A Journey of Learning and Insight: An Autobiography of Chan Master Sheng Yen 聖嚴法師學思歷程(英譯版)

Chapter 6
Life Studying Abroad

In the Trend of Studying Abroad

In my youth I hadn’t thought about the issue of studying abroad because the monks who studied abroad in Japan rarely made any contribution to Chinese Buddhism, and at most they only translated a few books. Compared to the eminent domestic monks who had not studied abroad, such as the four great masters in contemporary Chinese Buddhism—Xuyun, Hongyi, Yinguang (1861-1940), and Taixu—who were revered by the masses, studying abroad appeared to be of not much usefulness. As a result when I came to Taiwan and became a monk again [after leaving the Army], I had not thought about studying in Japan. Although a few young monks of my age with a similar aspiration did go to Japan, and some people encouraged me to follow suit, at the time I did not have the financial support or the wish to do so. Rather, I went to the mountains instead of traveling across the sea.

As a Buddhist monk, to be able to study abroad one should thank the Cardinal Bishop Paul Yu (Yu Bin). He was the chairman of the National Assembly and the President of Fu Jen University, as well as the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in the Nanjing District, who later rose to be a cardinal. As a result he had a very influential voice in the Chinese National Government, and it could be said that “his words carry heavy weight.” The students of the Faculty of Theology of Fu Jen University were not under the governance of the Ministry of Education. However, they needed to study abroad, so the Cardinal spoke to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to legalize the plan for religious personnel studying abroad. After it was revealed in the newspaper that groups of their Catholic students went to study abroad, the Buddhist community also followed up and requested the government for equal rights and religious status. Therefore, several young monks were also approved to study abroad in Japan.

In 1975, after I completed my studies in Japan, I returned to Taiwan and attended the Conference of Academic Scholars Studying Abroad. At the conference, I met Cardinal Bishop Paul Yu and I thanked him in person, saying that because of him I was able to study abroad in Japan and completed my degrees. Perhaps he didn’t understand why I thanked him, and I wasn’t sure if he had thought about letting Buddhists study abroad when he was striving for the legislation. Nevertheless, it was a fact that young Buddhist monks did benefit as a result. From this standpoint, I approved that Buddhists, including monks, should participate in politics and enter the parliaments of various levels of the government to strive for the benefits of Buddhism as well as providing wisdom to the entire society.
After I entered the mountains for a few years, a lay Buddhist Mr. Yang Baiyi, who was educated in Bukkyo University in Japan, collected piles of secondhand Buddhist texts from the used book stands on Guling Street in Taipei, and sent them to my “solitary confinement” from time to time. The so-called solitary confinement was the small living quarters I was staying in, which was concealed, and its only connection with the outside world was a small window that allowed people to send food and daily supplies. Within the six years I stayed in the mountains, I went into solitary retreat twice.

During that period, I also started studying Japanese grammar books, and was able to read Japanese through self-study, which enabled me to deal with source materials in Japanese. [During this time] I wrote a few books. As far as I was concerned at the time, I thought it would be enough to understand Japanese and utilize the works written in Japanese, and there was no need for me to go to Japan.

Afterwards, because at the time the Christian magazines were openly challenging the Buddhist community by saying that none of the Chinese Buddhists could really understand Sanskrit, one of the original languages of Buddhism. They claimed that if the Buddhists only understood Chinese and not Sanskrit that would be like worlds away because they could only guess instead of truly understanding the meaning of Buddhadharma. Unlike the Catholic fathers or clergy, who took a mandatory course of studying the Holy Bible every day in Latin. After being provoked by this, even though I was nearly forty years old, I still had the courage to say, “Who else would do it but I?” At the same time, Mr. Zhang Mantao, a good friend of mine who was currently studying in Kyoto Japan, often wrote me long letters discussing religion, philosophy, Buddhist studies and Buddhadharma, as well as global events and historical events. In his letters, he would always encourage me to go to Japan no matter what, and that even to go there to breathe the fresh air would be nice.
Furthermore, my Tonsure Master Dongchu also approved my studying abroad, which I really did not expect. The domestic Buddhist education was generally poor; the monks were seen as unimportant by ordinary people, and they did not have degrees in higher education. They were even forbidden to go to various colleges and universities to teach the Buddhist youths. In order to improve the quality of monks and the academic status of Buddhism, and be in preparation for establishing a new phase of Buddhist education, I was determined to study abroad in Japan. Actually, after reading many Japanese Buddhists works, I discovered that there was glorious success in terms of the Buddhist education facilities and academic research in Japan, and it had become one of the leaders in the movements of world Buddhism.

