Venerable Shengyan has attracted many people to practice meditation for his capable expresses the experience of meditation by precisely words, based on his academic training and the DDM institutionalized system. Shengyan affected contemporary Taiwanese Buddhism by funding DDM as the Chinese Chan of Dharma Drum School in 2005, as well as for his devotion to promote Chinese Chan practice in Taiwan and USA. Having been explored in the Japanese, American, and Chinese meditation traditions, he has been known as the first Chinese monk with a doctorate degree and the pioneer Chinese Chan teacher. I will argue, Shengyan has formulated his style of Chan instruction, especially in terms of his language style. According to the communication theory of Ludwig Wittgenstein, I will analyze how Shengyan adopted traditional Chan terms and endowed them with contemporary accessibility in modern language. This paper is divided into five sections: (1) the contemporary interests of meditation in Taiwan; (2) the education system of DDM Chan Hall; (3) the discipline of traditional Chinese Chan Hall; (4) Shengyan’s teaching at DDM Chan Hall; (5) the communication and transformation of Chan language. I will discuss the role of DDM Chan by investigating Shengyan’s indexical usage of Chan texts and his innovation.
