"I come from a one-parent household, with only my father. Ever since I was small I wished for a mom who would make me a tasty boxed lunch. After coming to the Tzu-Chi Junior College of Nur-sing, 'Mother Yi Teh' allowed me to feel the warmth of maternal love for the first time.... Once I went to visit Mother Yi Teh's home in Taichung. When it was early evening and time to take the train back to school, she took me to the train station, and as I was about to go onto the platform, she handed me a square box, saying that she was afraid I would be hungry on the train. She had made me a boxed lunch...."

"For a while, I couldn't say anything because I was too moved, and was afraid I would cry as soon as I tried to speak.... I just made my way to the platform in a haze. Only after I got onto the train did I begin to slowly recover. But when I felt that the boxed lunch in my hand was still warm, I finally couldn't hold back my tears. I had never told anyone about my wish to have a boxed lunch prepared for me; it had always been my secret...." A student at the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing told her moving story at the Tzu Chi Foundation Friendship Association meeting in Hualien last year, and many people in the audience, even some "manly guys," cried.

At the school gate of the Hua Fan College of Humanities and Technology, there is a large stone entitled "The Road to University," and the halls of the administration building are scented with burning incense. What's strange is that one does not see any of the high-falutin' discourse that one often sees at a typical university; in fact, the campus is extraordinarily quiet. But it's not a cold place; a male student with a welcoming face walks by and smiles and says hello to the strange visitor with a natural and accepting attitude.

Two years ago, a visitor from India came to Hua Fan to participate in an international conference on Buddhism. He was so surprised by the sincerity and warmth shown by the students that he rushed over to see Tien Po-yuan, the school's president, to inquire as to how the school was run. The above two examples are little slices of life from the campuses of the Tsu Chi and Hua Fan Buddhist universities.

The Ministry of Education announced the "Methods for Establishing New Private Schools" in 1989. It was widely believed in society that large corporations would take this opportunity to establish new schools; little did anyone expect that the Buddhist community would jump out in front.

The Hua Fan College of Technology (whose name was changed to the College of Humanities and Technology last year), founded by Master Hsiao Yun, first took part in the national college entrance examinations in 1990. Then the Tzu-Chi Junior College of Nursing, founded by Master Cheng Yan, took part in the northern Taiwan junior college entrance exams. Today, preparatory work is ongoing for Master Hsing Yun's "Fokuang University," the Chinese Buddhist Association's "Hsuan Tsang College," Master Sheng Yan's "Fa Ku College of the Humanities and Social Sciences," and two additional schools being set up by Master Cheng Yan--the "Tzu Chi College of Medicine" and the "Tzu-Chi College of the Humanities."

There are those who wonder why these masters don't combine resources to create a single large institution. Master Sheng Yan says: "Each master has a different reason for founding a school, because their experiences are different." Although each of the masters has different motives, what they share in common is the desire to blaze a new trail for tertiary education.

"Universities in Taiwan have continually produced 'knowledge workers' to meet the needs of national development. Of the five branches of education, only that of factual knowledge has been developed. How many students really 'give equal weight to skills and to comprehension,' or 'cultivate both morals and wisdom'?" wonders Kung Peng-cheng, formerly head of the College of Humanities at Tamkang University, and now the head of the preparatory committee for (and a candidate to be the first president of) Fokuang University.

Because in the past national policy focussed on industrial and commercial development, universities set up many technical and industrial departments while short-changing the humanities. "Of Taiwan's 530,000 university students, more than 300,000 are in engineering-type curriculums, and only 30,000-plus are in the humanities. The disparity is even greater in graduate school, where there are hundreds more departments in engineering and science than in the humanities."

In order to help balance out the trend in social values which places the greatest emphasis on gain, and to "put 'human beings' back into education," Master Hsing Yun decided to found a university that would be mainly devoted to management, humanities, and the arts. Because Kung Peng-cheng was thinking along the same lines, the two decided to cooperate.

The main motive why Master Hsiao Yun, who has worked as a university professor in the past, decided to found a university was to develop students "who will truly be able to use technology to improve the human condition." Master Cheng Yan set up the Tzu Chi nursing and medical schools to upgrade medical resources in eastern Taiwan, and to cultivate "beneficent doctors" with a spirit of compassion in an effort to help solve the problem of young girls in eastern Taiwan who have neither education nor employment.

