III. Grand Master Huen-Yuan leads Weixinism for world peace.

3.Using religious Dharma to promote universal balance and harmony - especially harmony between mankind and the transcendence.

Chinese culture is a culture of peace. It encompasses holistic universal harmony, including inner peace and the peace between people, between people and all living things, and between people and the transcendence. The harmony between mankind and the beyond exists without shape or a form and presents no physical trace. Such can be studied only in terms of metaphysics and of ethnology and religious studies. The Confucian ideal of “creating neutrality and harmony,” what Weixinism calls “Universal Harmony”, comprises:

1. The harmony of nature (heaven): involving the unity of time and space. The harmony of time refers to the reconciliation between personal time and public time, and the harmony of space emphasizes the unity of architecture and its surroundings. Such belongs within Chinese cultural orthodoxy, namely the Yi-Ching and Feng Shui. As written in Xi Ci (Commentary on the Appended Judgments), the introduction to Yi-Ching, “It is aligned with the virtue of heaven and earth, is united with the brightness of the sun and the moon, corresponds to the order of the four seasons, and allows us to be in tune with ghosts and deities to foreknow our destiny.” This encapsulates the pursuit of peace, as harmony between time and space is the essence of individual, social, and communal peace.

2. The harmony of organic systems (human beings): involving the inner unity of the self, and the external reconciliation of the self with external environmental demands.

3. The harmony of interpersonal relationships: involving earthly peace between people, between people and communities and between communities as well as divine peace between people and the beyond. In Western societies, earthly and divine systems are distinct and clearly segregated from one another. However, in traditional Chinese philosophy, these two are united and interact upon one another. In other words, the peace that one pursues cannot be achieved only through harmony between people and things in this world but must also embrace reconciliation with those from the past. This is the foundation of the moral norms and religious beliefs that direct respect and worship of Heaven and the ancestors. The explicit directives of such include acting with benevolence, practicing justice, propagating moral values, and expressing the spirit of Neutrality through the encouragement of virtue and the practices of Tao. While religious in its scope, this aspect also manifests a Chinese cultural characteristic – i.e., “filial piety”. It is a Dharmic inheritance that sustains the nation. It is peaceful thinking as well as the essence of interpersonal morality.

Grand Master Huen-Yuan created Holy Weixinism to foster balance and harmony throughout the entire universe. He promotes Peace Culture, Yi-Ching and Feng Shui studies widely through education in order to inaugurate a peaceful Pure Land of the future. More importantly, he encourages harmony between mankind and the transcendence. This is the reason for his regularly performing religious strength of merits, through which he shows his inner respect for the origin and his admiration for moral integrity. Moreover, he conducts myriad worship activities to share and extend the core of Zen, to help people perceive the heart of heaven and their ancestors, and discover the ways of heaven and our ancestral virtues. It is the harmonic, ideal state of unison between heaven, earth, deities, and humanity. It is a realm of peace for those who pursue harmonic living and a balanced relationship amongst heaven, earth and humanity as well as sustain themselves in accordance with ancient Chinese philosophical tenets. Grand Master Huen-Yuan said, “If we wish for world peace, we must first allow the spirits of our ancestors to rest in peace. Harmony will surely follow.” Weixinism is a fundamental approach to world peace. To realize its benefits as quickly as possible, Grand Master Huen-Yuan has been adding satellite Weixinism centers to promote religious cultural education and turn the global Dharma Wheel to accomplish world peace.

The Taiwanese Weixinism on Chan Chi Mountain (禪機山) takes as its central tenet the promotion of the Chinese cultural legacies of Yi-Ching and Feng Shui. It follows traditional Chinese heaven and ancestor worship. Its goal is to expound and propagate religious and cultural thought and practices and the acts and ways of filial piety. Today, it has a network of 28 satellite centers throughout Taiwan. Grand Master Huen-Yuan once expounded on the sublime meaning represented in these satellite centers, saying, “Yi-Ching and the Eight Trigrams (Bagua) are my advisers and the source of living wisdom. … They can be analyzed using the Tai-Chi model, which contains the two compartments of Wu Tu and Ji Tu. Tu is the soul and all living things. Wu governs heaven and the sun, the luminous wisdom, which feeds on enlightenment from religious culture. On the other hand, Ji rules the earth and relies on the development of education. If we desire to activate the Wheel of Dharma for world peace, we must bridge religion and education. We are establishing more and more religious satellite centers to support religion and culture and, ultimately, turn the peaceful Wheel of Dharma together.” He also said, “The power of peace lies in the soul. The function of religion is to turn intention into practical action – essential to promoting peace. In this Saha World, or the earth-bound existence, wisdom is essential to learning how to expel darkness and glorify luminosity. Thus, we must begin with general and religious education. … Future world peace lies in Weixinism, which propagates Yi-Ching and uses its Dharma Wheel to activate the grand Dharma Wheel of global peace. The Chinese legacy of Yi-Ching is then applied to transform darkness into light.” Thus, in addition to promoting Yi-Ching and Feng Shui through teaching and lectures, Weixinism has been installing Wei Xin satellite centers nationwide and overseas. Their establishment comforts all living things and encourages social harmony. As a cornerstone of Weixinism religious ritual and discipline, Every satellite center has held Dharma services to help the faithful avoid accidents and bad luck through prayers for twenty-eight years without interruption. The support that Weixinism gives to world peace carries an influence that is incredible and incorporeal.

