Book: Chan Master Miao Tian’s Book of Wisdom (2nd Edition)

We are done with the 2nd Edition. In this new edition, we fixed errors, improved clarity and presentation, changed essay titles and orders, etc. We also included the website and contact information to allow feedbacks. The new edition also has a new back cover, so you can easily tell the new edition from the old one. Overall, there is significant improvement in this 2nd Edition compared to the first one.

Since we have updated the contents, here is the new Introduction, for the 2nd Edition.

Introduction

This book contains selections of Chan Master Wu Jue Miao Tian’s teachings from various occasions in the past 25 years or so. The contents presented in this book are the English translation of the original Chinese texts and DVD lectures mainly from three sources plus some additional ones. These three main sources, each assigned a literally translated title from its original Chinese, include: Chan and Its Life Force, Introduction to Chan Meditation, and Heart Chan Meditation Lectures. To facilitate reference to the original text for Chinese readers as well as to affirm fidelity, all of the selected essays in this book are presented with their source clearly indicated under the title.

Chan Master Miao Tian is the 85th Patriarch of Chan Buddhism and the enlightened spiritual teacher of the Chan School based in Taiwan. He has dedicated his life to bringing to the world the authentic, orthodox teachings of the Buddha (Shakyamuni or Gautama Buddha) which is nearly lost today. The profound and personal realization of the Truth has brought to his awareness that the inner cultivation and peace through the practice of Chan holds the key to the success of humanity as a whole. Witnessing many atrocities of the past and disasters of the present, he has confirmed his grand undertaking as a spiritual leader and is fervently calling for wider involvement and support.

While Buddhist terms are used in all of Chan Master Miao Tian’s teachings, they are used simply for convenience and are not meant to be a religious cage that confines the teachings. The teachings are targeted at people of different backgrounds, color, or race who share both the love and compassion and the vision of a more peaceful world. On this common ground, any differentiation based on religion and creed is completely unnecessary and irrelevant to one’s spiritual well-being and growth. The ultimate Truth he realized transcends all human terminologies and ideologies.

Therefore, while reading this book, care should be taken when approaching the Buddhist terms. These Buddhist terms, when referenced, are for the sake of conveying the universal message to a particular group of people on that particular occasion. In a different occasion with a different audience, the same message can readily and aptly be expressed in the most suitable way. Therefore, readers of non-Buddhist backgrounds or beliefs should not feel that they are not the intended audience of this book. In fact, everyone is the intended audience of this book. Apparent attempts at breaking the religious barriers and bringing all major religions together are made in essays such as Chan as a Religion. In other essays new perspectives and interpretations of terminology associated with particular religions are provided, as in Heaven in Your Heart and Heaven and Hell, with the aim of exploring similarities and seeking unification between religions.

The book is comprised of two parts. The Words of Wisdom collects the teaching on Chan itself and its daily-life application to self-development of compassion, love, and peacefulness. The organization of this part bears no strict logical order and each essay may be read independently. The Heart of Practice contains the basic guidance to Heart Chan meditation, which is aimed at helping a practitioner gain basic familiarity with its techniques and benefits. The essays in this part are related to each other, and are suggested to be read in the order presented.