Chan Yun

Chan Yun (Chinese: 懺雲法師, October 18, 1915 – March 7, 2009) was a renowned Buddhist monk, teacher and cultivator. The abbot of the Lianyin Temple (Chinese: 蓮因寺), Chan Yun was one of many mainstream Buddhist teachers in Taiwan.

Master Chan-Yun was born in 1915 at a small village in the Andong province, China, which the village near the border between Mainland China and Korea. When he was young, he had been to Japan for learning fine art.

Master Chan-Yun took the refuge in the three jewels and became a Buddhist when he was 24. At the age of 26, he took the five precepts. At 30, he became a monk in Beijing. He therefore received full ordination at the Guangji Temple. Then, he had studied at Chinese Buddhist College in Beijing for four years. In 1948, he went to Fuzhou to learn the Buddha dharma from Venerable Ci-Zou (Chinese: 慈舟法師).

In 1949, Master Chang Yun ferried to Taiwan. In 1956, he built a tentative house for intensive practices, and which was called “Yin-Hong Hut” (Chinese: 印弘茅蓬) at Guan-Yin Mountain in PuLi. Due to a major flood disaster in 1959, he had to abandon the Hut. Consequently, he planned to found the current Lianyin Temple with his disciple Ven. Xing-Yin in 1963.

Starting in 1966, Master Chan Yun founded the “Fast and Precept Association” (Chinese: 齋戒協會; pinyin: zhai jie xie hui); its motto is “the vinaya is our guide” (Chinese: 以戒為師; pinyin: yi jie wei shi). Then, he initiated the “Fasting and Precepts Program” at the temple, which offered intensive courses in Buddhism study and precepts practices during summer and winter vacations for college students.

Master Chan Yun disciplined himself strictly, practicing the vinaya, and made it as his daily routine to practice prostrating himself before the Buddha, practicing morning and evening rituals and executing the "Mengshan Food Bestowal ritual" (Chinese: 放蒙山). Master Chang-Yun never violated eight precepts, the precept of no eating after noon, since he became a monk. According to his disciples, his teaching was compared to that of Marpa Lotsawa to Milarepa.

Venerable Master Chang Yun died at one o'clock on the morning of March 7, 2009 at Shuili township, Nantou county, Taiwan.