During this period I visited various masters of Zen and esoteric Buddhism. I received the greatest influence from Bantetsugu Roshi, a disciple of Harada Roshi. I attended several winter-long retreats at his temple in Tohoku. Being in northern Japan, the temple had a very harsh environment. Moreover, the master seemed inclined to give me an especially hard time and constantly had his assistants beat me. Of the people there I had by far the most education, and he would say, "You scholars have a lot of selfish attachments and vexations. Your obstructions are heavy."

When I was leaving him he said, "Go to America and teach there." I replied, "But master, I don't know English." He said, "Zen doesn't rely on words. Why worry about words?"


Editor's note: Master Sheng-Yen has received Dharma transmission in the two major branches of Ch'an Buddhism, the Lin-Chi (Japanese Rinzai), and the Ts'ao-Tung (Japanese Soto). In genealogical terms, Master Sheng-Yen is a seventy-second generation descendant of Bodhidharma (?-ca. 530), the First Patriarch of Ch'an, and the sixty-seventh generation descendant of Hui-Neng (638-713), the Sixth Patriarch of Ch'an. Within the Lin-Chi lineage, Master Sheng-yen is a sixty-second generation descendant of Master Lin-Chi (?-866), and a third-generation descendant of Master Hsu-Yun (1840-1959). In this line, he is the direct descendant of Master Ling-Yuang (1902- ).

In the Ts'ao-Tung lineage, Master Sheng-Yen is the fiftieth-generation descendant of co-founder Master Tung-Shan (807-869), and the direct descendant of Master Tung-Ch'u (1908-1977).

'Generation' refers to the transmission of the Dharma within a lineage from a master to a disciple. This transmission thereby ensures the continuity not only of the Dharma itself, but also the teaching and the practice of the lineage. Furthermore, it confers upon the recipient a recognition by the master that the disciple is now qualified to transmit the Dharma, i.e., has become a master.