Join us for a 3-Day Retreat on the Mindfulness of Breathing with Venerable Dr. Dhammadipa at Temple of Enlightenment in the Bronx from September, Friday 15 - Sunday 17, 2023
Ven. Dr. Dhammadipa Sak (Fa Yao) is the president of U.S. Zen Institute in Germantown, MD, and the abbot of Amatavihāra in Boyds, MD, and Wisdom Temple in Billerica, MA. Dr. Dhammadipa Sak is also a scholar of early Mahāyāna and Theravāda Buddhism and specializes in the study of Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma and Theravāda Abhidhamma. He was/is a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Additionally, he is a trustee member of the International Buddhist Association of America (IBAA) and the Parliament of World’s Religions (PWR)
Asides from conducting meditation retreats regularly in the centers, Ven. Dr. Dhammadipa is often invited to teach meditation in Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Maryland, Indiana, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and other locations. The main methods he teaches are Four Immeasurable Minds and Mindfulness of Breathing. Occasionally, he also teaches Insight Meditation.
Ven. Dr. Dhammadipa Sak was born to a Chinese family in Taiwan and brought up in East Malaysia, where Islam is a major religion. He was ordained as a monk in 1987 and had ten-year monastic training in several distinguished monasteries in Sri Lanka, which scarcely happened to an individual of Chinese descent. He also earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Buddhist and Western philosophies at two renowned universities in Sri Lanka.
Not long after leaving Sri Lanka for France to further his French and missionary works, he moved to Taiwan to teach Early Buddhist doctrines and comparative studies of Theravada Abhidhamma and Sarvastivada Abhidharmma to graduates and under-graduates in two esteemed Buddhist colleges in Taiwan. Later, he went to England to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of Bristol. He achieved his Ph.D. degree in Theology and Religion seven years later.
Little did he know his arrival in America would bring him to another dimension of exploration. He had the rare opportunity to study under several professors at Harvard University where he learned different aspects of Buddhism in research fields including Logic, Middle Way, Yogacāra, and Anthropology in the Buddhist view. With this newly obtained knowledge and his previous expertise, Ven. Dhammadipa established a program called Massachusetts Bodhisiksa Educational Center in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Ven. Dr. Dhammadipa Sak is the former abbot of the Chuang Yen Monastery and Temple of Enlightenment.