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Footprints in the Snow: The Autobiography of a Chinese Buddhist Monk

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Have you ever dreamed about becoming a Buddhist monk? I have. I've visited some of those temples, and can imagine living there, doing the daily work, chanting, meditation, and so forth. After reading this book, I see that my mental picture of it all may have been a bit rosy.

Footprints in the Snow is the autobiography of Sheng Yen, a Chan ("Chinese Zen") Master. There are several biographies of the man in Chinese, but this is the first edition in English. Sheng Yen was born in an extremely poor farming family in the Chinese countryside. With few other options, he was taken by a family friend to the Wolf Mountain monastery, where he learned the basics of becoming a monk. He later moved on to Shanghai, but the war between the Communists and the Nationalists drove him to become a soldier-for-life in Taiwan. Eventually securing his freedom from the soldier's life, he once again became a monk. After travels to Canada, the USA, and back to China, he finally became a Chan Master and one of those most influential Buddhists alive today. He combines his personal story with historical events, and we can see how political changes in China and Taiwan altered not only his life, but Buddhism in general.

I found this book hard to put down. I'm not usually a fan of biographies, but his easygoing writing style and obvious love of what he does makes every page enjoyable. Along with the story, the author explains a bit of Buddhist philosophy in a comfortable, jargon-free style that DailyBuddhism readers will appreciate. My favorite parts of the book, however, are his interactions with the monks and abbots of the various monasteries. Far from being the altruistic teachers and devoted worshipers we usually envision, he shows us the real picture. Many of the Chinese monks sell their services for money, they get into trouble with alcohol and women, there is "office politics" in the hierarchies, and so forth. The pettiness of some of the monks and abbots are shocking. One thing is clear though, in the monk's world, everything revolves around money. Given that we stereotypically assume monks to be poor and penniless, above such financial concerns, the reality or monastery life is quite different.

He goes from poor farm boy to a monk, to a soldier, to an abbot, to a monk again, eventually becoming homeless and rising back to the top. All the way, he refines his teaching style and is attached to nothing. It's a dramatic story, and there are some good educational bits on Buddhism scattered throughout. If you ever wanted to know about Monastery life, this is a must-read.

This one is going into my "Read it Again someday" pile.

I could not keep the book down once I started reading it. Chan master Sheng Yen gives a very open and honest account of his journey and that is what I liked most about this book. The chapters are not too long and flow smoothly. He talks about his successes as well as challenges, how things looked very promising at one point and how they turned out to be nothing. It is very inspiring to read about how he stayed focused on the path in face of challenges and was eventually able to overcome various difficulties and went on to spread Chan knowledge in US. This book also allows reader to get an idea about course of Buddhism after the cultural revolution in China, we read and hear a lot about modern history of Buddhism in Japan but not so much in China.

He talks about his meditative experience as well as the readings he undertook. His story is not meant to paint an ideal picture, it is very much an account of how it was. He talks about various stages on path, how he find perfect happiness in being a wandering, homeless monk, how he overcame language and other barriers in teaching an eastern science to western students and how he learnt from every one around him. He comes across as a very humble and down to earth person. Indeed a treat for any one interested in life of Buddhist masters.

If you are interested in Zen (Chan in Chinese) Buddhism, you would be very interested in this book.

I read some of the Master Sheng Yen's books.

This book is unlike the others. He was so honest and told the stories of his life in details.

You would also get to know the real life before and after the World War II in China by reading this book.

I super highly recommend it.

Amitofo

I immediately read this book when I first received it, and it made a good impression. Then I felt compelled a month later to re-read it, and I came away deeply impressed both by the author's spirit and the profundity of his life's story. Yes, Master Sheng Yen was unbelievably humble and sincere, but more than that, he seemed to have embodied the spirit of Buddhism. Also, which almost seems unusual for a Buddhist, he displayed a deep religious faith, which for him was centered around Guanyin, Bodhisattva of Compassion. His life seems amazing in that he started out as a weak, sickly child whom his family considered mentally deficient and practically worthless and also as a total "hick" from the Chinese countryside--naive and unsophisticated--but yet he went on to participate in the revival of Chinese Buddhism and to eventually establish the third largest Buddhist organization in Taiwan with branches in several countries, along the way living as a homeless person (but still a Buddhist teacher!) in New York City for a time. Of course, his innate keen intelligence was always there along with a desire to do more with his life and for Buddhism, but I think, more than anything else, it was his deep spirituality that led him further and further on. Some biographies and autobiographies of spiritual masters are filled with miracles and amazing stories that are meant to leave the reader in awe, but this one is so amazingly down-to-earth that I think its effect is more profound, demonstrating and emphasizing that spirituality is all about our state of mind and how we conduct our lives.

This is a story of one of the most insightful Buddhist masters in the 21st century. Shengyan was a Chan master. The book tells the story of his life, especially the early years. It is touching and inspiring for anyone practicing a spiritual path. His vows, determination, and wisdom are revealed in the ways in which he transformed the challenges throughout his life into the path. This is not something that ordinary people can accomplish. Usually people give up in the face of struggles. Shengyan passed away this February. He is missed... but his life teachings live on.

If you want to know something about endurance this is a good book to pick up and read. Sheng Yen has gone the distance in this autobiography. Unfortunately it is alittle choppy and likely this is a figure who deserves a full length biography. Footprints in the Snow: The Autobiography of a Chinese Buddhist Monk

Readers interested in this title should also read "When the Saints Go Marching In - Modern Day Zen Hagiography," an article by Sheng Yen's longtime student Stuart Lachs. It is available freely on the internet.

Lachs makes some troubling points about this book. First, the book is not very upfront about the fact that Sheng Yen did not actually write this "autobiography." Spoken interviews were edited into a book by Kenneth Wapner, a point only noted at the end of the book.

More seriously, Lachs also establishes fairly conclusively that Sheng Yen entirely fabricated the episodes he relates about being homeless, eating out of dumpsters and leaving "footprints in the snow" staying up all night in the cold. None of that ever happened. Given that he would lie about that, can anything else he says in this memoir be trusted? Isn't he basically slandering his students by strongly implying that they compelled him to live that way by not better providing for him, when in fact that was not the case?

There is no doubt that Sheng Yen made a big contribution to spreading the Chan lineage worldwide. It's a shame he had to diminish his own reputation by lying to embellish it.

Very honest stories about what goes on in alot of buddhist monasteries. Good autobiography of one of the leading buddhist teachers (well the leader of one of the largest buddhist schools in Taiwan, anyway). Has interesting views on why China no longer has any real buddhist schools (remember he's taiwanese thou).

I really appreciated the innocent approach to esoteric Buddhism taken by the author, who was almost unwittingly steered into monkhood. He appears to be a man of principles - perhaps a bit too steeped in tradition - who found himself cast as an idealist amidst the lunacy of reality.