Donghua Chan Monastery A Brief Introduction to the Donghua Chan Monastery

The Donghua Chan Monastery is located inside the Donghua Mountain in the south of China, near Shaoguan City in Guangdong Province.

The Monastery was first built by the Venerable Indian Chan Master, Zhi-Yao San-Zang in the 6th Century A.D. and was named Lingjiu Temple. In the 7th Century A.D. Hui-Neng, the Sixth Chan Patriarch, retreated into the Donghua Mountain, and renamed the Temple Donghua Chan Monastery. The Monastery then became well known for a long period of time, until the 15th Century A.D. when it was destroyed and disappeared from the public.

In 1997, Master Wan Xing, upon his Great Vow, came to the Donghua Mountain, and went into a three-year seclusion inside the very cave where Chan Master Zhi-Yao San-Zang and Hui-Neng, the Sixth Chan Patriarch, retreated.

In this period of time, Master Wan Xing experienced the Grace and Blessings of the Heaven and Earth, harmonized the Yin and Yang energy, and realized the Essence of the Buddha Nature. With these spiritual achievements, Master Wan Xing re-entered the physical world and devoted himself to the rebuilding of the Donghua Chan Monastery.

The Donghua Chan Monastery today, under the teaching and guidance of Master Wan Xing, is a Chan Monastery with a singular focus on the teachings of Liberation. In the Monastery, the four groups of Disciples, the monks (bhikku), nuns (bhikkuni), laymen (upāsaka), and laywomen (upāsikā), rigorously practice in line with the monastic precepts and the founding principles of the Donghua Monastery:

Devote to your country before religion.
Establish a good personhood before practicing Buddhism.
Arise Bodhichitta before embarking on the journey of finding the Truth.

The Chan Monastic Traditions are as follows

“One day without work, one day without food”. So the agricultural activities and the Chan practices are considered equally important.

Also, “Chan shall be practiced on the cushion during the sitting meditations and off the cushion during the work”. The essence of the Chan principle that “The Self is Buddha, and all actions and phenomena are its manifestations” is passed down from Master to disciples and carried forward in the Monastery.

Master Wan Xing teaches that the Tao is found in the secular world, and Buddha lives in us; theories can be perceived instantaneously, but self-cultivation can only be perfected gradually through actions.

His teachings emphasize the significance of perceiving the Buddha nature as the first step before commencing the physical practices, and the importance of living in the present.

Other teachings are:

Practice Buddhism in work, and work in accordance with the Buddhism Practice;
Cultivate the Self in life occurrences, and examine the level of your cultivation through interactions with other beings;
Detach yourself from all the phenomena and the notion of Emptiness. Exercise no discrimination to all.

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