The Legacy of Buddhist Venerable Master Hsing Yun And Women's Rights

(OPINION) The Venerable Master Hsing Yun died at the age of 97 on the 15th day of Lunar New Year, Feb. 5., after a long life of founding a religious order and elevating the role of women in that same order.

He was the founder of the Fo Guang Shan (“Buddha’s Light Mountain”) monastic order, which falls under the branch of Humanistic Chinese Buddhism.

Born Li Guoshen in the modern-day Chinese province of Jiangsu, the Master grew up in poverty. His father had disappeared when Japan invaded Nanjing in 1937 and commenced a mass killing. His mother had no money for his education and food was scarce, so when young Guoshen was asked if he wanted to live in a local monastery, he said yes. He chose to dedicate his life to Buddhism, chose Hsing Yun (literally “star cloud”) as his Dharma name and was fully ordained in 1941.

Just eight years later, the Communist Party forced many Chinese to flee to Taiwan, including Master Hsing Yun and other Buddhist monks who wanted to escape religious persecution.

In 1967, on a mountain in a bamboo forest in Taiwan, Master Hsing Yun established the Fo Guang Shan monastic order. Following the Humanistic Chinese Buddhism philosophy, this order focuses on integrating Buddhist practices into everyday life.

The Master chose the Taiwanese port city of Kaohsiung as his homebase and once large groups of Taiwanese started moving abroad to North America, in 1976, his organization established two temples in Los Angeles, Calif. In the suburb of Hacienda Heights, they built the 15-acre Hsi Lai Temple as well.

Today, there are more than 120 temples in 30 countries founded under the Fo Guang Shan monastic order. One of those temples is in my hometown of Orlando, Florida: Guang Ming Temple.

“Guang Ming” is Mandarin for “Bright Light,” and is one of the largest Buddhist communities in Central Florida. It is also the physically largest temple in Central Florida.

Upon visiting the temple a few months ago, I was in awe of the bright orange tiling on the roof, the lions guarding the front door and the larger than life Buddha in the Main Shrine. I'd gone to high school near that area and had passed the temple many times. But I had no idea who Master Hsing Yun was until late 2022, nor did I have any idea of what Humanistic Chinese Buddhism was.

My first visit was a private tour around the temple, where I got to see the history of how Guang Ming was founded and the life of the Venerable was highlighted on the walls on the temple’s second floor. Some of Master Hsing Yun’s calligraphy works were framed as well; beautiful Chinese calligraphy done in thick black brush strokes, despite him having gone blind by that point.

When I returned the following Sunday for the chanting service, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Guang Ming is a woman-led temple, meaning that all of the Venerables were female. Master Hsing Yun promoted women’s rights in all levels of society, including monastic orders. In fact, Fo Guang Shan holds full ordination ceremonies for women whose orders don’t have them yet.

Over the course of my time attending Guang Ming I am always encouraged by temple members to take some of the free pamphlets Master Hsing Yun wrote. The ones I was drawn to had titles such as, “Environmental and Spiritual Preservation,” “Buddhism and Volunteerism” and “The Buddhist Perspective on Women’s Rights.” That latter was a pamphlet I truly enjoyed reading in order to gain The Venerable Master’s viewpoint. He wrote,

“I agree with the discontented women who cannot accept the attitude of some men returning home from work and just sitting on the couch, smoking cigarettes and watching TV [...] Men should especially be considerate of their wives, help tidy up the house, do some of the cooking, or take plates of food to the table.”

Master Hsing Yun’s monastic order teaches Humanistic Buddhism, which focuses on care and compassion. This extends to all areas of life, and should start within oneself and one’s home. I really admire how The Venerable Master doesn’t place women on a lower rung, nor does he see household chores as something solely attributed to being wifely duties. Care and compassion are two things that should be present in a healthy marriage, as he highlighted in the example above. Marriage is, after all, just one form of human relationships in which we should treat our fellow human partner with respect.

In one of the pamphlets in my room, I read that the mission of Humanistic Buddhism is to “benefit society through promoting education, raising gender equality, providing medical services and emergency relief and supporting environmental sustainability.”

At Guang Ming and other Fo Guang Shan temples, this is also done through BLIA, Buddha’s Light International Association, founded by Master Hsing Yun in 1992. On the last page of that pamphlet were the simple yet stirring words of the Venerable,

“Give confidence to others, give hope to others, give joy to others, make things convenient for others. These are the responsibilities of a Fo Guang Shan Buddhist.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story had the incorrect age listed for Master Yun. He was 97 at the time of his death.

Brianna Jacobs is a senior at The King’s College in NYC, majoring in Journalism, Culture & Society. She is also a spring 2023 intern with ReligionUnplugged.com. She’s previously reported and managed social accounts for The Empire State Tribune.