Venerable Guo Hui
Venerable Guo Hui became a monastic under Master Sheng Yen in 1985, and went to Thailand for a year to advance his practice. Later on, he went to Japan to study the Anapanasmrti Sutra and obtained a PhD from Rissho University. Venerable Guo Hui was previously the attendant of Master Sheng Yen, guidance teacher of Chan Meditation Center in Taiwan, director of Dharma Drum Mountain Sangha, president of the Dharma Drum Sangha University, and he is now an associate professor and the department chair in the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal and Arts, the Vice Abbot President of Dharma Drum Mountain. His area of research includes Samadhi of Chan, An Shigao study, and Chan related Sutras translated in the early Han dynasty.
Venerable Chang Wu
Venerable Chang Wu is the current Director of Dharma Drum Vancouver Center in Richmond, B.C., a branch monastery of Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM), founded by Chan Master Sheng Yen.
Venerable Chang Wu began practicing with Master Sheng Yen in 1993. Before entering monastic life in 2000, Venerable Chang Wu was a business professional in New York holding an MBA. After joining the DDM sangha, she gained new experiences in publications and translation projects of Buddhist books.
Other than meditation practice, Chinese Buddhism, inter-religious dialogue, she also enjoys being in nature, walking in the woods and artworks. She is a teacher of Chan Buddhism, and has led meditation retreats in Canada, the United States and Taiwan.
Zarko Andricevic
Founder of the Buddhist Center in Zagreb, Croatia. Zarko first encountered Buddhism in 1975 and has been a martial arts and yoga teacher since the 1970s. In 1985 he started the first Buddhist study and meditation group in Croatia which in time grew into the first Buddhist community there. This community is known as Dharmaloka nowadays. In 1996, while seeking a new teacher, he met Chan Master Sheng Yen, attended his seven-day retreat and became one of his students. Seeing Chan as the very core of the Buddha Dharma and Master Shen Yen as the man whose teaching stems directly from the meditative experience, he has dedicated himself to the practice of Chan meditation and has attended Master Sheng Yen's retreats regularly. In June 2001, during a two-week retreat in the USA, Zarko received Dharma transmission from Master Sheng Yen, thus becoming one of his five Dharma heirs in the West.
Alan Chang
President, DDMBA North America
Alan Chang is an established thought leader in the discipline of human performance development. As an experienced trainer, coach and consultant, he is known for his ability to facilitate impactful communications at all levels within an organization, thus inspiring and empowering people to accelerate personal and organizational change.
Alan was the Founder and Managing Director for Integrated Cultures, Inc.(ICI), when ICI was still a franchise under the AchieveGlobal brand, he and his team achieved the Alfredo Capelletti award, the best operation among all AchieveGlobal affiliate partners worldwide.
He is a certified master trainer for leadership development, sales performance, and customer service programs. He has worked with Global Fortune 1000 firms representing all industry sectors such as:
Abbott Lab. Agilent Alico AMD American Express Amway Avon AU Optronics Baxter BenQ Citi Group ChinaTrust Bank CIGNA International Corning Display DELL Computer
| Delta Electronic DHL Effem Foods EVA Far Eastone Telecom. Gillette HP Johnson & Johnson Kimberly-Clark Maersk Group MediaTek Inc. Microelectronic Tech. Inc. Microsoft Nestle NVIDIA
| Pfizer Philips Prudential Financial Riche Monde(Hennessy) Roche Products Taishin Bank Taiwan Liteon Taiwan Mobile The Eslite corporation Trend Micro TSMC UMC Winbond Electronics Yahoo! Yang Ming |
Alan received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering in Taipei and a Master of Business Administration degree in North Carolina, USA. He also wrote a children’s book that was awarded first prize at the NCF Awards in Taiwan. In June 2013 his second book, When the World Leaves You Cold, was published.
Alan and his family currently reside in Waterloo, Canada. His personal interests and hobbies include creative writing, art design, filming, music and travel.
Venerable Guo Yuan
Venerable Guo Yuan is the head monk of the Chan Hall and the chief director of the Dharma Drum Mountain Meditation Center in Taiwan, providing guidance to people to practice Chan meditation. He started to practice with the renowned Chan Master Sheng Yen in New York in the 1980’s, joined his monastic sangha and later began to assist his teacher in many Chan retreats around the world. For many years, he was the abbot of The Chan Meditation Center and Dharma Drum Retreat Center in New York. Currently he is very active in leading Silent Illumination retreat and Huatou retreat in Europe, North America, Mexico, Taiwan and other Asian countries. He teaches at Dharma Drum Sangha University and often engages in interfaith dialogues. He is also a popular speaker on Chan Buddhism.