So in February 1968, I walked out of my solitary retreat and the mountains of Meinong town in Kaohsiung and arrived in Taipei. I temporarily stayed at the foremost monastery at the time, Shandao Temple. I used one year’s time to prepare for reading and writing the Japanese language; at the same time I also hosted the Buddhist Culture Lectures every Sunday. I was in charge of teaching the sutras and shastras, and would also give lectures on specific topics occasionally. The more popular among the sutras and shastras were the Awakening of Mahayana Faith and the Verses Delineating the Eight Consciousnesses. Among the lectures on specific topics, the ones that were organized into manuscripts were The Value of Chinese Buddhist Arts, and The Epics of Guanyin Bodhisattva. During this period, I published The Study of Comparative Religion, and I also traveled to various places to give lectures, including the School of Theology established by the Presbyterian Church in Yangming Mountain. I no longer used sharp tones and harsh words to speak on Christianity. I also spent some time studying the works of the systems of Chinese Buddhism, including the commentaries on the Shurangama Sutra, *The Sutra of Complete Enlightenment, the Diamond Sutra, and the Awakening of Mahayana Faith, as well as the Records of Sayings from the Chan Sect.

First Arrival in Tokyo

At the time, none of the Buddhist youths from Taiwan who studied in Japan had completed their studies and returned, so after some consideration my master also opposed my studying abroad. Also, the overseas Buddhist from Southeast Asia who promised me financial support changed his mind. At the time the Shandao Temple had no obligation to support me. When I left from Taipei to Tokyo on March 14, 1969, other than an air ticket, I was virtually penniless. I marched out on the quest to study abroad amidst the sea of opposing voices from the domestic Buddhist community. Some people were waiting to see me make a fool of myself and some people were truly worried for me. However, I didn’t have the sentiment of “Jing Ke assassinates the King of Qin” (Jing Ke was determined to sacrifice himself in his attempt to assassinate the tyrannical King of Qin for the benefit of the people). Nor did I see myself as “the hero who left, never to return.” I only thought: if Chinese Buddhism was supposed to decline, and if I did not have the merit to receive any financial support after going abroad, then I could come back anytime and stay in the mountains again, which would also be nice.

When I first arrived in Tokyo, I went to Rissho University in Shinagawa district to complete the admission procedures at the Faculty of Buddhist Studies and be prepared for class. When I entered the classroom, I discovered that I was the oldest. The Japanese classmates were only twenty or so years old, and I was already thirty-nine. I thought about Master Yijing (635–713) in the Tang Dynasty, who went to study abroad in India. He was also thirty-nine years old at the time, so I felt a little more consoled. Two years passed by and I didn’t really understand what was being said in the classes. The professors were really nice and friendly, and the Japanese classmates were also very friendly. Some of them lent me their notes for me to copy, and some of them would give me a photocopy of their notes after class. Through my friend’s introduction, I had three Japanese tutors to teach me Japanese, and all three of them did so for free. Among them, the most memorable was Prof. Ushiba Shingen, who specialized in teaching Chinese grammar. He was already seventy years old and retired at home. He often thought about ways to repay Chinese Buddhism because he knew that Japan had received great beneficence from Buddhist culture, and that the origin of Japanese Buddhism was in China. The large quantities of the original Chinese texts of Japanese Buddhism also came from China. During World War II, the Japanese attacked the Chinese people, and invaded China. Therefore, he took care of us Chinese monks with shame and gratitude. Every time I went to his house for tutoring, he would treat us with tea and desserts and even served us lunch and dinner.

Another moving story that was facilitated by Prof. Ushiba happened during my study in Japan. It happened in 1973, when he translated Master Yinshun’s History of Chinese Chan into Japanese, and acted on the Master’s behalf to apply for the doctoral degree of Rissho University. I did all the miscellaneous tasks, and Prof. Ushiba was responsible for all the contacting affairs. Although he didn’t know Master Yinshun, to show gratitude towards Chinese Buddhism he did everything voluntarily. In that year he made possible the first scholar monk with doctorate in China. Although this may not be something of significance to Master Yinshun, it was important in terms of raising the status of Buddhism both domestically and internationally. I also felt that it was very important, so I wrote a special article for this event, “Epoch-making Scholar Monk with Doctoral Degree” for publishing in Taiwan.

After half a year more, I could somewhat understand spoken Japanese and I could make notes, and participate in taking turns in the speaking practices in class. After the second semester of the first year, I already completed three quarters of all the required course credits. In the first semester of the second year, I only needed to take one quarter of the course credits, and with the remaining time, I could focus on writing my master’s thesis.

Although my foreign language skills were poor both in Japanese and English, I also took Sanskrit and Tibetan courses. However, the teachers taught Sanskrit in Japanese, so how could I learn Sanskrit if I didn’t understand Japanese? After a year I could understand elementary Sanskrit grammar, and since I was studying it, I also translated a basic Sanskrit grammar textbook into Chinese for the purpose of teaching it in Taiwan. Unfortunately, after mailing it to a certain Buddhist magazine in Taiwan for publishing for several issues, the chief-editor was replaced, and due to the trouble of proofreading Sanskrit, they stopped publishing it. After continuous search, the original manuscripts were not to be found. My Sanskrit was still poor, and my Japanese writing skill was also poor. As a result, my advisor Prof. Sakamoto Yukio of the Huayan Studies department suggested that as an older Chinese student who started late, it was not impossible for me to specialize in Indian Buddhism but that would take much more time, so it would be better to write on a topic on Chinese Buddhism.