[Editor's note: To commemorate the Third Anniversary of the Venerable Master's Nirvana, Dharma Realm Buddhist Association is publishing an Anthology of the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua's Verses, for which Professor Richard Yang has written this Preface.]

1992 was the most memorable year of my life, for that was the year I met the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua. Through numerous conversations, I realized that although the Master had only studied for two and a half years in a village school, he was admirably well-versed in the ancient Chinese classics. Whether it was the Four Books, the Five Classics, or other ancient prose and poetry, the Master had not only studied them, but was able to recite them from memory just like that. An old proverb puts it well: “Having thoroughly studied the three hundred Tang poems, even if you can't write poetry you can at least recite it.” The Master could not only recite, but also compose. This is something most people cannot do.

People who understand classic prose and poetry may not necessarily know how to compose poems. Those who both understand the classics and can write poetry are few indeed, and the Master may very well be an outstanding poet and Chan Master. Since he had the ability to write poetry, he composed many verses in his commentaries on Sutras  as well as in his series entitled Reflections in Waters and Mirrors, sometimes at the beginning or at the end to highlight the essentials of the text. These verses allowed the reader to understand the text's meaning at a glance, bringing it to life.

The Master also composed verses for Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Chan Patriarchs, as well as for Chan and recitation sessions, ceremonies for inaugurating statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and Guanyin Bodhisattva, for Wonderful Enlightenment Mountain at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, and for the purpose of expressing his own feelings. In explaining the Sutras and teaching Dharma, the Master used a variety of approaches suited to the situation and people in question, inspiring disciples to “purify their thoughts, turn toward wholesomeness, and bring forth vigorous resolves to cultivate and attain the Way.”

Poetry is one method Buddhism uses to teach living beings. The most familiar Buddhist verses include the one for opening a Sutra: “The unsurpassed, wonderful Dharma / Is hard to encounter in a hundred thousand eons. / I now see and hear it, receive and maintain it, / And I vow to understand the Thus Come One‘s true and actual meaning.” Also, there is the verse for transference of merit: “May this merit and virtue / Adorn the Buddhas' Pure Lands, / Repaying the four kindnesses above, / And rescuing those in the three suffering realms below. / May those who see and hear of this / Bring forth the Bodhi mind and, / At the end of their lives, / Be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.” Not to mention the disciples at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and other Buddhist temples, who know these verses by heart, even I, a Christian who honors the Buddhadharma without fully understanding it, am able to recite these verses by heart after hearing them regularly during my one-year stay at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Hence the importance of poetry goes without saying.

I esteem the Master for his lofty virtue as well as his profound understanding of the classics. For the Master's birthday, I once wrote a poem in which the starting words of all the lines formed the Master's name:

To propagate the Dharma, you came across the ocean.
You nurture superior talents and benefit all nations.
A Bodhisattva of the higher realm, you inspire our wisdom.
A teacher in the world, you guide the foolish and blind.

After the Master read it, he laughed, thought for a moment, and wrote two verses on the spot to give to me. The first one said,

Widely learned and erudite, he is such a penetrating scholar.
His clear, resonant voice opens up a bright future.
Enriching the country and planting the woods, he trains the talented.
He cultivates himself, regulates his family, and has great aspirations.

The second one said:

With full energy and a magnificent spirit,
The sentimental old man from Li County has a unique sense of humor.
The dull-witted monk from the mountain composed these rustic lines
To wish you a hundred years for sure.

I reflected for a long time before I finally had a flash of inspiration and wrote the four-line verse. The Master, in the midst of the celebration, immediately came up with two verses that both read well and carry deep meaning--admirable indeed!

We all know that Cardinal Paul Yu Bin was a Catholic, not a Buddhist, yet he was a close friend and spiritual companion of the Venerable Master. This is truly rare. In a verse that the Master wrote for the Cardinal, his deep feeling for his spiritual companion is evident:

White mountains and black waters nurtured a rare hero,
Who valued wealth and glory less than a pair of tattered shoes.
Through God and Jesus Christ, he understood substance and function.
Through human mind and Buddha nature, he awakened to perfect 　　　interpenetration.
Teaching reverence for ancestors, he inspired the people to virtue.
Devoting himself till his death, he bolstered age-old ethics.
How great you were, Cardinal Yu Bin--
An awesome model for thousands of generations to behold with 　　　　reverence.

I admire not only the Master's noble virtue, but also his poetic talent. In his associations, he valued only a person's moral character and did not care what his religious faith was. Cardinal Yubin was a Catholic and I am a Protestant, yet the Venerable Master extended his friendship to us without discrimination. His integrity and virtue are thus a level above most of us (including myself), and we could never hope to catch up to him.

In order to commemorate the Venerable Master's teachings, his disciples have compiled an anthology of the Master's verses. I have written these few sentences as a preface in memory of my old friend.

Richard Fusen Yang, a.k.a Jinqiao, a foolish 80-year-old man from Li County
Second lunar month, 1998