Master Sheng Yen led the Silent Illumination Winter Retreat

12/8/2003

Pine Bush, New York. Chan Master Sheng Yen led a 10-day intensive Silent Illumination retreat at the Dharma Drum Retreat Center from November 28 to December 7. Approximately ninety retreatants participated, including those who flew in from Europe and Asia.

This was the 103rd Chan retreat that Master Sheng Yen had lead in the USA. During the discourses, the Master gave a complete introduction to the Silent Illumination method in a systematic and progressive manner. Many of the retreatants, who had partook in previous Chan retreats with Master Sheng Yen, said that this was yet the most thorough elucidation on the Silent Illumination method the Master had given hitherto. Connecting and integrating basic Buddhist teachings with various methods of both the Mahayana tradition and that of individual liberation, the Master was able to present to everybody a practical Chan practice method that is easily understood and learned.

Filled with Dharma bliss, among the retreatants was also Jet Li, the well-known Kungfu star who had managed to take time off from his hectic schedule for the retreat. A practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, Jet Li was encouraged by his Tibetan master to learn the Chan meditation practice method with Master Sheng Yen. Having read many of Master Sheng Yen's works, the Kungfu star had, in fact, asked for "directions" in cultivation and practice from the Master during his last visit to Taiwan in September.