent Chinese monk
Hsu Yun
Xuyun or Hsu Yun (; 5 September 1840? – 13 October 1959) was a renowned Chinese Chan Buddhist master and an influential Buddhist teacher of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Early life
Xuyun was purportedly born on 5 September 1840 in Fujian, Q ...
(虛雲; Pinyin: Xuyun) (1840–1959) and was also one of his personal attendants who served him, most notably during the ''Yunmen incident'' in 1951-52 when Master Hsu Yun and his monks were beaten and tortured by thugs that surrounded Yunmen Monastery (雲門寺; Yunmen Si) in
Shaoguan
Shaoguan (; Hakka: Seukoan) is a prefecture-level city in northern Guangdong Province (Yuebei), South China, bordering Hunan to the northwest and Jiangxi to the northeast. It is home to the mummified remains of the sixth Zen Buddhist patriarch H ...
,
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
province, soon after the Communist Revolution in China.
[Venerable Master Hsuan Hua (Composed by); Buddhist Text Translation Society/Dharma Realm Buddhist University (Translator): "A Pictorial Biography of the Venerable Master Hsu Yun, Vol. 1", pages 433-435. Dharma Realm Buddhist University, 1983, ]
Coming to the West
In 1969, Master Fayun came to the United States at the invitation of a Buddhist devotee to teach
Chan Buddhism
Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and So ...
(i.e.
Zen Buddhism
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
) and
Pure Land Buddhism
Pure Land Buddhism (; ja, 浄土仏教, translit=Jōdo bukkyō; , also referred to as Amidism in English,) is a broad branch of Mahayana Buddhism focused on achieving rebirth in a Buddha's Buddha-field or Pure Land. It is one of the most wid ...
in America. In 1974, he founded the Grace Gratitude Buddhist Temple (美國紐約佛恩寺; Meiguo Niuyue Fo'en Si) in New York City. Today, it is one of the oldest Chinese Buddhist temples in the city. Starting in 1985, he served as a liaison coordinator for the
World Buddhist Sangha Council (世界佛教僧伽會; Shijie Fojiao Sengqie Hui). From 1979 to 2002, he served as vice president of the American Buddhist Confederation (美國佛教聯合會; Meiguo Fojiao Lianhe Hui). Master Fayun was known by all for his utmost compassion towards all people and living beings.
Passing
Master Fayun died on September 25, 2003. Soon after his cremation, many ''relics'' (Sanskrit:
Sarira; Chinese: Sheli 舍利; Tibetan:
Ringsel), round pellet-size material that look like beads, crystals, or pearls of any color that are found in the cremated ashes of those who are believed to possess advanced spiritual qualities, were discovered amongst his cremains. The cremains were brought back to Yunmen Monastery in Guangdong province, China in November 2003 and they, along with some of his relics, were finally interred into a memorial
stupa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.
In Buddhism, circumamb ...
there in 2004.
References
External links
:* https://archive.today/20130203011652/http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040120/LIFE/301209962&cid=sitesearch "Pilgrimage for a Venerated Man: Two men join sacred mission to return ashes of revered Buddhist monk to his native China", by Harry Leong, Special to The Standard Times, page B1, January 20, 2004
{{Modern Buddhist writers
Chan Buddhist monks
Chinese Buddhist monks
20th-century Chinese people
Chinese Zen Buddhists
1933 births
2003 deaths
20th-century Buddhist monks