Master Sheng Yan of Fa Ku Shan doesn't hesitate to admit that the main motivation for founding a school is to enable the students studying under the "China Buddhism Institute" to get legally sanctioned educational credentials, and to develop modernized personnel for the Buddhist community. But since it is necessary to set up a university and attract students widely, then it is necessary to utilize "humanitarian education" with a religious spirit, to develop "whole persons" who place equal emphasis on reason and sensitivity.

"We do not simply teach students specialized knowledge. Even more, we hope that we can awaken the student's sense of 'consciousness.'" This statement by Tien Po-yuan expresses the ideals of Master Hsiao Yun, and can be seen as a summation of the spirit of the current wave of Buddhist education. "Every person has innate goodness in them, but they must have the environment and the stimulation to bring it out," concludes Tien.

You can feel the warmth and good intentions of these religious schools in the campus layouts, the curriculum design, the relations between students and teachers, and every object and activity on campus.

These new schools have all set themselves up in somewhat remote small towns or in the mountains. This is due, on the one hand, to limitations imposed by the price of land, and on the other, to the desire to develop students who "respect nature and respect all life." Hua Fan is located at the top of Talun Mountain in Shihting Rural Township in Taipei County; the future Fokuang University will be situated in a valley formed by three rivers in Chiaohsi in Ilan County; Hsuan Tsang College is located in the Hsian Mountain cultural park in Hsinchu; and the Fa Ku College of the Humanities and Social Sciences will set up on a mountain side in coastal Chinshan Rural Township in Taipei County.

Upon entering the campus of the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing, the greenery and the elegant design of the buildings gives one the sensation of being in a medieval European university. Looking out from the arched walkway, there are cottony white clouds amidst the verdant hills. "Being this close to nature, I often tell the students to look outside at the clouds and mountains, and ask them whether it is the clouds that are moving, or the mountains?" offers Hung Su-jeu, director of Humanities at the institution.

Hua Fan and Tzu Chi both have forest class-rooms, and teachers can take their students to the great outdoors for sessions. Because Hua Fan is located in the mountains, it has even greater natural resources: when you walk out of the classroom buildings there are mountain trails, a bamboo forest, a great view of the sunrise, and a stream.

At Fokuang, in order to insure that there is no damage to the soil and water in the river valley, they decided not to set up a calisthenics field. "These days athletic fields are only used for competitions. So that we can reclaim the original nature of physical exercise, and not make things competitive, we feel that the mountain trails offer enough opportunity for exercise." Kung Peng-cheng describes the future Fokuang University as a forest university, with structures designed in the style of traditional academies of Chinese classical learning, and the valley spanned by a chain bridge, so that one would drift like the wind and clouds while crossing it. "A natural environment can open up people's hearts and minds, and allow one to ponder on the meaning of one's life and the nature of existence."

But the environment is just the first step in education. In order to bring together a humanitarian spirit with specialized knowledge, and internalize these as part of the student's own character, it is necessary to have all types of classes and living arrangements.

At Hua Fan, "consciousness education" is a required course which is considered core knowledge for everyone. Teachers guide the students to pose queries like, "What is the meaning of existence?" Further, each department is required to come up with courses that combine technology and the humanities. Thus, for example, the Department of Industrial Management will offer courses in 1994 like "Zen and Management" and "Chinese Culture and Business Administration." The Department of Electrical Engineering will place "The Universe of Religion," "The Behavior of Nature," and "Chaos Theory" in the physics curriculum.

The planned Fokuang University will have courses like "The Universe and Life" and "Nature and the Humanities," while the Fa Ku College of the Humanities and Social Sciences will set up a "Department of Social Environmental Work," which will be the first of its kind in any university in Taiwan.

After the curriculum is designed, the main problem is how to thoroughly implement it. For example, the classes designed by the Department of Humanities at Tzu Chi are lively and practical. Besides giving credit for such things as flower arranging and tea ceremony classes, for the class in "Philosophy of Life" (which students at other universities see as medicine they have to choke down) they invited Hong Chien Ching-wei, executive director of the renowned Hong's Foundation for Education and Culture, to teach. It was a great boon for both students and teachers.

Hong states that she only came because the school gave her the freedom to "teach any way you want" and because the school fit with her unvarying "people-rooted education" ideal. What does "people-rooted" mean? "It is education that places the learners at the center, rather than the educator."

