Dharma Drum Mountain

Dharma Drum Mountain, founded by Venerable Master Sheng Yen, was the destination of my first solo drive in northern Taiwan. I was nervous, but stayed in control most of the time. Although guided by a GPS device, I still managed to miss a couple of turns, causing the device to recalculate routes and increasing my total driving time. The last straw, however, was my lack of trust in the device, which guided me to a shortcut that did not seem right to me at that time. Luckily I got special someone who was already at Dharma Drum Mountain, and she guided me to the destination. She was truly my beacon of hope.

I would imagine Dharma Drum Mountain to be among deep mountains, harder to access and with fewer people walking around--a place that you would feel alone there. However, it was quite the opposite: volunteers were busy at works while groups of visitors were carried up the mountain by a shuttle bus. Many of the visitors were attracted by the place's scenic views. This reflected the approach that Master Sheng Yen propagated: Chan is better learned and practiced in daily life. And that was why he founded Dharma Drum Mountain.

The Dharma is so good, yet so few people know about it and so many people mis-understand it.

Master Sheng Yen