Venerable Chang Ji
Venerable Chang Ji was ordained as a nun under Dharma Drum Mountain in 2004. In her role as the International Affairs Special Assistant to the late Most Venerable Master Sheng Yen, founder of Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association, she participated in many international conferences, including the World Economic Forum, World Bank, as well as meetings at the United Nations, etc. She is committed to teaching the tenets of contemplative action to young adults worldwide and has led many youth leadership workshops and meditation retreats to this effect. She has been a facilitator in programs for young leaders in conflict and post-conflict areas from Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and Cambodia, and works to spread awareness of Spiritual Environmentalism as taught by her teacher, the late Most Venerable Master Sheng Yen to young people all over the world.
Venerable Guo Xing
Venerable Guo Xing is one of Chan Master Sheng Yen's Dharma heirs, and is the current abbot of Dharma Drum Retreat Center and Chan Meditation Center in New York.
After studying yoga and meditation, Venerable Guo Xing began to study Chan under the guidance of Chan Master Sheng Yen in 1984, and became ordained under him two years later. After years of service in the Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) sangha, he was sent to Thailand in 1991 to enter into solitary retreat, studying Theravada meditation. Upon returning to DDM, he continued to assist the Master in leading meditation retreats in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and the United States, for a period of 20 years, totaling over more than 50 retreats, including the first 49-day retreat at the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in 2000. He has previously served as the counselor for the DDM Chan Meditation Group of Nong Chan Monastery, the guiding instructor for the DDM Sangha University Chan practice curriculum, the director of DDM's Chan Practice Center, the Director of the Chan Hall, as well as the supervisor of the Department of Transmitting the Lamp. Guo Xing Fashi speaks Taiwanese, Mandarin, and English.
Venerable Chang Xuan
Venerable Chang Xuan became interested in Buddhism in the early 1990s and began to practice with Master Sheng Yen when she attended her first retreat with the Master in Massachusetts, USA. She was ordained as a nun in 2004, and has served in various capacities in Dharma Drum Mountain. Currently, she works in the public relations department and teaches Buddhism. In addition to meditation, she also has a keen interest in Huayan school philosophy. Venerable Chang Xuan will hold a class on the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra in the Center from February to May, 2015.
Rebecca Li, PhD
Dr. Rebecca Li, a Dharma heir in the lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen, is the founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma Community. She started practicing with Master Sheng Yen in the 1990s and served as his translator until his passing in 2009. She later trained with and received full Dharma transmission from one of his Dharma heirs, Dr. Simon Child, in 2016. Currently, she teaches meditation and Dharma classes, gives public lectures, and leads retreats in North America and the UK. Her talks and writings can be found at www.rebeccali.org. She is a sociology professor at The College of New Jersey, where she also serves as faculty director of the Alan Dawley Center for the Study of Social Justice. Her new book is titled Allow Joy into Our Hearts: Chan Practice in Uncertain Times.
Venerable Chang Sheng
Venerable Chang Sheng has been at the Dharma Drum Vancouver Center since July 2012. She specializes in chanting, teaching of Beginner Buddhist Courses and Meditation classes. She leads group sitting meditation, one-day Chan retreats and also assists in seven-day Chan retreats.
Venerable Chang Sheng took three refuge at the Nung Chan Monastery presided by Master Sheng Yen in 1997. She became a novice in 2002 and took full ordination to monastic life in 2004. In 2005, after obtaining a Bachelor in Administration, she enrolled in the Dharma Drum Sangha University and completed a four-year program of study. She has worked in the Dharma Drum Mountain Headquarters, Dharma Drum Sangha University (DDSU).
Venerable Chang Hui
Before leaving the home life, Venerable Chang Hui used to be an operating room nurse. Having seen the struggles and helplessness in many lives and the limitations of modern medicine, she reflected on the meaning of life, which led her to search for the possibility of a more effective and complete "treatment" method.
Eventually, in 2005, Ven. Chang Hui entered the Dharma Drum Sangha University and received ordination in 2006. After graduating, she began organizing and teaching Buddhist courses and meditation classes in the Laity Education department of the Public Buddhist Education Center and later in the Monastic Education department of Dharma Drum Mountain.