Under this concept, her classes emphasize "two-way traffic." When for the first class many students came in with a negative or don't-care attitude, she asked them: "What is the philosophy of life?" A student responded, "A boring class for old men and old ladies." Then she asked the students what they hoped to learn. The answers included love, interpersonal relations, proper social behavior, and so on. So these became the things they discussed in class.

Each class, she and the students would discuss life experiences and philosophic theories. She also divided the students up into groups to review reports, with other students doing the grading. Over the course of the semester, in the students' own assessment, they progressed most in their ability to reflect and to express themselves, and in their attitude toward learning.

For the last class Hong took the students to celebrate the end of the course. From the discussion of the meaning of celebration to the holding of a mock evening party, she discovered that the students had already transcended the typical party, and, besides dancing and singing, they also brought in more meaningful activities like drama and poetry reading. "I would give the results of the education an 80 out of 100,'' she says by way of self evaluation. Many students also revealed to her changes in their own philosophy of life, upgrading of their self-esteem, and improvements in their interpersonal relations.

Of course, not all teachers can be as successful as she. But given the encouragement provided by the school environment, many teachers are striving to improve their teaching methods. For example, the professors in the Department of Machinery at Hua Fan hold an instructional conference each week, and it is said that the attendance rate is 90% on average.

In fact, the two Christian universities of Fujen and Soochow have long had similar courses, such as the core course "Philosophy of Life" at Fujen, through which teachers attempt to inspire students to reflect on their attitudes toward life. Soochow requires its students to take a course in "Labor Education," which aims to give students an understanding of the nature of life through cleaning up the environment. Chang Kuo-pao, an office director in the Department of Higher Education, says that the purpose of most religious schools is "character building education." The only difference is that Fujen and Soochow have a great many students, and they are located right in the middle of the world with all its temptations, so it is harder to see any concrete impact.

The Buddhist universities, on the other hand, are located in remote places, so students are far removed from the mundane world when they get to campus, and it's easier to see the impact of their educations. Lin Shih-chieh, who transferred from the China Junior College of Industrial and Commercial Management in Taipei to Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing out of curiosity, recalls that in Taipei his main hobbies were smoking, drinking, and playing billiards. But when he got to Tzu Chi in Hualien, his personality changed, and after participating in volunteer work and the Buddhist study camp, he discovered that "it's much more meaningful to expend effort for others than to just try to have fun for oneself."

Because the schools are relatively remote, the students and faculty mostly live at the school, so they have a much greater impact on one another. In fact, when recruiting teachers, both Hua Fan and Tzu Chi clearly explained the school's policy up front, hoping that teachers would teach by example as well.

At Tzu Chi the teachers--who average only 30 years of age--live in the same dormitory as the students, and pick up their ration tickets for food just the same. The school also insists that the teachers be at work for eight hours a day. Though some teachers find this unreasonable, it's undeniable that relations between teachers and students are developing more like siblings; they do not simply "go their own way after class gets out." "Often students will come around at night and knock on my door, and tell me their problems," says 30-year-old Chinese literature teacher Li Shu-yuan. She feels that through such close student-teacher relations the reflection about life that goes on in the classroom can be brought even more concretely into daily life. However, there are obstacles to maintaining this type of student-teacher relationship indefinitely.

These schools all wish to limit the number of students in order to guarantee the quality of their education. Fokuang University hopes to keep the number of its students under 6,000, while Fa Ku College is aiming for under 3,000. This ideal to have an elite university which emphasizes "quality over quantity" was also the intention when Soochow University was first established.

Soochow University was established in Taiwan by an American Christian organization. When the school was first founded, roughly 800 students and faculty went to class together and lived together, and the character of the school was defined by the passing along of knowledge and the cultivation of character. But later, because the American board of directors ran into financial problems and educational resources had to be shared with other schools in Southeast Asia, the university faced pressure to become financially self-sufficient. "After painful consideration, it was necessary to recruit more students to keep operations going," recalls Hsieh Wan-chen, the director of educational affairs.

Thus the school began to fill in all departments and admit more students. As the number of pupils increased, relations between faculty and students grew more remote. The original ideal of "equal emphasis on knowledge and character-building" remains, but with the influence of the social environment far outweighing that of the school, "we feel powerless," states Hsieh.

