Ven. Wei-Chueh was a native of Yingshan, Sichuan province, China. In 1963, he was ordained as a novice under the Venerable Master Lingyuan, a Dharma heir of the Great Master Xuyun (Empty Cloud), at the Shifang Dajue (Great Enlightenment) Chan Monastery in Keelung, Taiwan, and was given the Dharma name Zhi’an Wei Chueh. Later on, he went on solitary practice in Jixiang Temple in Yilan; Yuanming Temple in Hsinchu, Po Lin Monastery in Lantau Island, Hong Kong; and a hut on the secluded mountains of Wanli in northern Taiwan for more than a decade. In 1987, responding to the request of his followers to spread the Dharma, the Grand Master decided to build a monastery. Together with his disciples, he grubbed out weeds, cleared the ground, carried bricks, and lay walls until calluses grew on his palms and soles. Finally, Lingquan Chan Monastery was established where his hut was once located. Soon after, he held his first Chan-7 meditation retreat, which, although small, breathed new life into the hitherto declining Chan-7 practice in Chinese Buddhism.

In 1991, for 49 days, the Grand Master conducted seven consecutive Chan-7 meditation retreats, firmly reinvigorating the Chan tradition in Taiwan. Before long, Lingquan could no longer accommodate the growing number of monastic and lay disciples who came to practice Chan meditation and learn the Dharma, so he started the plan to build a bigger monastery in Puli, Nantou in central Taiwan. After three years of planning and seven years of construction, Chung Tai Chan Monastery was finally inaugurated in 2001.

It takes years to grow trees to build a temple, but decades to prepare monastics to turn the Dharma wheel. Following the “Three Links of Cultivation,” which integrates the disciplines of beneficent deeds, scripture studies, and meditation as the guiding principle to cultivation, the Grand Master promoted sangha education, social education, and school education. From practicing in seclusion to turning the Dharma wheel, whether in action or in stillness, he had always diligently lived by the Buddhist teaching, leading his disciples to fulfill the bodhisattva way. Abiding by the motto “when at rest, rest all thoughts; when in action, perfect all actions,” the Grand Master set an exemplary model of Buddhist cultivation for all.

While Chung Tai Chan Monastery was being constructed, the Grand Master concurrently founded the Chung Tai Buddhist Institute, and worked towards establishing 108 meditation centers in Taiwan and overseas. He also held large Dharma ceremonies, gave hundreds of rounds of Dharma lectures, conducted ten sessions of Chan-7 retreats annually, and transmitted the Three Refuges, the Five Precepts, the Eight Prohibitive and Fasting Precepts, and the Triple Platform Ordination and Bodhisattva Precepts regularly. By way of the Dharma, meditation and precepts, the Grand Master purified minds and transformed numerous lives.

For thirty years, he led his disciples to create the Chung Tai World, one step and one footprint at a time. With the Four Tenets of Chung Tai—to our elders be respectful, to our juniors be kind, with all humanity be harmonious, in all endeavors be true—he set down the guiding principles for practicing Buddhism and upholding sangha integrity. Through connecting Buddhism with academia, education, art, science and daily living, he spread the Dharma to a broad spectrum of people, kindling the luminosity inherent in everyone’s original nature. He also actively advocated Buddhist and cultural exchange across the Taiwan strait, promoting mutual prosperity on both sides and peace of the world. Moreover, based on the education of enlightenment in Buddhism, he founded Pu Tai elementary, junior high, and senior high schools, setting up a model for a well-rounded education system. To give testimony to the history of Buddhist development, and to preserve traditional Chinese culture, he dedicated himself to the establishment of the Chung Tai World Museum, opening a platform for spreading the Dharma through the transforming power of art.

On April 8, 2016, the Grand Master completed his lifelong journey of bodhisattva cultivation; surrounded by his monastic disciples, he passed on peacefully at the age of 90, the monastic age of 53 springs, and the precept age of 52 summers. He had ordained two thousand disciples and taught hundred of thousands of lay followers. On the day of the memorial tribute and cremation, more than 30,000 disciples, unable to contain their grief, lined up for miles from the Monastery gate to the funeral site to bid the last farewell to our beloved teacher.

Outwardly manifest as an ordained monk,

Inwardly accord with the supreme Buddha seal;

Unwaveringly practice the bodhisattva way,

Guiding all sentient beings to enlightenment.

These are not only the Grand Master’s aspirations for his monastic disciples, but also a portrait of his own life.