Venerables Profiles

Bhikkhu: Shi QiYuan.  Secular last name: Jin. Born in Jilin Province in 1981, he was ordained at the Yuanyuan Temple in Fushun in 1997. Then, in 1998, he was enrolled in Baiyun Temple in Wutaishan. He succeeded Elder YongXin of Hong Kong to become the forty-sixth successor of the Tiantai Sect and studied the teaching method of the Tiantai. He came to the United States in September 2005. While residing at the Buddhist Peaceful Enlightenment in 2009, he became the president of American Buddhist Confederation and succeeded Ven. Ruifa to become the 45th successor of Rinzai school. In 2013, he founded the American Wisdom Association, Billerica, MA, USA, followed by the FuHui Temple in Rhode Island in 2015.

Bhikkhuni: Shi ManZhong. In 1996, she took the tonsure and later underwent an ordination ceremony to become a Bhikkuni in 1999.  She came to the United States in 2000.  She studied at FaYun Prajna Monastery and learned Dharmalaksana School under the instruction of LiMiaoJing Elder.  She co-founded the American Wisdom Association in 2013 along with Ven. QiYuan. Currently, she is the manager of the temple.

Bhikkhuni: Shi DeXiu. In 2006, she became a nun under Venerable ManZhong.  She studied at the Dacheng Temple in Shanxi while specializing on precepts.  She came to the American Wisdom Association in October 2014.  She handles the kitchen affairs in the temple.

Ven. Dr. Dhammadipa Sak (Fa Yao) is the Abbot of US Zen Institute and Wisdom Temple. Dr. Dhammadipa Sak is also a scholar of early Mahāyāna and Theravāda Buddhism and specializes in the study of Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma and Theravāda Abhidhamma. He is also trustee member of International Buddhist Association of America and Parliament of World’s Religions. Ven. Dhammadipa, besides conducting meditation retreats, also has been invited to provide meditative instructions mostly on Four Immeasurable Minds and partly on Mindfulness of Breathing and Insight Meditation in Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Maryland, Indiana, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, etc. He was born to a Chinese family in Taiwan and brought up in East Malaysia, where Islam is the major religion. After being ordained as a monk in 1987, he obtained his training in several distinguished monasteries in Sri Lanka that scarcely happened to a Chinese. During a course of nearly nine years he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees specializing in Buddhist and Western philosophies etc. in two separate universities in Sri Lanka. Not long after leaving Sri Lanka for France to further his French and missionary works, he moved to Taiwan to teach Early Buddhist philosophy and comparative Abhidharmas of two traditions for graduates and undergraduates in two esteem Buddhist colleges in Taiwan unexpectedly. Later, he went for further academic studies in England where he obtained his Ph.D from the University of Bristol. Little did he know his arrival of America would bring him to another dimension of experiencing new kinds of scholarship and institutions. Formally, he had the rare opportunity to study under several professors at Harvard University where he learned different aspects of Buddhism in research fields including Logic, Yogacāra and anthropology etc. Subsequently, Ven. Dhammadipa established a program called Massachusetts Bodhisiksa Educational Center in Quincy, Massachusetts. Even after seven years of serving as an abbot of Chuang Yen Monastery, NY, he still tirelessly conducts classes that went through the entirety of ‘the Path of Purification’, ‘the Entrance of Abhidharma’ of Sarvāstivāda, and several topics related to Buddhism in Western societies at CUNY AAARI (The City University of New York). He was a visiting professor of anthropology and philosophy Departments at Sun Yat-sen University and at present is a research fellow there in Guangzhou. Ven. Dhammadipa has acquired command of various languages such as Pāli, Sanskrit, English, Chinese, French, Japanese etc., which help him to expand his intellectual and cultural horizons. He also possesses extensive interests, in addition to Buddhist practices, in Western Philosophy, Christianity, Islamism, Huduism, etc., and he has engaged in conversation with scholars and laypersons alike in North America, Europe, the Near East, and East and Southeast Asia. Especially his years spent in Europe and the United States allowed him to understand the complexities of Buddhism in the West and in relation to Western culture, and the distinctive currents of beliefs and faiths in a changing global world.

Before entering the Buddhist monastic order in 2010, Ven. Sagarananda Tien was a research assistant professor at Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, a licensed environmental engineer at an international engineering consulting company, and a NASA Earth System Science research fellow. He earned his Master and PhD degrees in Agricultural and Biological Engineering in the United States. He was born in Taipei, Taiwan to a Christian family. He became a novice monk in 2010 and later on received his full ordination in 2012. Although he was ordained in Theravada tradition, he considers himself a non-sectarian Buddhist monk living in the modern society. Other than his devotion in learning and practicing mediation and propagating the Buddhist teachings, he is interested in interfaith dialogue, non-profit organization development, photography, Chinese, calligraphy, art, and travel. Ven. Sagarananda is Vice President of Buddha’s Wisdom Association and Secretary of US Zen Institute in Germantown, MD.