Hsi Lai Temple

April 29, 2000

Source: The New York Times

On April 29, 2000, The New York Times published an article on the Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, California, the largest Buddhist monastery in the United States. Hsi Lai Temple has been only minimally distracted from its goal of promoting spiritual education and culture by the negative publicity due to illegal contributions to the Democratic National Committee. The Venerable Man Yee, one of the nuns at the temple, stated: "Our responsibility is to the dharma...That is the main purpose of our Master Hsing Yun, to propagate the dharma and educate the culture." Master Hsing Yun founded the International Buddhist Progress Society in Taiwan, which emphasizes a humanistic Buddhism that applies the Buddha's teachings on kindness and compassion to everyday life. The Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights is one of the movement's 19 temples in the United States. Hsi Lai devotees tend to be Chinese from Taiwan, but the temple also tries to reach out to native-born Americans by offering English-language classes on Buddhist principles. According to the Venerable Hui Chuan, vice abbot of the Hsi Lai Temple, the intention of the movement is to "make Buddhism Americanized," to ensure that a new generation of Chinese know their Buddhist heritage, and to have the temple itself function as a bridge between East and West.