In 1978, as Venerable Master Dong Chu passed away, Master Sheng Yen returned to Taiwan from America to take charge of Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Culture and Nung Chan Monastery. Many college students, intrigued by Master Sheng Yen as a Buddhist monk and Chan teacher with a PhD degree, started following him to practice Chan, and some of them decided to become monastics after graduation. Master Sheng Yen would personally demonstrate and show them how to carry out daily chores and cultivation, living out the spirit of practicing Chan in farming.