40th anniversary of Chan Meditation Center:
"Cherishing our past, Building our future”
On Sept. 28th and 29th, DDM Chan Meditation Center (CMC) in New York celebrated its 40th anniversary of establishment. On the first day, a CMC Membership Celebration - “Cherishing our past, Building our future” - was held at Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, Flushing, followed by Great Compassion Mantra Chanting Service at CMC on the following day. This two-day grand celebration saw in total more than 400 people attending.
A significant highlight of the 40th anniversary celebration lied in the chanting service – more than one hundred participants, including both monastics and lays, chanted the Great Compassion Mantra for 21 times, wishing for peace for the world and all beings, and a safe expansion project for the center.
On the morning of Sept. 29th, accompanied by both monastic and lay representatives, DDM Abbot President Venerable Guo Huei (果暉法師) presided over the purification ceremony, giving blessings to the construction program.
Nearly 300 Western and Eastern followers joined the Membership Celebration on Sept. 28th, the old and the young from different historical stages of CMC meeting one another in a warm atmosphere.
Looking back on the difficult path until then, Venerable Chang Hwa (常華法師), Director of CMC, sincerely appreciated those who fully supported late Master Sheng Yen, founder of DDM, ever since the very point of zero. She also thanked the new followers who continue to join and support CMC, especially after late Master Sheng Yen’s passing. Venerable Chang Hwa encouraged all to continue to work together and move onward for the flourish of CMC in the next decade.
In his talk titled "A good wish for the world” – the very first one given in New York after his inauguration – Venerable Guo Huei revealed the Buddhist way to happiness: compassion, wisdom, practice, and vow, encouraging all followers to “start with compassion, through actual practice, in the direction of one’s vow, to reach wisdom – the final destination.” He further pointed out that the best way to benefit oneself is through benefiting others, exhorting all participants to walk the Bodhisattva Path in cultivating merit and wisdom, growing with CMC.
During the regular Sunday Dharma Talk, Abbot President Venerable Guo Huei shared 8 different extraordinary methods derived from Guan-Yin Bodhisattva’s teachings. Chanting Great Compassion Mantra, among all, has long been a common daily practice in morning and evening services in the tradition of Chinese Buddhism. By focusing intently on the sound, it helps to not only enlighten sentient beings but also alleviate illness and sufferings in life, meeting the needs in terms of both belief and actual practice. Venerable Guo Huei emphasized the key to practicing the Guan-Yin method: one should penetrate into one particular method without being self-centered; one should also give rise to compassion to all sentient beings and deliver others prior to oneself. Those who have fulfilled that could then be considered as a Bodhisattva who has initially generated the bodhi mind. Venerable Guo Guei encouraged all followers to penetrate deeply into the method of Guan-Yin, as well as to emulate Guan-Yin’s spirit of benefiting oneself in benefiting others.
Founded in 1979, CMC, the very first monastery established by late Master Sheng Yen, was well-known among Westerners as the “Chan Meditation Center.” Relocated twice, it’s now based in an old, three-story apartment at Elmhurst, Queens. However, as the number of practitioners was growing, a new and spacious urban monastery is required to fulfill the needs. According to Mr. Chen, Tian-Fu (陳添福), Project Manager of CMC construction, related expansion projects had been carried out one after another ever since 2010. A conveniently located practice center, an elevated Grand Hall on the first floor with a holding capacity of up to 100 practitioners, is to be expected in the near future.
# Chan Meditation Center
# Cherishing our past, Building our future
Text: Reporting Team at CMC
Photos: Ding, Yan-Li (丁燕莉); Peter Lin
Translation: Elenda Huang
Editing: DDM Editorial Team; John Wu (吳俊宏)