Interview: Venerable Shan Ci
Chinese text: Agnes Liu
English translation: Tara Lau
The importance of linguistic tools and methodology
Venerable Dhammajoti: Let me name a few western scholars as instances to demonstrate why this is a job that could no longer wait. Many major Buddhist scholars in the west, some of them followers of another religion, study Buddhism from a purely philosophical point of view, disregarding its very component of faith. Further, some missionaries study Buddhism and learn Chinese because they want to use them as tools to propagate their own religion, not because they want to truly understand Buddhism.
Here is another example. We all know that 《大乘起信論》 (Awakening of Faith in The Mahayana) is an important treatise in Chinese Buddhism. Currently, only thirty of its volumes translated by Master Xuan Zang exist. Other than Dr Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki’s English mimeograph which remains unpublished, we cannot find any other translation of this work, not in French nor Japanese done in the last century. However, Timothy Richard, a Welsh Baptist missionary based in Shanghai, put it into English with the assistance of some lay Buddhists and named it The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana Doctrine. I felt rather sad after reading this translation, as he had utterly distorted its original message. “Zhenru” (bhūta-tathatā) is a key concept in Buddhism but he referred to it as “true model”, as if to mean that God created man based on his “initial image” and that likewise, “zhenru” was created by God. On top of that, “rulai” (Tathagata) was compared to a Messiah who came to this world to spread the gospel. These translations are completely erroneous.
Apparently, of course, there are some outstanding western scholars who entertain noble religious passions, such as the great French scholar Sylvain Lévi, with Louis de la Vallée Poussin and Étienne Lamotte among his eminent disciples. Being all Catholic priests, they are known for their tireless pursuit of Buddha’s teachings and their queries into Mahayana thought. Poussin, regarded as one of the foremost European scholars of Buddhism, was skilled in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese, and his scholarship has hardly been surpassed. He is said, too, to have dedicated twenty years of his life to the perusal and translation of Abhidharmakośabhāsya alone.
Nurturing accomplished Chinese Buddhists with solid scholarship: a mission
Now, the revelation of this acute lack of linguistic tools amongst Chinese Buddhists led to my determination for setting up The Buddha-Dharma Centre, emphasizing the importance of following Master Xuan Zang’s example. He spent a lifetime studying Sanskrit and translating Buddhist scriptures, with a mission to explicate and pass on all that he had learnt from Buddha to his disciples including Kui Ji, Pu Guang and Fa Bao during the process of joint translation. All their lifelong dedications to the Dharma with a mastery of Abhidharma are noteworthy.
I am genuinely concerned about the growth and development of Chinese Buddhist studies. I think that we have to promote Chinese Buddhism and make it thrive on the world stage, something that hasn’t been achieved yet. Although we have a huge population in China with numerous Buddhist followers, we are in dire need of authentic Buddhist education and practice. For the next decade, our centre has a mission to educate more Buddhist scholars amongst China’s next generation and engage them in actively studying, researching and practising Buddha’s teachings.
It was with this conviction that I decided to take up the professorship at Renmin University of China after my retirement. My wish was to use Hong Kong as a gateway to train young Buddhist enthusiasts from China and eventually set up a Buddha Dharma centre in Shenzhen. My other goal in the long run is to establish a Chinese Buddhism research library in Hong Kong, similar to the one at the International Institute for Buddhist Studies in Tokyo. They started off with a limited space on two storeys, but have now built it into a well-equipped institution with funding to hire prominent professors, boasting the best-stocked library throughout Japan. If we set up a place like that, we could help promote the Buddhist Dharma not only here in Hong Kong, but assist all Chinese Buddhist practitioners and scholars globally.
“Applied” Buddhism and marketability
Venerable Shan Ci: You got into education with a goal to train skilled translators capable of delving into Buddhist scriptures to benefit future generations. You have been dedicating yourself to Buddhism education with an emphasis on interpreting and translating original texts. But if we look at what Buddhist studies programs are generally available today, some tertiary institutions tend to focus on the “applied” aspect in their program offerings. Enrolled students often have increasingly less interest in studying and translating Buddhist classics. How do you see this phenomenon? Has this affected enrolment for the different programs in your centre? And is this situation unique to Hong Kong or is it a global trend?
Venerable Dhammajoti: Applied Buddhism means making what is learnt in Buddhism applicable to circumstances in everyday life so you can impact others, and it is something important. However, in western psychology, the term “depression” may have been used out of proportion, for experts look at mental suffering often as signs of depression. In fact, all human beings are given to greed, anger and delusion. We cannot well escape these emotions, but we certainly can accept and transcend them.
