Mengcan

CHINA, Heilongjiang

Mengcan is a monk whose Dharma name is Juexing. He is skilled in the art of calligraphy. In 1931, he renounced at Doushuai Temple in Beijing and was fully ordained at the Nianhua Temple in Beijing the same year. In 1932, he studied at Fajie Buddhist College at Yongquan Temple in Fujian, where he learned Avatamsaka teachings from Master Cizhou and Chan meditation from Master Xuyun. Five years later, he went to Zhanshan Temple in Shandong, and studied the teachings of the Tiantai school and meditation under Master Tanxu.
Mengcan traveled extensively to various provinces in northeastern China, including Beijing, Tianjin, and Shandong to teach the sutras and propagate the Dharma. He later went to Tibet and Xikang in 1941, where he studied Esoteric teachings for 10 years. In 1950, he was suspected to be a revolutionary against the government and was imprisoned for 33 years. After he was vindicated in 1982, Mengcan was invited to teach at the Chinese Buddhist Academy in Beijing. In 1985, he was asked to rebuild the Minnan Buddhist College in Nanputuo Temple in Fujian, where he served as the dean of academic affairs.
Since 1989, he has resided in the United States and Canada, and has also visited Taiwan several times to propagate the Dharma. He authored Lecture on the Chapter on Pure Practices and Lecture on the Practice and Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Mengcan’s calligraphic work, Contemplation on the Selflessness of Phenomena, was written at the age of 81, and is now kept at the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation in Hong Kong. Another work, Homage to Sakyamuni Buddha, was written at Pushou Temple in Shanxi when he was 90 years old.