Humanistic Buddhism in Taiwan has become a mainstream in recent 2 decades. It¡¦s from local form to international organization, and uses the way of commercial management. On the other side, the Buddhist adopt a ¡§inner transformation¡¨ strategy to turn difficult words in the Buddhist Scripture into understandable saying. When Master Sheng Yen was a novice, he had already realized that ¡§the Buddha dharma is so great, but many people misunderstand it and so few people are willing to accept it.¡¨ Therefore, he decided to develop and promote Buddhist higher education. Master Sheng Yen held the religious spirit of universal delivery ,tireless in all his efforts. He established the Dharma Drum Mountain World Center for Buddhist Education in Jinshan Township, Taipei County, in order to practice the Threefold Education¡XExtensive Academic Education, Extensive Public Buddhist Education, and Extensive Social Care Education¡Xwhich is the foundation on which to realize the vision of ¡§uplifting the character of humanity and building a pure land on Earth¡¨. The Master would like to spread the Dharma in language and ideas that people can relate to. For this reason, the Master proposed a series of social movements, hoped to provide concepts and methods applicable in today¡¦s life. These methods include ¡§the Spiritual Environment¡¨,¡¨ Four Kinds of Environmentalism¡¦, ¡§the Fivefold Spiritual Renaissance Campaign¡¨, and ¡§the Six Ethics of the Mind¡¨. The Master is a legendary people. The vision of ¡§uplifting the character of humanity and building a pure land on Earth¡¨ has opened a new sight in Taiwan.

abstract: This dissertation analyzes the way in which leaders of certain Taiwanese Buddhist organizations associated with a strand of Buddhist modernism called "humanistic Buddhism" use discourse and rhetoric to make environmentalism meaningful to their members. It begins with an assessment of the field of religion and ecology, situating it in the context of secular environmental ethics. It identifies rhetoric and discourse as important but under acknowledged elements in literature on environmental ethics, both religious and secular, and relates this lack of attention to rhetoric to the presence of a problematic gap between environmental ethics theory and environmentalist practice. This dissertation develops a methodology of rhetorical analysis that seeks to assess how rhetoric contributes to alleviating this gap in religious environmentalism. In particular, this dissertation analyzes the development of environmentalism as a major element of humanistic Buddhist groups in Taiwan and seeks to show that a rhetorical analysis helps demonstrate how these organizations have sought to make environmentalism a meaningful subject of contemporary Buddhist religiosity. This dissertation will present an extended analysis of the concept of "spiritual environmentalism," a term developed and promoted by the late Ven. Shengyan (1930-2009), founder of the Taiwanese Buddhist organization Dharma Drum Mountain. Furthermore, this dissertation suggests that the rhetorical methodology proposed herein offers offers a direction for scholars to more effectively engage with religion and ecology in ways that address both descriptive/analytic approaches and constructive engagements with various forms of religious environmentalism. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Religious Studies 2012

「中華禪法鼓宗」的創辦人聖嚴法師，以宏揚及復興漢傳禪佛教為使命與責任，為中國禪宗兩大法脈臨濟宗與曹洞宗之傳承者，將中國禪法傳播至美洲、歐洲、亞洲及世界各地，被譽為當代重要之國際級中國禪師。 其所教導之禪修體系及方法，因應現代人的需要已不同於傳統禪修方法。主要呈現在兩個方面上：一方面於禪堂正式教導之禪修方法有所轉變，如話頭禪與默照禪兩種禪法合流傳授、分階段及分次第以達頓悟之禪修體系；另一方面以適應現代人容易接受之語言、文字及方法轉化傳統之禪修方法，將之生活化，成為可以利益世人之方法與教導，如「心靈環保」、「心五四」及「心六倫」等社會運動。(取「新」與「心」之諧音) 聖嚴法師晚年因未能見到漢傳禪佛教之快速復興，為期勉僧俗四眾弟子宏揚漢傳禪佛教，以之利益世間大眾。因此，以其畢生所學及所教授之禪佛教，整理出明確之淵源、內容、方法與實踐，於2005年正式創立「中華禪法鼓宗」。這在禪宗史上有著劃時代的意義，實具研究探討之價值。 本論文以「中華禪法鼓宗」的禪修教育為主軸，探討其所創設禪修教育體系之歷史背景、禪修教育方法演進、禪修方法內容、組織體系、推廣活動、及因應現代社會之禪修教育方式轉變等相關問題。主要之研究方法為文獻蒐集與探討分析，並進行人物之訪談與田野調查。 研究結論為聖嚴法師會通「話頭禪」與「默照禪」，建立「頓中開漸」的禪修方法，將禪修過程與層次開出次第，將古代禪法靈活運用、現代化詮釋，融入現代人的日常生活中。中華禪法鼓宗的禪修教育內容及方法豐富、完整而全面，並呼應現代社會需要。目前法鼓山的禪修推廣組織健全，禪修活動課程分次第架構完整，致力將佛法、禪法實用化，讓現代人能得到佛法及禪法的利益。另檢視法鼓宗之立宗要件具足，有其歷史必然性，在聖嚴法師禪師捨報後，仍可理解「中華禪法鼓宗」的運作原則與其歷史重要性。 / Venerable Master Sheng Yen, the founder of the “Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan Buddhism”, had committed himself to transmit and promote the revival of Chan Buddhism as his life’s mission and responsibility. By inheriting both mainstream Chan lineages, the Caodong and Linji lineages, he redefined the Chinese Chan meditation and introduced it to the Americans, Europe, and Asians, as the first Chinese Chan master in the western world. His teaching of meditation, responded to the needs of modern people. This thesis will investigate his way of incorporating and transforming traditional Chan into a systematic education for contemporary followers. First, I will introduce the official teachings in his meditation hall, including how he integrated two methods of Huatou and Silent Illumination in terms of dividing the courses of Chan practice into sequential stages. Moreover, he simplified and assimilated traditional Chan language into more friendly modern vocabularies in spreading his meditation method to modern-day people and provided it in more adaptable way. Consequently, he proposed a series of social movements to internalize Chan practice into daily life. These campaigns include Spiritual Engagement (literally, Protecting the Spiritual Environment), the New May Fourth Movement (here, “New” is pronounced as “mind” in Mandarin in signifying the Spiritual Renaissance ), and the New Six Ethics enlarging the Five Confucius Ethics from socio-family relation to spiritual cultivation. Master Sheng Yen had completed his meditation education system in his very late days, leaving relatively uncertainty and creativity to his disciples. This explains the reason for him to initiate the Dharma Drum lineage in 2005. To put the responsibility on his monastic and lay followers of spreading Chinese Chan Buddhism to benefit people in the world, Master Sheng Yen integrated his lifelong learning and teaching Chan Buddhism experiences into a new Lineage of Chan Buddhism. This thesis will discuss the origin, contents, methods and practice of the “Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan Buddhism. That Master Sheng Yen founded his lineage and referred it as Chinese Chan Buddhism has enlarged the scale of Chinese and world history of Chan. This thesis mainly explores the historical background of "Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan Buddhism” in terms of its meditation educational system, especially the meditation within a modern society. In spite of historical analysis, I will also conduct