Author Description

In the summer of the year 2000, Master Sheng Yen held a 49-day silent illumination retreat for the 1st time at the Dharma Drum Retreat Center at Pine Bush, in upstate New York. Towards the end of the retreat, Master Sheng Yen announced that among his Western disciples there were already a few who are qualified to teach the Dharma and to independently lead 3-day or 7-day retreats. Since that retreat, in addition to John Crook, who received transmission in 1993, four other Western disciples have received transmission from Master Sheng Yen. Since all of these Dharma heirs are lay practitioners with careers and families of their own, I believe it would be of interest to lay practitioners to know how these Dharma heirs came to the practice and their experiences on the Path. So I invited each one of them, John Crook, Simon Child, Max Kälin, Zarko Andricevic, and Gilbert Gutierrez to write an article telling us about their experiences in the practice, to be published in a small book. When I invited Master Sheng Yen to write an introduction for the book, to my delight, he decided to write an article about his experiences in the practice and to clarify his view on the issue of lineage transmission. This article gave the book its focus on the issue of transmission, and as a result, we decided to include the lineage chart of the two lines of transmission Master Sheng Yen has received for the reference of those interested. Also, there is an addendum to Shifu's article on his practice and transmission. This addendum is a transcript of part of a meeting (2006) between Shifu and two of his Western Dharma heirs, John Crook and Simon Child from the United Kingdom. In this part of the meeting, John Crook asked Shifu for advice on how to identify suitable individuals for them to give Dharma transmission to the next generation, in addition to the criteria clearly articulated by Shifu in his article and when they received transmission from Shifu. Shifu's response sheds light on this imp