Monks talk at Chuang Yen monastery

Yogi report
Dateline: Chuang Yen monastery, 4/22 & 23

Venerable Master Fa Tzang and Reverend Heng Sure
talk about the Tien Tai school of Buddhism as the first
Chinese essential formulation of the Buddha's teachings.
Described as the broadest school of Buddhism, it had to be
able to absorb other Buddhist perspectives such as Mahayanna,
Zen, Tibetan and Ayurvedic schools and also encompass older
Chinese Taoist principles as well. All these Buddhist schools
were growing at that time, when about 2,000 years ago the
formulation of the Tien Tai school began.

The founding Tien Tai teacher came from Tibet. Over the next
500 years and five subsequent bodhisattvas, what is called
Chan meditation developed using the Lotus Sutra (a scriptural
narrative of the Buddha's teaching).
The ability of accomplishing three contemplations within a
single thought thru Chan meditation releases one into an
enlightened freedom from birth and death.
The monks used Tien Tai as an example of how this control
naturally leads to influence over your own living and
further beyond death. (Buddhists are very concerned about
making the leap from this existence to beyond.)

The monks' viewed current Buddhism in the west, saying that
it's been here only about one hundred years. And that, after
all, it took 500 years for Tien Tai to entrench into Chinese
everyday living. They see the progression in understanding of
Buddhism as being still an early stage and they recognized the
necessity for teachings to adapt to contemporary circumstances.
(Perhaps there is a way of not having to give up all 5 desires
in this western version).