Religions and faiths have a profound impact on humankind’s quality of life. According to the research of the French sociologist Durkheim (1992), there exist only two basic religious notions. One of them centers on the idea of a “soul” and the other of the idea of “spiritual beings” and “God”. The former co-exists with humanity. It is the origin of the human spirit and provides vitality to the source of life with intangibility and holiness. Since ancient times, the Chinese have held ceremonies to worship their ancestors – a manifestation of the belief that the “soul never dies.” It is also an important way for human beings to maintain contact with God. Weixinism is a social religious group infused with sophisticated humanism. Grand Master Huen-Yuan has reminded his followers consistently that, “If we want world peace, we must look after the realms of both life and death.” This was a main motivation for him to establish in 2006 the “Wei Xin College of Buddhist Chants” in Taiwan. As an institution, it is responsible to foster professional and talented people to propagate the Dharma and hold grand Weixinistic Dharma Services.

Grand Master Huen-Yuan once remarked, “The true meaning of Dharma services lies in making friends, drawing families closer together, knowing one’s heart through the Dharma, and praying together for harmony between humanity and the transcendence.” For this reason, he has held numerous major and minor Dharma services over the past 28 years. Such have benefitted mankind and the heaven, spread Dharma, and brought salvation to many lives. The realms of life and death also benefit from this. The Grand Master has even held Dharma services to make amends to the sky, praying for the amelioration of global warming. His deep care for the universe and for all of nature’s creatures is clear. In each of his Dharma services, he makes every endeavor to express his care for the beings of the underworld. This, too, reflects his belief that in order to bring about world peace, we must care for both the realms of life and death. He has put his faith into practice and spread his love and compassion worldwide. This is how the power of Dharma services, which pray for safety and security, is transmitted throughout the globe. Services serve the invisible function of bringing tranquility to all places. For example, the Dharma service held between April 22nd and May 1st, 2004 (lunar calendar) under the theme of “praying for world peace and Cross-Strait reconciliation & mutual prosperity” had a profound impact. The millions of souls who perished in civil wars, the two World Wars, and the September 11th attacks in New York City have all been given peace and settled in the shrine. The faithful prayed and chanted sutras for them in order to help earn their release from purgatory and attainment of rebirth in paradise, the Pure Land of Buddha. The faithful prayed for the comfort of those perished souls, based on the strength of their merits. Services further prayed for world peace and universal harmony. The Dharma service “Praying for Cross-Strait Peace” on April 25th and “Appealing for World Peace” on September 9th, 2006 (lunar calendar) held a similar benign importance.

Grand Master Huen-Yuan said, “I have been practicing Tao for twenty-eight years. I have put the resentments and grudges that have plagued the Chinese clans over five thousand years to rest. I have inherited from Fu-Xi the historical and cultural orthodoxies of nearly seven thousand years … I wish that everyone may broaden their hearts and end their selfish ways. Today, we are here to pray for the blessings of world peace. This is the ultimate and true meaning of filial piety.” He also remarked, “Our Weixinistic Great Vow was initially only to pray for the perfect fulfillment of the Chinese people. However, we must pray for the whole earth and all its sentient life in the Dharma world. Through the power of our prayers, we transmit the recitations and contents of the sutras to all living things and call for permanent peace together.” This is clear evidence of Master Huen-Yuan’s charitable and loving heart. From May 5th to July 24th , 2007 ( lunar calendar), Master Huen-Yuan held a special Dharma Service to, “restore the origin, make amends to the sky, reduce misfortunes, and pray for security,” in hopes to, with the power of Buddha, eliminate disaster and trouble, resolve all resentments in the world, give stability to Taiwan, and restore harmony to the world. He further wishes to make amends to the sky by encouraging all to work on their virtues. Master Huen-Yuan explained, “The hole in the ozone was caused by humanity’s corruption and attack on nature. Now, Nature is fighting back. When it does so, we will share the common karma of human calamity…. Weixinism assumes responsibility and works on self-cultivation, supporting countless Dharma worlds in all the directions with piety and praying that grand Heaven and the deities will protect all sentient life. We are sure that they will be able to turn the Dharma Wheel in the direction of world peace…. I humbly wish that from now on, all humanity will have five thousand years of real peace and live luminous lives.”

While Grand Master Huen-Yuan works with diligence and determination, he keeps a low profile and carries all sentient beings and the two worlds of the living and the dead in his loving heart. Moreover, his unique religious perception helps him to leverage the power of religion to develop peace throughout the entire universe and harmony between people and the transcendence as well as attain true world peace in the future. His care and practices deserve admiration and respect. They are the invisible facilitators of social harmony today and world peace in the future. Therefore, if peace is the desired end, we cannot ignore the power of religion and the power of religious solidarity. Master Huen-Yuan is a religious educator with supreme self-cultivation. He is united with the ancient Weixinistic sage Bodhisattva Wang Chan Lao Zu and, in 1983, aligned himself with the sage's virtues. As “World peace” is the essential wish of Bodhisattva Wang Chan Lao Zu, Master Huen-Yuan has been working to realize such on earth in the shortest time possible. He is the crucial successor and promoter of Yi-Ching and Feng Shui as well as guardian of the beacon of universal peace. As his knowing and doing are one, he has initiated a grand way.