She has always been an active learner and is especially interested in philosophy, history and literature. She also enjoys nature very much.
Ven. Chang Hui was appointed to reside at Dharma Drum Vancouver Center in the summer of 2017, marking the start of a new chapter in her life of learning and contribution.
Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy Yu)
In 1980, Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy Yu) began learning meditation from Master Sheng Yen, who was residing in New York at the time. In 1991, after college, Guo Gu was ordained as a monk and became Master Sheng Yen’s first personal attendant who traveled with the master. In 1995, he had his first Chan experience, and was given permission by the master to teach Chan independently. Ever since then he has been actively teaching meditation and leading retreats at Chan Meditation Center in New York, Dharma Drum Retreat Center in upstate New York, and various cities in the U.S. and Europe.
In 2000, Guo Gu left monasticism and re-entered the world. In 2008, he received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Princeton University and began teaching Buddhism and East Asian religions academically at Florida State University. In 2009, he founded the Tallahassee Chan Center. He is the guiding teacher for the Western Dharma Teachers Training course at the Chan Meditation Center in New York and the Dharma Drum Lineage.
Venerable Chang Chi
Venerable Chang Chi was a semiconductor engineer before entering monastic life, enrolling in the Dharma Drum Sangha University in Taiwan in 2006 and graduating in 2012 as one of the earliest students from the school’s Chan Meditation department. He was ordained under Venerable Master Sheng Yen.
After graduation, he began serving in the Dharma Drum Chan Hall and Chan Practice Center, where he held Chan meditation events for the general public and trained new meditation teachers and assistants. He also developed new meditation courses for students and people at work. Later, in 2015, he started serving in the Sangha University and is now the school’s Director of Academic Affairs.
He has dedicated himself to guiding and nurturing talents in the Chinese Buddhist Sangha, teaching courses in Meditation, Silent Illumination, Research of Chan Meditation Methods, Monastic Etiquette, and Study of Precepts. He also has experience leading retreats overseas in Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Malaysia, Mexico, and the United States. Venerable Chang Chi is intrigued by Chan Gong’an and also enjoys painting, reading, and films.
Venerable Chang Wei
Growing up in a Buddhist family, Venerable Chang Wei followed her parents to temples, learned Buddhist teachings and took refuge in the Three Jewels at a young age. In 2009, she enrolled in the Dharma Drum Sangha University and became a novice the next year. Fully ordained as a nun in 2011, Venerable Chang Wei began her service in the Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) Sangha in 2013.
She has a keen interest in exploring the meanings of life and sharing Buddhist teachings with others, dedicating herself to making our world better through education and social care services. She is always friendly and open to exploring new things.
Venerable Chang Wei has been in Vancouver since 2016. She is currently heading Dharma Services at the Vancouver Center, teaches classes on Buddhism and beginner’s meditation practice, and facilitates Sutra recitation practice.
Venerable Guo Cheh
Venerable Guo Cheh graduated from Soochow University, Department of Chinese Literature in Taiwan. She embarked upon her journey of learning Buddhism by participating in a Buddhism-study group during her undergraduate years in Soochow. Ven. Guo Cheh later went to graduate school at The Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies.
Ven. Guo Cheh had been the Director of the Sangha Education Department in Dharma Drum Mountain, and she has taught at the Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, Fu-Jen Catholic University Department of Religious Studies, and participated in the research project of the Study of Buddhism Scriptures in Sanskrit led by the National Science Council.
Currently, Ven. Guo Cheh is an associate professor and adjunct professor at the Dharma Drum Sangha University and Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts. She also travels world-wide to give lectures on precepts, meditation, Buddhism, and Sanskrit.
David Listen
David Listen has been sharing Chan/Zen meditation and Buddhist teachings for over 15 years, leading intensive meditation retreats, classes, and activities at various monasteries, college campuses, and private institutions throughout North America, Europe, and East Asia. Previously known as Venerable Chang Wen（常聞法師） he was one of the few Western monastic disciples of Chan Master Sheng Yen. He had been a monk for over a decade, and has since returned to lay life to share the insights of the Buddha in his own creative way. David is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and has done extensive work translating the teachings of Chinese Buddhism into English, both on retreat and in published works. He holds a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies, a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling, and is currently a New York State licensed counselor at a clinic for people suffering from severe mental illness. He also has his own life mentoring/coaching practice, guiding people in their cultivation of wisdom and compassion on an individual basis.
