Revered Chan Master Sheng Yen died on February 3, 2009, in Taipei at the age of 79. He was an inspiration to Buddhists and non-Buddhists around the globe, and his writing regularly appeared in the pages ofTricycle. Master Sheng Yen’s last teaching was his death poem, below.
Busy with nothing, growing old.
Within emptiness, weeping, laughing.
Intrinsically, there is no “I.”
Life and death, thus cast aside.
—Master Sheng Yen