CHAPTER 3. GLOCAL-MODERNIZATION OF FGS IN TAIWAN AND MACAU
3.2 FGS’ D EVELOPMENT IN T AIWAN
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administrated a free primary school for children of low-income families, donated coffins to families who could not afford them, funded a non-Buddhist social service agency that helped indigent widows, distributed food to needy families on holidays, served meals in fire catastrophes and rescued people and animals in flood crises. In the early 1920s, Taixu also initiated a new program of Buddhist visitation to prisons.67
Although Master Hsing Yun has encountered Ven. Taixu only once in person in 1946, he expresses that Ven. Taixu is a master that he wants to follow, and he profundly agrees with Taixu’s innovative thoughts toward Buddhism.
3.2 FGS’ Development in Taiwan
After the lifting of martial law and the economic growth of Taiwan, Buddhist sects found room to develop themselves and to revitalize Buddhist teaching. FGS, Tzu Chi, Dharma Drum Mountain, and Chung Tai Chan Monastery are the four very representatives Buddhist groups in Taiwan, and they try to rationalize Buddhist practices. As many Taiwanese are immigrants from the coastal provinces Guangdong and Fujian, Buddha and their ancestors are the most frequently experienced extraordinary powers by people in Taiwan and people are considerably affected by Buddhist thought and values. Buddhism is one of the main religious beliefs and consumers’ need for “Buddhism” is reflected by the growing numbers of Buddhist temples. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the number of registered Buddhist temples were 2308 in December 2008, and the number of registered Buddhist
67 Ibid, pp. 61 – 63, 71, 81, 102 – 103.
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temples has increased 24.17% compared with data from December 1998.68 People’s religious capital has a positive correlation with Buddhism, and Master Hsing Yun has been putting considerable effort into modernizing FGS. Master Hsing Yun established FGS in 1967, and it has over a million members and its members claim to be one of the largest voluntary organizations in the world.69
Master Hsing Yun fled to Taiwan in 1949 and established FGS in 1967 intending to promote Buddhism for the human realm. The establishment of FGS and Master Hsing Yun’s propagation strategies are not merely taking Christianity as a reference to innovate Buddhism. Instead, Master Hsing Yun as a successor of the idea of
“Humanistic Buddhism” is a reformist, and he seeks changes in Buddhist soteriology and modernism. In Master Hsing Yun’s article, he proposes the modernization of Buddhism should cover the following four aspects. They are “…language-modernization (xiandai yuwenhua
現代語文化
), technology-modernization (xiandai kejihua現代科技化
), life-modernization (sheng huo xian dai hua生活現代化
) and schooling-modernization (xian dai xue xiao hua現代學校化
).”70He puts forward that“…should propagate Buddhist dharma in different languages, language is the bridge for communicating, [we] emphasize English, Japanese, Korean, German, Portuguese, Spanish… etc…. Buddhism will be accepted and known by more people.”, “… Buddhism needs to achieve modernization, using the projector, television, computer, internet, and even online teaching, these could facilitate the spread of Buddhist dharma”, “…
most of the modern temples, they don’t just build a Buddha hall or dedicate to a
68 Yen-zen Tsai, Religious Experience in Contemporary Taiwan and China, pp.32, 62
69 Richard Madsen, Democracy’s Dharma Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan, p. 51.
70 佛光山開山釋星雲大師，〈佛教的理念 佛教現代化〉，adopted 24 May 2019.
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Buddha statue only, they start to build lecturer halls, classrooms, and libraries.
Temples should preserve their traditional institution and have the function of school education.”71 Reformation, secularization, laicization and interfaith cooperation together with modernism are the five characteristics that pertain to humanistic Buddhism.72
Hsing Yun has been trying to propagate Buddha dharma in different ways and with various tools. In the early days, Hsing Yun spread Buddha dharma through presswork and broadcast. These two ways were the most useful information transmitting means at that time. He set up the first Buddhist youth choir in 1954 which is a first for Buddhism in Taiwan and hosts itinerant preaching ceremonies and has performed in Asia, America, Europe, and Australia to promote Buddhist music.73 To cultivate Buddhists talents, he established sixteen Buddhist Academies and five universities within and outside Taiwan in the years after 1964.74“To propagate Buddhist teachings through cultural activities; to nurture talents through education;
to benefit the societies through charitable programs; to purify human hearts and minds through Buddhist practice” 以文化弘揚佛法，以教育培養人才，以慈善福利 社會，以共修淨化人心75 are the beliefs of Master Hsing Yun.
71 Ibid.
72 Stuart Chandler, Establishing a Pure Land on Earth The Foguang Buddhist Perspective on Modernization and Globalization, p. 80.
73 金小方，〈星雲大師人間佛教傳教方式的特色〉，頁 241。
74 林美鈴，〈佛教慈善事業之發展 – 佛光山慈悲基金會等個案研究〉，頁 60。
75 Fo Guang Shan Monastry, Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web, adopted 14 January 2018
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Chart 3- 1 Social Welfares and Philanthropies Provided by FGS76
Source: 佛光山全球資訊網 Non-tertiary
educational institutions
Universities Buddha Museum Monastery center (for the sangha
and laypeople)
6 4 1 6
Cultural and Art philanthropy Community Universities
FGS establishes a variety of organizations, ranging from educational institutions to cultural and art and social welfares.