If there were Buddhist scholars well trained in both psychology and Buddhism, and having the guidance and assistance of a proficient Zen master, then I wouldn’t be objecting to the idea of teaching applied Buddhism or getting equipped with devices to measure brain waves. It would be quite a sensible thing to do, to not only help establish academic reputation, but also make funding easier. Nonetheless, as things stand, no such talent exists in Hong Kong, where brain experts do not understand Buddhism, and the Zen teachers they likely hire may not have attained even starting levels of meditative concentration, let alone the highest level beyond the three realms, entering the ultimate extinguished state of dhyana meditation. No matter how much money they expend on devices, the data they collect this way could merely be something of an academic nature, not able really to help anyone attain spiritual tranquility. In my opinion, rather than spending money on machines and equipment, it would be far more practical to invest in further teaching resources, or in the compilation of a much-needed, fare-sized Sanskrit-Pali-Chinese dictionary.
On the other hand, our centre does offer programs in both Sanskrit and Pali studies. For Pali, we already have three courses going at the moment: Introduction, Basic Grammar and Pali Classics. All these three I personally teach. And besides, we also have three courses in Sanskrit studies. When we designed the programs, I had my eyes on the fact that our Chinese students lack a solid linguistic foundation, which in part limits their capacity to achieve higher academic excellence. With this in mind, we now offer these courses every academic year to cater for such a need.
Propagating the Dharma is not a business
Some people ask me why I insist on offering a Pali program every year but not courses which are more popular. I take exception to this idea. Propagating the Buddhist Dharma is not a business, and we do not run programs according to what is more popular or marketable. We are at the centre to promote Buddha’s teachings, not to follow the market in determining our syllabus. To do that, to propagate Buddhism, we focus on what is the most important to the Dharma, and even if there is no market for our Buddhist programs, we will have to create it.
Of course, we do hope more students join us, but marketability is not our major concern. Our focus is on the Dharma itself, as one cannot study the Dharma without studying the historical Sakyamuni Buddha. In particular, since Chinese students do have somewhat a deficiency in linguistic capabilities, we much endeavour to catch up. In spite of the difficulties then, we continue to offer these language courses, and our students complete theses in original Pali, Sanskrit or Tibetan.
At the moment, student enrollment is not what we would like to see. Our degree is in fact conferred by the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka, which has over a hundred years’ history and enjoys a greater status than perhaps that of the University of Hong Kong. Many western Buddhist scholars study there, something not many people know.
There could be a number of reasons for our current less-than-ideal enrollment. First, we offer no more than three to five scholarships in a year while other institutions could each have available as many as eighty scholarships. Secondly, as we are technically a foreign-degree awarding institution, we are not in a position to assist overseas students in obtaining a visa. In contrast, the University of Hong Kong is a local-degree granting institution, and as such their acceptance letters do work in helping students get visas.
Nonetheless, I feel we have already accomplished a lot in a meaningful way. First of all, our emphasis on “studying Buddhism to learn Buddha’s teachings, and studying Buddha’s teachings to learn Buddhism” has made many of my students realize what is more important. Personally, besides Sanskrit, I spend much of my time teaching Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, through scriptures such as the Prajnaparamita sutras, The Eight Thousand-verse Prajnaparamita and those on Consciousness Only and Yogacara. In the next school term I am hoping to offer a course on Tattvasiddhi Śāstra.
A new generation of the sangha
Venerable Shan Ci: Some time ago people used to say that young people are not interested in becoming ordained Buddhists any more. Some smaller temples have no new monks to take over, and have to rely on non-Buddhists for administration and management. As a member of the sangha community, you have travelled to many places to give lectures or conduct Dharma exchanges. Please can you share your views on current sangha education and its overall future development? What pressing issues do we have to deal with?
Venerable Dhammajoti: The problem we face now is that fewer and fewer people are willing to join the monastic community and be ordained. This is happening all over the world. However, regardless of society’s technological or commercial advancement, there will be people who give up their secular way of life and take a vow of dedication to become a renunciate. This will not stop for good. Humans have passions for faith, and we must provide a platform that’s convenient for those wanting to become votaries.
Our mission is to promote the Dharma and grow a new generation of the sangha. Meanwhile, the laity, those who practise at home, retain a critical role of supporting and helping sustain the Dharma. Whether lay or ordained, all Buddhists share a responsibility and mission to study and follow the Dharma, propagate Buddhism and benefit all mankind. This is what we have been advocating. (The End)
