THE BODHI STAND

INTRODUCING THE EMINENT DHARMA PROTECTOR
UPASAKA SUN YA FU

      Upasaka Sun Ya Fu was born on December 2, 1910, in Liu He, Chiangsu Province. He graduated from Tsao Tao T'ien University in Japan. Upasaka Sun is married and has eight children and six grandchildren. He and his wife are both Dharma protectors who, in addition to giving support to the preservation and propagation of the Buddhadharma, are cultivators of the teachings in their own right. Professor Sun diligently practices the Dharma door of Mindfulness of the Buddha and also has very deep conditions with Earth Store Bodhisattva, whose name he recites thousands of times a day.

      Upasaka Sun has taken refuge with the late Elder Great Master Hsu Yun, who was Abbot of Chen Ju Monastery on Yun Chu Mountain on the Mainland; and with Elder Master Kuang Ch'in, Abbot of Ch'eng T'ien Monastery in Taiwan.
      Upasaka Sun has been a professor of social science at Soochow University and at National Chiao T'ung University.
      Upasaka Sun is now a Statesman for the Taiwanese government. He holds several prominent positions, including the Chairmanship of the Democratic Party of Taiwan, Republic of China. In addition he has been appointed Advisor to the President, and Advisor for the Peace Treaty between China and Japan.
      Of his affinities with the Buddhadharma Professor Sun says, "I grew up with my mother, who believed in the Buddha. When I was fourteen I felt that all the philosophies I had been investigating were meaningless. At that time 1 began to read Buddhist Sutras. But at the age of fourteen I still didn't understand very much. By the time I was twenty-two I knew that the social sciences I had been studying were also meaningless;

everything always had its negative and positive aspects. Ultimately which one was correct? Was the positive right? Was the negative correct? There was no way to determine. What is true today may be false tomorrow, and what is false tomorrow may be true the day after. So, in the difficult years of my growing up in the human realm, what I had been taking in was false knowledge fabricated by people. I would switch from one philosophy to the next only to find that the new one was also false and that I must switch again. In the end it was clear that our whole civilization is built on false knowledge, and I felt that this was a pitiful state of affairs. It was then that I truly began to believe in the Buddhadharma, because it had proved to be true knowledge, not false knowledge."

-----------------------------------------------------------

THE WONDERFUL DHARMA LOTUS FLOWER SUTRA. "All Buddhas, World Honored Ones appear in the world only because of the causes and conditions of the one great matter," says Shakyamuni Buddha in this Sutra. What is the "one great matter?" In his commentary on this Sutra the Venerable Master says:

It is the great matter of everyone's birth and death.

Everyone is born and everyone dies. The problem of

birth and death--is it one you understand? Do you

know how it was you were born? You do not know.

Do you know how it is that you will die? You do not

know. Such extremely intelligent people and yet

you do not understand the question of birth and

death. You should figure this matter of life and

death out quite clearly. Then you will have finished 

the great work, the great matter. If you are not 

clear about the question of birth and death then

you haven't completed your great work, the great matter.

If you haven't ended birth and death, if you haven't accomplished the one great matter, you will want to read this enlightening Sutra, the Sutra for bringing people to the accomplishment of Buddhahood. Commentary by Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua, translated by Bhikshuni Heng Yin, edited by Professor Nancy Lethcoe, certified by the Venerable Master. First volume available this year.