Chinese Buddhist Master Sheng Yen has hardly led a charmed life.
As he recounts in his new memoir Footprints in the Snow, he grew up poor in rural China, was conscripted to fight communists in the nationalist army and lived homeless on the streets of the Bronx, N.Y.
Nonetheless, Sheng Yen, a master of Chan Buddhism (more commonly known in the West by its Japanese name "Zen") has become one of the most influential contemporary Buddhist masters, with such luminaries as the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh singing his praises.
Sheng Yen answered questions by e-mail about Buddhism, meditation and politics. Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q. How is meditation separate from faith?
A. When we use religious faith, we pray, and prayer has an object, such as God, who answers to our prayer. When one meditates, one collects the scattered mind and subdues it by focusing it.
Q. How did you get through the difficult times in your life?
A. There is no problem that cannot be overcome. To use our heart means to understand how we should go about carrying on. To persevere means to try again and again, and do not be worried and afraid. When I was in mountain, living alone, (I) never thought I was alone. I felt that there are many sentient beings and many bodhisattvas (enlightened beings) to help me.
Q. Is it possible to attain enlightenment without meditation?
A. It is possible. In Chinese Chan history, there are records of people who meditated for decades and did not experience enlightenment. There are also records of individuals who experienced enlightenment after hearing a few words of Chan teaching without meditation. For individuals who got enlightened without meditation, their mind is very quiet and stable in regular daily life. Some people need meditation.
Q. Is study necessary, or only meditation?
A. Thinking about intellectual matters can help us analyze issues, but it does not allow us to attain direct realization and thus cannot give rise to wisdom. Doing scholarship and engaging in diligent Chan practice should be understood as two separate things. To do scholarship is to investigate questions in books by researching and intellectual thinking. To use (meditation) is not to use the mind, but to shatter all wandering thoughts so that we can experience enlightenment. If it is just for oneself, doing scholarship is not important. To spread and explain method of Chan practice to people, scholarship is still necessary.
Q. Why do you believe that Chan could have a good influence on the West?
A. If one does not accept the method and concepts of Chan, one would have missed out on something important. It's like an essential skill in life. It is the potential of enlightenment. It's the light of wisdom manifested from our mind.
Q. Why is it better for Buddhists to not get involved in politics?
A. This has something to do with Buddhist tradition. The Buddha was a prince who left home and did not want to get involved in politics any more. Politics is necessary for worldly people. But as soon as one is involved in politics, there will be a lot of problems regarding who is right and who is wrong. As a monastic or a practitioner, one should know what one needs to know about politics, but one should not get involved. As soon as one gets involved, one will immediately be sucked into the worldly, secular environment and be tangled up with it. This will obstruct one's cultivation in the practice.
Q. You recently decided to refuse a kidney transplant. Why?
A. Since I am already 80 years old, if a kidney is transplanted to my body, at most it will be used for 20 more years. If it is transplanted to a younger person the function to be fulfilled by the kidney will be greater. Therefore I think it is wasteful to transplant a perfectly functioning kidney into my body.
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