Editor's Note
Iris Wang is the founder of the Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association (DDMBA) Chicago Chapter and currently serves as the president of Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) Dharmapala in North America. She oversaw the publication of Master Sheng Yen’s work in English until 2009. Iris has been a Chan meditation practitioner since 1992, when she began practice with Chan Master Sheng Yen. She took part in many intensive meditation retreats. She became certified as a meditation teacher in 2003 and has been teaching Chan Buddhist meditation since then.

In October 2025, DDMBA North America organized a historic pilgrimage that brought nearly two hundred practitioners to Taiwan for the 20th anniversary celebration of Dharma Drum Mountain Headquarters’ inauguration. The nine-day journey included visits to the Headquarters, the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, and DDM centers across eight cities throughout Taiwan.

In the message that follows, DDMBA Dharmapala President Iris Wang reflects on the significance of this pilgrimage, drawing connections between the 2005 opening ceremony she attended and the present-day fulfillment of Master Sheng Yen’s vision. Her words introduce the participant reflections that follow, inviting readers to appreciate how encountering the Dharma in person transforms understanding from something read or heard into lived experience.

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To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM)’s Headquarters, Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association (DDMBA) Dharmapala in the US successfully organized a pilgrimage of 192 participants to visit DDM in Taiwan from October 18th to 26th.

Over the course of nine days, nearly two hundred Dharma brothers and sisters not only experienced the wisdom of Master Sheng Yen at the Headquarters, but also were brought back to vivid memories of earlier days. I still clearly remember attending the 2005 Opening Ceremony of the DDM Headquarters—the scene remains fresh in my mind. Although Master Sheng Yen’s health was already fragile at that time, he nevertheless attended all the activities, including the opening concert.

As our vehicle wound its way along the streams surrounding the monastery grounds, we passed a parcel of land that, back then, was still being prepared for the Dharma. It was the place Master Sheng Yen constantly held in his heart: the future Dharma Drum University, now named Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (DILA).

A corner at Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts. Photo by Chintan Desai

We once asked Shifu, “There are already so many universities—why build a Dharma Drum University?”

Shifu replied, “The vision Dharma Drum Mountain wishes to transmit is different from that of other universities.”

Today, Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts stands tall at the Head Temple. Together, Master Sheng Yen and his disciples have raised the banner of Dharma Drum Mountain’s Threefold Education, firmly establishing its higher-education mission. During this trip, many bodhisattvas also personally visited the campus.

After the visit to the Headquarters, our group continued on a tour through DDM centers across eight cities in Taiwan, witnessing firsthand the continuation of the Dharma carried forward through Master Sheng Yen’s lineage.

For the bodhisattvas from North America—who had previously only read or seen these teachings in books and videos—everything became vivid and three-dimensional the moment they experienced it in person. Master Sheng Yen’s Chan teachings suddenly became real, directly verified, internalized, and absorbed deep into their hearts.

Visiting Bao Yun Temple during the pilgrimage.

This powerful experience naturally inspired the English-speaking bodhisattvas on the trip to express their heartfelt reflections in writing. I hope that the Dharma Drum Mountain community in North America, upon reading these sincere words, will appreciate the spirit of bodhisattva altruism taught by Master Sheng Yen, as well as the compassion that has shaped the environmental mindfulness embodied by both monastics and lay bodhisattvas at Dharma Drum Mountain in Taiwan.

May those who were unable to join this journey be encouraged to make a vow to participate in the next pilgrimage, and to one day personally visit the places that manifest Master Sheng Yen’s vision.