About Miao-Yun Aranya

Miao-Yun Aranya was founded by the eminent modern Buddhist master Yin Shun (1906–2005). In early autumn 1963, at the invitation of the Chiayi Buddhist Association, he came to Chiayi to give a five-day series of lectures; that visit led to the purchase of this land later the same year. The site on the outskirts of the city has long been a place of retreat: during the Japanese period Master Yimin of the Dagangshan lineage took refuge here, and the Japanese Zen master Nantianmo later stayed here as well.

On May 26, 1964, the Buddha’s Birthday, Master Yin Shun composed A Distant Offering from Retreat, expressing his resolve to set aside outside affairs and devote himself to solitary study. During and after this retreat he wrote a series of major works, among them A Study of the Treatises and Treatise Masters of the Sarvastivada School, parts of the Miaoyun Collection, The Formation of Early Buddhist Texts, A History of Chinese Chan and his autobiography, An Ordinary Life.

Above the main door hangs a wooden plaque inscribed “Miao-Yun Aranya” by Yu Youren, and the stone pillars carry a couplet by Master Hongyi. Inside the retreat quarter, the round window, desk, shrine and manuscripts have been preserved as they were; the hall itself keeps its Taiwanese cypress structure and the character of a 1960s temple.

For more than half a century the community has carried on the Master’s spirit of inner cultivation and outward teaching. Under Venerable Hui-Li and Venerable Chang-Guang, an order of nuns was established, together with the Miaoyun Academy, the Miaoyun Lecture Hall in central Chiayi and the Miaoyun Education Foundation. The new main hall, whose ground-breaking the Master led in 2003, houses the Master Yin Shun Memorial Museum on its fifth floor.

Start the guide Master Yin Shun