Donghua Chan Monastery

I. Forward

Away from the city’s hustle and bustle, this is a land without congestion or chaos. Soothing the mind, this is a land of stability for society.

Here, mountains, forests, streams, the sunlight, the air, and the clouds, like chalices of nectar washing away the dust, cleanse the filth in people’s hearts, and reveal the truth of life. “An ancient temple hidden in the great mountains: Donghua, a virtuous lineage tradition.

II. Background

In 502 CE, Tripitaka Chan Master Zhiyao, an Indian eminent monk, arrived in Wengyuan County, Guangdong by sea. Marveled at the jagged Donghua Mountain range, which resembles India’s Vulture’s Peak, he went no further, and meditated in a cave at the foothills.

After the retreat, he built a monastery called “Vulture’s Peak Monastery.” That year predated the arrival of Bodhidharma, founder of the Chinese Chan school, by 25 years. In 677 CE, having inherited the monastic robe and alms bowl from the Fifth Patriarch, the Sixth Patriarch Huineng practiced in solitude here. He changed the name from “Vulture’s Peak Monastery” to “Donghua Chan Monastery.” In the subsequent history of 1,300 years,

Donghua Chan Monastery waxed and waned and was destroyed during the Ming-Qing war.

III. Restoration of Donghua Chan Monastery

Fast forward to 1997, another young roaming monk came upon this blessed cave. With a deep connection with Buddhism, he decided to go on a solitary retreat here. This young monk is Shi Wanxing. Master Wanxing was born in 1971. He took refuge at age 15, became ordained in Xiamen’s Southern Putuo Monastery at age 18, and graduated from Minnan Buddhist Academy at age 22. Previously, Master Wanxing had gone on solitary retreats in Juecheng Cave in Ruizhu Monastery of Zhangzhou, Fujian, and Peach Island in Nyingchi, Tibet, for a total of four years. Donghua Mountain in Guangdong would be the place for Master Wanxing’s third solitary retreat.

"When I arrived at the Sixth Patriarch’s cave, I felt as if something inside me was awakened and revigorated. I felt I was dreaming of the place that appeared during my meditation. Immediately, I decided to go on a solitary retreat here. I did not sleep during the retreat; I sat inside a box the whole time. I went in, crossed my legs, and closed the door. It was to prevent me from falling asleep." In 2000, Master Wanxing successfully completed the retreat after three years. He was in solitary retreats for a total of seven years, and finally realized the original essence of life.

IV. Reconstruction Project

After I came out of the retreat, I left this place for a year. The local government and followers reached out to me, hoping that I would stay to rebuild the monastery. At the earnest request of the local Wenyuan government and a large number of followers, at age 30, Master Wanxing decided to rebuild Donghua Chan Monastery. However, without any house or land, how can a monk in a cave rebuild the monastery? It is easier said than done. At that time, they gave me a back-of-the-envelope calculation that it would cost a hundred million renminbi to rebuild the monastery. I was shocked. I said, “Where am I going to raise this much money?” An official at the time changed my perspective. He asked, “How old are you?” I said, “Thirty.” He said, “Would you rebuild the monastery in ten years?” I said, “Ten years is not enough.” He said, “How about twenty years?” I said, “Twenty years should be enough.” He said, “After twenty years, you are only fifty years old. Isn’t there a saying among the monks that monks only succeed at the age of sixty?” His words changed my view.

I thought about how during the three-year retreat they provided me with food and daily necessities. To repay the gratitude of the people in this area, in 2006, we broke ground in Donghua Chan Monastery, paving the way for the restoration project. It took longer to prepare than to build. Construction took only two years, because we had five teams working at the same time. That is why within two years, we completed the major parts of the project.

V. Opening ceremony

In October 2008, hundreds of eminent monks and nearly a hundred thousand followers from all over the world arrived in Donghua Chan Monastery and participated in the opening ceremony. At that very moment, this thousand-year-old monastery finally re-emitted the Buddha’s light.

VI. Donghua Lineage Tradition

As the founding abbot of Donghua Chan Monastery, from the outset, Master Wanxing stood on the vantage point of religion and national unity. At age 30, he established the Donghua lineage principle of “love for the nation before faith, proper conduct before Dharma study, and volition before cultivation.” He advocated that “cultivating the path of humankind before the Buddha’s path, as actualizing the former naturally brings about the attainment of the latter.” Such is the core idea of a people-oriented Buddhist philosophy. At age 40, he established Donghua Chan practice, which is “people-oriented, trains the mind through worldly affairs, calls for a life of awakening and a life of service, implements ‘Humanistic Buddhism’ in the world, and creates a Pure Land on earth for all to become bodhisattvas of humankind.” He leads the Sangha to adhere to the Chan ancestral teaching that “places equal emphasis on farming and meditation, i.e., meditating inside the hall and working meditatively outside the hall, because a day without work is a day without food.” This is how the Chan spirit is absorbed into work and life.

