In 1959, Hsuan Hua sought to bring Chinese Buddhism to the West. He instructed his disciples in America to establish a Buddhist association, initially known as The Buddhist Lecture Hall, which was renamed the Sino-American Buddhist Association before taking its present name: the
Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. Hsuan Hua traveled to Australia in 1961 and taught there for one year, returning to Hong Kong in 1962. That same year, at the invitation of American Buddhists, he traveled to the United States; his intent was to "come to America to create Patriarchs, to create Buddhas, to create Bodhisattvas". Hsuan Hua resided in
San Francisco, where he built a lecture hall. Hsuan Hua began to attract young Americans who were interested in
meditation. He conducted daily meditation sessions and frequent Sutra lectures. At that time, the
Cuban Missile Crisis occurred between the United States and the
Soviet Union, and Hsuan Hua embarked on a fasting period for thirty-five days to pray for an end to the hostilities and for world peace. In 1967, Hsuan Hua moved the Buddhist Lecture Hall back to Chinatown, locating it in the
Tianhou Temple. In 1968, Hsuan Hua held a
Shurangama Study and Practice Summer Session. Over thirty students from the
University of Washington in
Seattle came to study the Buddha's teachings. After the session was concluded, five young Americans (Bhikṣu Heng Chyan, Heng Jing, and Heng Shou, and Bhikṣuṇīs Heng Yin and Heng Ch'ih) requested permission to take full ordination. Hsuan Hua lectured on the entire '''' in 1968 while he was in the United States. These lectures were recorded in an eight-part series of books containing the sutra and a traditionally rigorous form of commentary that addresses each passage. It was again lectured by the original translator monks and nuns of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas at
Dharma Realm Buddhist University in the summer of 2003. With the founding of his American Sangha, Hsuan Hua embarked on his personal vision for
Buddhism in the United States: • Bringing the true and proper teachings of the Buddha to the West and establishing a proper monastic community of the fully ordained Sangha there • Organizing and supporting the translation of the entire Buddhist canon into English and other Western languages • Promoting wholesome education through the establishment of schools and universities Hsuan Hua wrote and lectured on
Mahayana sutras throughout his teaching career in the West, including on the
Heart Sutra, Diamond Sutra,
Lotus Sutra,
Amitabha Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, and
Shurangama Sutra. He also founded the
Buddhist Text Translation Society in 1970. Since its founding, the BTTS has translated and published numerous Mahayana sutras, as well as various editions of Master Hua's commentaries. These publications include multi-volume commentaries on the
Lotus Sutra,
Shurangama Sutra and
Amitabha Sutra, which provided traditional Chinese Buddhist teachings on these sutras for the first time in English. Because of the increasing numbers of people who wished to become monks and nuns under Hsuan Hua's guidance, in 1972 he decided to hold ordination ceremonies at
Gold Mountain Dhyana Monastery. Two monks and one nun received ordination. Subsequent ordination platforms have been held at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in 1976, 1979, 1982, 1989, 1991, and 1992, and progressively larger numbers of people have received full ordination. Over two hundred people from countries all over the world were ordained under him.
Theravada and Mahayana traditions Having traveled to Thailand and Burma in his youth to investigate the Southern Tradition of Buddhism, Hsuan Hua wanted to bridge what he perceived as a rift between the Northern (
Mahayana) and Southern (
Theravada) traditions. In an address to
Ajahn Sumedho and the monastic community at
Amaravati Buddhist Monastery on October 6, 1990, Hsuan Hua stated: On the occasion of the opening ceremony for the Dharma Realm Buddhist University, Hsuan Hua presented
K. Sri Dhammananda of the Theravada tradition with an honorary
Ph.D. He also donated a major piece of the land that would become
Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery, a Theravada Buddhist monastery in the Thai Forest tradition of
Ajahn Chah, located in
Redwood Valley, California. Hsuan Hua invited
Bhikkhus from both traditions to jointly conduct the High Ordination.
Chinese and American Buddhism From July 18 to the 24th of 1987, Hsuan Hua hosted the
Water, Land, and Air Repentance Dharma Assembly, a centuries-old ritual often seen as the "king of dharma services" in Chinese Buddhism, at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and invited over seventy Buddhists from
mainland China to attend. This was the first time the service was known to have been held in North America. On November 6, 1990, Hsuan Hua sent his disciples to
Beijing to bring the Dragon Treasury () edition of the
Chinese Buddhist canon back to CTTB, furthering his goal of bringing Buddhism to the US. == Death ==