Origins

• Responding to the contemporary need of adjusting the pace of life

This program offers a response to the contemporary needs for life wisdom in diversified aspects through various research and development of the integration of Chan and spiritual health. The program adopts the innovative ideas of the everyday life aesthetics and applies the viable knowledge and power of practice aiming at building a Pure Land on Earth. Through interface, research and exchange with related academic fields and interdisciplinary subjects, the results and the nurtured talents of this program will provide society a selection and possibilities of various creation of different lifestyles. This program offers a response to the contemporary needs for diversified life wisdom through various research and through further integration of Chan and spiritual health. The program adopts the innovative ideas of everyday life aesthetics and applies the useful knowledge and power of practice in order to build a Pure Land on Earth. Through communication, dialogue, research and exchange with related academic fields and interdisciplinary subjects, the results and the nurtured talents of this program will provide society with a variety of lifestyle choices and the possibilities of creation.

• Nurturing talents for improving and innovating inner life

Life is the main field for applying knowledge and actualizing wisdom; therefore, our program aims to nurture talents who are able to organize, research, and utilize the knowledge of eastern Chan and the concepts and methods of western spiritual health. This will help sentient beings in the world to enrich their life by grasping the essence of traditional Chan culture.

• Nurturing counseling talents who can contemplate and care for life

The program wishes to nurture talents who can contemplate and care for life. Through participating in social activities, including various aspects such as professional career counseling and other consulting organizations, the program aims to practically realize the spirit of cherishing life, caring for life, and experiencing the value of living.

• Supplement for the shortfall of the education enhancing the physical, psychological and spiritual well-being in the current higher education

Currently, the related programs of other institutes mostly belong to the religious, psychology or counseling departments. In the past, specialized religious research was mostly developed through the subject fields of arts, history or philosophy, and it wasn’t until recently that an independent department for the subject was established. Our program aims to construct a curriculum of interdisciplinary courses, drawing on the advancement of the institutes of religious research, psychology and counseling, and incorporating both the eastern Chan studies and western mental health theories. Founded on the Dharma Drum Mountain Lineage of Chinese Chan Buddhism, the program also absorbs the specialties of Japanese Zen and Tibetan Buddhism to make this Chan system of studies and practice the most contemporary in the world. We emphasize utilizing Chan to develop the inner life and to activate the potential for creativity, and to integrate and converse with the fields of mental and spiritual health. This approach is distinctively different from the development of the other religious research institutes, psychology or counseling institutes.

Development Priorities

There are four main points of development:

• Fully integrated life experience that combines theory and practice
• Creative development of wisdom by integrating Chan studies and practice in life      
• Constructing a spiritual health system that combines eastern and western methods
• Nurturing specialized talents with the cultivation of culture and creativity