Venerable Guo Guang
Ven. Guo Guang obtained her PhD in Agricultural Economics at Ohio State University, USA. After renouncing home life in 1994, she has held positions as the Editor-in- Chief for Life magazine, the Editor-in- Chief for Dongchu’s Publishing House, the Executive Secretary for the founder of DDM, the Director of the Management and Planning Office, the Managing Director for the Administrative Center, the Director for the Sangha Education Department, the Associate Dean of Sangha University, and various other titles in academic affairs.
Currently the Director-in- Chief for Dharma Drum Mountain, she leads the development and the overall operation of Dharma Drum Mountain. She has dedicated many years to researching Chinese Chan Buddhism, specializing in the fields of teaching Chan practice, Chan history, and discourses of Chan masters.
Venerable Yan He
Venerable Yan He came to Dharma Drum Vancouver Centre (DDVC) with years of experience in large-scale event planning as a former member of the Dharna Drum Mountain (DDM) Activities Planning Division based in Taiwan. She was responsible for planning and hosting youth events such as book club, beginner meditation class, and youth camps.
Having grown up in a Buddhist family, Venerable Yan He had been volunteering in different positions in Dharma Drum Youth Group prior to join the sangha community in 2013. In addition, her experience in DDM Activities Planning Division has also prepared her well to mentor and lead the Dharma Drum Young People Group in Vancouver. She is dedicated to her mission of helping young people explore and develop their potential, and supporting one another.
In addition to mentoring young people community, Venerable Yan He takes lead of the organic farm initiative to promote sustainable farming and healthy eating. She is committed to the work of re-connecting people with nature and together making the world a better place.
Venerable Guo Kai
When Ven. Guo Kai was still a college student, she participated in the seven-day Chan retreat and Buddha name recitation retreat at Nung Chan Temple, and shortly afterward she made the decision to leave home and join the Sangha. She was ordained right after graduation in 1994 at Nung Chan Temple. Reflecting back on when she first became a monastic, she said that she made a lot of trouble and mistakes in the temple, but fortunately, Master Sheng Yen’s compassionate and wise teaching helped her to grow more mature. Thus she is deeply grateful to Master Sheng Yen and appreciates the causes of conditions that allowed her to join the Sangha. Ven. Guo Kai has made great vows to spread Buddhadharma. In order to suit the needs of modern society, she has reshaped several great Dharma services, including the Emperor Liang’s Repentance and the Water Land Dharma Services at Dharma Drum Mountain, creating new forms of Dharma services while keeping the core spirit of caring and education in Buddhism.
Ven. Guo Kai was the director at Department of Dharma Service and Sangha Education at Dharma Drum Mountain, and she has been teaching Buddhist courses at the Sangha University, specializing in chanting and the study of the commandments of Buddhism. With her deep understanding of Buddhadharma, Ven. Guo Kai frequently travels to different chapters to give lectures on Sutras and how to apply Buddhadharma in daily life, including lectures on the Diamond Sutra, Lotus Sutra and the views of life and death as a Buddhist. With her lively and bright personality, humorous and interactive ways of teaching, her lectures have always been impressive and popular. Ven. Guo Kai’s life and work have demonstrated her dedication and strong sense of mission to spread the Dharma.
Venerable Guo Yi
Venerable Guo Yi is currently the Managing Director of the Buddhist Education Center of Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM), Abbess of Nung Chan Monastery and Editor-in- Chief of the third edition of the Complete Works of Master Sheng Yen. She started to practice meditation under the guidance of Master Sheng Yen in the early 1990’s, and later joined the DDM sangha and was fully ordained as a nun in 1996. Prior to her current position, she was the Editor-in-Chief of Dharma Drum Publishing Corp. and director of the Meditation Practice Department.
She gives lectures on Buddhism frequently, teaches at Dharma Drum Sangha University, and leads meditation retreats regularly in Taiwan and other countries.
Venerable Chang Huey
Venerable Chang-Huey currently serves as a resident monastic at the Chan Meditation Center, mainly in charge of leading Chan Practice programs and giving teachings on Chan Practice and Buddhadharma.
Venerable Chang-Huey became a novice under Chan Master Sheng Yen in 2000 and received her full ordination in 2002. She holds a Master degree from Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies and her research was mainly focused on Buddhist Education. She has served as Director of Dharma Drum Mountain Malaysia Center, Manager of Sangha Personnel Training Office and Chan Teacher/Counselor at Dharma Drum Sangha University.
Venerable Chang-Huey is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay and speaks English.