In this body and life, I’ve been greatly blessed by my encounters with my dear teachers. I have eight root teachers all of whom have transmitted precious teachings to me and inspired me with their example. Of them, I feel most endeared and indebted to three teachers—Acariya Godwin Samararatne (1932-2000); Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022); and Sheng Yen Shifu (1931-2009). Their teachings and guidance in meditation have resulted in deep transformative impact on my everyday life and liberating realisations of the Dharma.
Godwin was someone I had met personally, learnt from personally, and corresponded regularly over the years while he was in his physical form. He was a boundaryless field of emptiness and warmth, so self-effacing and light, so simple and free. In his presence and by his pointing-out instructions, I had some of the most profound and liberating experiences of Dharma awakening.
Shifu was also someone I had not met personally. I’d been studying his teachings and meditating accordingly since the late 1990s and early 2000s during my doctoral research years. The sharpness, directness, and clarity of Shifu’s teachings cut through deeply and often unexpectedly. When I touched the grounds of Dharma Drum Mountain for the first time in 2011, I felt I was home—it was a Guanyin Dharma field (观音道场). Everything clicked.
Meditating in that Guanyin Hall for what seemed like a timeless eternity yet as in a quickening flash, I was enveloped by the pristine empty luminosity of that space beyond space, inseparable from the energy and presence of Shifu. I knew this from the very core of my being, which was absently present and presently absent. Words fail me.
三生有幸，见闻上师。师恩难报，唯有勤修。 本徒八师，其三为父：清水溪的葛榮居士; 法鼓山的聖严禅师；与梅村的一行禅师。
清水溪、法鼓山、梅村：
禅香遍法界，性空玄明照。
大悲心普显，度切有情众。
不肖弟子意，感恩缅怀心。
When it comes to being Christ-like, living a pure simple life of holiness and love, I have not met anyone else—especially in the evangelical Christian circles I’ve experienced—like my dear spiritual fathers. There is just no comparison. Soli Deo Gloria.
- 进慧月
Credits (L-R): Master Sheng Yen; Godwin Samararatne; Thich Nhat Hanh.