VII. Major events

When practicing the Donghua lineage principle, the monastery takes every opportunity to give back to the country and repay people’s kindness. From the day the monastery was rebuilt, no matter what difficulties it faces, the monastery taps into its limited construction fund every year and allocates 20% to public and charitable causes. It extends a helping hand to the disadvantaged groups from all walks of life. In November 2016, Donghua Chan Monastery, together with Jingan Monastery in Shanghai and China Shengmu Organic Milk Limited, donated to 209 navy, army, and air force families gifts worth close to 150 million yuan.

• From 2005 to 2020, Donghua Chan Monastery donated a total of more than 70 million yuan to various groups in society. 

• In June 2014, Donghua Chan Monastery held its first Chan meditation training class for laypeople, allowing many students to practice meditation and gain spiritual growth and transformation. 

• In January 2016, Donghua Chan Monastery was officially inaugurated as the “Chan Culture Research Base” by the Buddhist Culture Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 

• To repay the kindness of Buddhism’s birthplace, Master Wanxing led 48 disciples to visit India on March 23, 2016, thereby broadening Buddhist exchanges along the Maritime Silk Road. At the same time, he donated the Tripitaka to India. After Master Wanxing gave a speech at Nalanda University, three students from the school voluntarily requested to become his disciples. Under the bodhi tree where the Buddha became enlightened, they were tonsured by Master Wanxing. 

• To integrate organically Chan culture and the Chinese arts of calligraphy and painting, the Academy of Painting and Calligraphy of Donghua Chan Monastery was officially opened on June 18, 2016. It includes a 300-meters long exhibition hall and 2,000 square meters of creative space. It has attracted many artists from home and abroad to come to exchange ideas. 

• On May 1, 2019, it organized the China Donghua Chan Monastery Laozi, Confucius, Huineng International Comics Exhibition. It displayed 140 exquisite works by artists from 52 countries, including the US, France, Mexico, Russia, and India. 

• In October 2019, the inaugural “Chinese Cultural Studies and Me in Life” forum for cross-strait youths was held at Donghua Chan Monastery. Youths from both sides of the strait participated in the plaque unveiling ceremony. 

VIII. Master Wanxing’s accomplishments

To put Donghua Chan into practice, Master Wanxing has tirelessly expounded the sutras and Dharma to disciples and followers, answering their questions and dispelling their doubts. For more than ten years, he compiled and published six Buddhist books: The Moon in the Mind; Taming the Mind; Skillful Use of the Mind; An Unanchored Mind; Sparse Words, Exalted Meanings; and A Record of the Lamp in the Heart. While Donghua Chan Monastery is widely praised in society, Master Wanxing himself has also attracted widespread attention. He was awarded the title of “Public Welfare Star” in Guangdong and Hong Kong. He was also given the “Lifetime Director” position in Guangdong Charity Federation. During the 18th National Congress in 2012 and the Two Sessions in 2013,

the CPC’s Publicity Department granted his Weibo the status of “Sunshine Weibo.” The “China United Front” magazine of the CPC’s United Front Work Department did a featured report of Master Wanxing in the “2013 Two Sessions Special Issue.”

IX. Closing remarks

After nearly twenty years of arduous efforts, the construction of the monastery’s bricks-and-mortar has been gradually perfected.

Today, Donghua Chan Monastery is not only a Buddhist sacred place, it is also a base where the traditional Chinese culture is promulgated. With more than 150 monastics, it can be said that “an ancient temple has been restored, an ancestral place has been revived.” When we planned the bricks-and-mortar, we positioned it as a Chan base for the dissemination and practice of Chan techniques and philosophy. Chan is a state of oneness where all things merge into one. Donghua Chan Monastery is built on the essence of Chan. It helps people to step outside their confined and self-centered space, thereby achieving harmony with their families, society, country, and Mother Nature, actualizing the unity between China and the world, and leading humankind into the magnificent era of a Chan civilization. 

The sounds of the wooden fish,

Morning bells and evening drums.

The ancient temple in Donghua, 

A Pure Land on earth.