Returning to the Original Aspiration: A Wisdom Dialogue Between Master Sheng Ye’s Dharma Heirs at Chan Meditation Center

On the morning of July 5, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Chan Meditation Center (CMC) in New York and the Chinese Buddhist Cultural Association USA (CBCA) jointly hosted a dialogue titled "Returning to Dongchu: Back to where we start, true to our original heart." The discussion focused on "Master Bodhidharma’s Two Entrances and Four Practices — An Exploration of Principle and Practice in Chinese Chan Buddhism." The speakers were Venerable Guo Goang (果廣法師), Vice Abbot of Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM), and Zarko Andricevic, founder of the Dharmaloka Chan Buddhist Community and Chan Retreat Centre in Croatia. Chinese-English interpretation was provided by longtime CMC volunteers Shi Min (史敏) and Wang Xinyuan (王馨苑).

Venerable Guo Goang and Zarko Andricevic are both Dharma heirs of Master Sheng Yen and first met in 2000. After many years, these two Dharma heirs—one from the East and the other from the West—reunited at Chan Meditation Center, the first Dharma center established by Master Sheng Yen in the United States, to share insights gained through decades of Buddhist study and practice. More than 200 people attended the event, both in person and via Zoom, benefiting from this inspiring dialogue on the Dharma and Chan Buddhism.

During the discussion, Venerable Guo Goang and Zarko traced the historical development of Buddhism, beginning with the Āgama Sutras, moving through the “Three Major Mahāyāna Traditions”—Yogācāra (Consciousness-Only), Mādhyamaka (Middle Way), and Tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-nature)—and culminating in Chinese Chan Buddhism. They examined how different Buddhist traditions interpret the teachings of dependent origination, no-self, and emptiness.


The conversation then shifted from the "Entrance through Principle" (理入) to the "Entrance through Practice" (行入) by applying Bodhidharma's teaching of the "Two Entrances and Four Practices" to daily life. Venerable Guo Goang encouraged participants to cultivate the “Practice of Requiting Enmity (報冤行)”: encountering adversity without resentment; the “Practice of Accord with Conditions (隨緣行)”: meeting favorable circumstances without attachment; the “Practice of Seeking Nothing (無所求行)”: practicing diligently without clinging to results, recognizing that outcomes arise from causes and conditions rather than from an independent self; the Practice of Accord with the Dharma (稱法行): putting one's understanding of the Dharma into everyday practice, deepening insight into causes and conditions through lived experience, using the concept of dependent origination to overcome attachment to self, and ultimately benefiting both oneself and others.

Venerable Guo Goang further explained that whether in early Buddhism's Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, particularly the contemplation of consciousness conditioning name-and-form, in the Yogācāra teaching of transforming consciousness into wisdom, in the Tathāgatagarbha teaching of the duality of subject and object being dissolved, or in Chan Buddhism's direct pointing to the mind and sudden realization of one's pure nature, the central theme is always on dependent origination, in harmony with the wisdom of emptiness and no-self.

Venerable Guo Goang emphasized that all Buddhist methods of practice ultimately aim to dismantle and overcome self-attachment. Quoting the traditional principle of "using the Buddhist teachings to realize the essence of Chan," Venerable Guo Goang encouraged practitioners to progress through hearing, contemplating, practicing, and realization, gradually transcending the duality of subject and object and the attachment to self. As attachment to self diminishes, life's afflictions naturally become fewer.

While agreeing with Venerable Guo Goang's presentation, Zarko added that although Chan is firmly rooted in early Buddhist teachings, it is also highly adaptable—that is, responding skillfully to changing causes and conditions. He noted that early Chinese Chan Buddhism emphasized the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, while the Fifth Patriarch Daman Hongren later promoted the Diamond Sutra. Zarko stressed that the Buddha's teachings are fundamentally simple—like medicine prescribed according to each patient's condition—rather than an exercise in lofty philosophizing. Chan practice is not about a process of constructing new ideas, but about dismantling delusion and eliminating wandering thoughts.

Zarko further explained that without spiritual practice, people lack awareness of wandering thoughts, mistaking their perceptions and mental constructions for reality and thereby becoming trapped by them. Through Buddhist practice, however, one gradually recognizes that these thoughts arise through causes and conditions. In doing so, one learns to let go of attachment and resistance, ceases creating suffering for oneself and others, and thereby becomes capable of benefiting others.
 
During the question-and-answer session, one participant asked about the greatest challenges in spreading the Dharma. Zarko recalled that in the early years of Buddhism in Croatia, there were few Dharma centers and almost no Buddhist texts, yet practitioners possessed tremendous enthusiasm and determination. Today, despite abundant material resources and easy access to online Buddhist teachings, many practitioners are more easily distracted. As a result, the urgency to seek liberation has diminished. Even so, he remains confident that every generation will include sincere seekers who earnestly pursue the Dharma.


Responding to a question about how beginners should practice Buddhism, Venerable Guo Goang emphasized the importance of developing a clear understanding of causes and conditions, and karma. She encouraged participants to apply the Four Practices whenever they encounter situations in daily life. She also stressed that moving from merely knowing the teachings to actually practicing them requires the cultivation of śamatha and vipaśyanā (calm and insight), as well as samādhi and wisdom. As concentration and insight deepen, practitioners more clearly perceive that all phenomena arise through causes and conditions and are impermanent and without self. This strengthened understanding naturally reduces attachment. At the same time, it also helps prevent the frustration of "knowing what to do but being unable to do it," and the resulting sense of helplessness that arises from being carried along by changing circumstances.




Original text in Chinese : 楊恆
Photos: Chan Meditation Center, Yin Ting
Translation: Patricia Yang 
Editing: Keith Brown