Experience

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  Buddha Dharma University

  • On-Line Buddhist Seminary

  • Chancellor / President

    • Jul 2008 - Present
    • On-Line Buddhist Seminary

    Buddha Dharma University had its beginnings as the American University of Oriental Studies, which was founded in Los Angeles on January, 9 1973, by Venerable Dr. Thich Thien-An and Dr. Leo Pruden as an Authorized Independent Institution by the California Superintendent of Public Instruction under Section 94310-3 of the California Education Code. Ven. Dr. Thich Thien-An passed away in 1980. But his unique vision continues at Buddha Dharma University, one of the few Buddhist institutions in the world to make full use of online distance-education opportunities, providing our students with a convenient, affordable, and unique Buddhist training experience.In November of 2004, Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma charged Ven. Dr. Kelsang Chitta Karuna with restructuring the program as the Buddhist Studies Institute – Los Angeles, transitioning the program into a primarily online educational institution. Moving beyond the confines of a traditional brick-and-mortar institution, BSI-LA provided accessibility to a greater number of students from around the world, while carrying on the original mission and vision of Ven. Dr. Thich Thien-An.On June 30, 2012, Ven. Dr. Karuna and Ven. Dr. Chitta transferred the administration and control of the University to the Five Mountain Zen Order via Ven. Dr. Wanji Dharma, Provost and Dean. (See document below.) Ven. Dr. Wanji and Ven. Dr. Wonji, President, are both Bhikkhus in the Five Mountain Zen Order.We renamed the school Buddha Dharma University in January of 2013. With a revitalized curriculum and a renewed commitment to Western Buddhist scholarship and monastic training, Buddha Dharma University operates under a new set of leaders...but with the same compassion, dedication, and commitment to the Dharma embodied by the previous leaders.

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  Five Mountain Zen Order

  • A Monastery Beyond Walls

  • Founding Teacher / Mahãsthavira

    • Jun 2008 - Present
    • A Monastery Beyond Walls

    The Five Mountain Zen Order was founded in 2008 by Ven. Dr. Wonji Dharma following his departure from the Golden Wind Zen Sangha and the Kwan Um School of Zen.Wonji Dharma wondered if there might be a better way to approach the Dharma in the 21st Century, especially in the West, and he envisioned a practice that would allow Zen practitioners to actually engage the world "with helping hands." After discovering so many arbitrary requirements in other Zen Orders regarding orthodoxy, orthopraxy and compliance, he felt that a revived direction, informed by the great Zen Masters of the Sung and Tang Dynasties might be in order. That's when the Five Mountain Zen Order was born. The mission of this unique religious organization of decentralized peers is to establish and maintain public practice and teachings in accordance with the principles of Zen Buddhism as transmitted through a lineage of masters too many to list here. The direction, however, involves a commitment, first and foremost, to the student, as well as a commitment to the teaching and education of that student that will enable he or she to carry on the tradition in an open and diverse manner yet staying true to the teaching that has been handed down for centuries. Zen Teachers, as a genre, spend far too little "face time" with their students. Many students are limited to between 5 and 20 minutes a month, and it seems that a majority get to see a teacher maybe once a month at best, hardly time to engage in the matters of life and death.