Most of the funding for the Buddhist universities comes from donations. Because of the success of the Buddhist community in securing hundreds of millions in donations these past few years, many people have the impression that "the Buddhist community is loaded." "In fact, that's not the case at all. We don't have all that much to spend. For example, National Taiwan University's annual budget runs around six to seven billion, and for Chengchih University it exceeds NT$2 billion, so you can see that the costs for running a school are huge," explains Kung Peng-cheng.

The start-up costs for Hua Fan College were covered by donations from 300,000 members and by the board of directors. At the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing, the foundation paid for construction costs, but personnel, equipment, and library costs will have to be paid for out of tuition and fees. However, according to statistics, a private university would have to attract between 8,000 and 10,000 students to be financially self-sufficient for routine expenses.

As for costs, the attitude of the schools is "go and seek donations." Hsieh Wan-chen believes that the Buddhist community has many resources in contemporary society, so they shouldn't have a great deal of trouble with costs or manpower. It is expected they should be able to realize their ideal of an "elite university."

Many educators deplore the current focus on profit and personal gain in society. Perhaps by controlling the environment, for a while "pollution" of the students can be avoided.

At Buddhist universities the school authorities endeavor to create a "pure and good" environment, hoping to cultivate students who are both technically capable and morally sound. One staff person at Hua Fan College worries, "Can such good and well-behaved students adapt to the society at large when they get out?" Students also understand this point: "After leaving school, we will face pressure from the expectations of our parents and society. The important thing is that we always be aware not to harm others to benefit ourselves in the process of pursuing advancement," says Liao Ching-yu, a third-year student in the Department of Electronics, with great sincerity.

Tien Po-yuan and Hung Su-jeu repeatedly emphasize: "We are planting seeds!" Perhaps these seeds will not bud. But perhaps some seeds will grow into shady trees, and become shelters from the storm for our society. This group of Buddhists is patiently waiting to find out.

[Picture Caption]

p.34

The school environment can intangibly affect the students' thinking. The structures at the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing are either square or circular, expressing the idea that "people must be well-rounded, and be four-square in their hearts." (In the Orient, the swastika is a symbol of Buddhism.)

p.35

Hua Fan College teaches Buddhist rites as "common knowledge." Students often say hello by putting their hands together in front of their face, Buddhist style.

p.36

There are Zen symbols all over the Hua Fan campus. They have built a "Bai Chang Corner" at the school to remind students of the spirit of Zen Master Bai Chang: "Any day you do nothing, eat nothing."

p.37

The Yuan Chueh Temple is the Buddhist chapel at Hua Fan. Students and faculty can come here to read or enjoy the peace and quiet whether they are believers or not. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

p.38

Master Cheng Yan started a nursing college to teach compassionate "healers in white" (another name for Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy).

p.39

When in Rome...? The Buddhist message at the men's dormitory brings a smile to one's face.

p.40

Next to the Hua Fan student co-op you can find video games, billiards, and karaoke; everything is very up-to-date.

p.41

In recent years, Buddhist fund raising campaigns have become a hot topic of conversation, and large numbers from both the artistic community and the business community have joined in.

p.42

Nuns who receive education in the forest begin by cultivating themselves, with the ultimate goal of re-entering the world to redeem souls.

p.43

The great goal behind Buddhist masters' founding universities is to "use religious feeling to rectify the human heart."

Hua Fan College teaches Buddhist rites as "common knowledge." Students often say hello by putting their hands together in front of their face, Buddhist style.

There are Zen symbols all over the Hua Fan campus. They have built a "Bai Chang Corner" at the school to remind students of the spirit of Zen Master Bai Chang: "Any day you do nothing, eat nothing.".

The Yuan Chueh Temple is the Buddhist chapel at Hua Fan. Students and faculty can come here to read or enjoy the peace and quiet whether they are believers or not. （photo by Pu Hua-chih）

Master Cheng Yan started a nursing college to teach compassionate "healers in white" （another name for Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy）.

When in Rome...? The Buddhist message at the men's dormitory brings a smile to one's face.

Next to the Hua Fan student co-op you can find video games, billiards, and karaoke; everything is very up-to-date.

In recent years, Buddhist fund raising campaigns have become a hot topic of conversation, and large numbers from both the artistic community and the business community have joined in.

Nuns who receive education in the forest begin by cultivating themselves, with the ultimate goal of re-entering the world to redeem souls.

The great goal behind Buddhist masters' founding universities is to "use religious feeling to rectify the human heart.".