![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.baus.org\/images\/content\/book_circulation.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In year 1972, I was studying in my third year of college in Taiwan, when I joined the\u00a0Buddhist club in the university. After school, I often went to Taipei to listen to Dharma talks;\u00a0therefore I noticed the news that the Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS) was entrusting\u00a0Torch of Wisdom Publishing Company to set up a scholarship, and also printed various\u00a0Dharma books to send to many colleges and universities on a regular basis. They encouraged\u00a0college students to establish Buddhist clubs and study Dharma. No doubt that I was one of the\u00a0benefiters.<\/p>\n
Thus, when I visited New York in year 1977, September, the very first thing I did was\u00a0to visit BAUS to express my deepest gratitude.<\/p>\n
In October, I paid my respect to the president of\u00a0BAUS at the time, Ven. Min Zh\u00ec, vice president Ven. R\u00e9n Jun, and the abbot of Temple of Enlightenment,\u00a0Master Sheng Yen, vice abbot Ven. R\u00ec Ch\u00e1ng and Dr. Cia Theng Shen (I called him\u00a0Uncle Shen).<\/p>\n
The following year in August, Uncle Shen asked me, \u201cThe area of United States\u00a0is very big, if we want to let Dharma spread widely, it seems very difficult. Do you have any\u00a0suggestions?\u201d So I told him my experience in Taiwan: I used to help Mahayana Dharma Books\u00a0Printing Association (\u5927\u4e58\u5370\u7d93\u6703) and Universal Gate Publishing House (\u666e\u9580\u6587\u5eab), which are\u00a0located in Taipei, and distributed Dharma books to many places around Taiwan. I suggested that\u00a0this way of propagation has \u201csmall cost and big effect\u201d. He accepted my suggestion immediately,\u00a0and entrusted me to be in charge of this project and to set it in motion. I didn\u2019t realize that\u00a0this job would last for 36 years. To me, I felt karma is really incredible; it deeply affected my\u00a0entire life and I am extremely grateful for it!<\/p>\n
In year 1978, September, BAUS offered one thousand dollars as the foundation to establish\u00a0a Book Circulation Dept. and set this project in motion.<\/p>\n
Since I was familiar with Brother Ch\u00f3ng Hui L\u00e8 from Mahayana Dharma Books Printing\u00a0Association and some people from the Taipei Buddhist Bookstore, we weren\u2019t in lack of Dharma\u00a0books resources; therefore we managed everything in the most economic way. Although it was\u00a0very tough at the pioneering stage, when I saw the letters requesting books increase, I deeply\u00a0felt that I should keep doing it with all my best.<\/p>\n
After our Book Circulation Dept. was established for three years, the vice president of\u00a0BAUS at that time, Ven. R\u00e9n Jun acknowledged the Book Circulation Dept. had a good start on\u00a0circulating a large amount of books in The United States, but the financial resources couldn\u2019t\u00a0keep up with the cost of printing books. He immediately sponsored some funding irregularly for\u00a018 years, which kept the book circulating ongoing.<\/p>\n
After the Book Circulation Dept. had been established for 8 years, we received The Corporate\u00a0Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation\u2019s great support from Taiwan yearly, continuing\u00a0until the present. They supply a lot of Chinese and English Dharma books and paintings of Buddhas.<\/p>\n
About 14 years ago, we also received US $24,000 every year from Brother Tony Yeung\u00a0of the American Gracious Glory Buddhism Foundation, who designated this fund to be used\u00a0for printing English Dharma books. We continued to expand the variety and number of English\u00a0books for 10 years, and sent the books to various county, state, and federal prisons all over the\u00a0United States. This has created a very profound impact!<\/p>\n
In addition, the Book Circulation Dept. also entrusted Torch of Wisdom Publisher, Kaohsiung\u00a0Genuine Buddhist Youth, Fufong Books & Media Limited Company, Tainan Mi\u00e0o X\u012bn\u00a0Temple, Dharma Cultivation Publishing House from Taiwan, F\u01ce C\u00e1ng Temple from Australia,\u00a0and several Dharma book circulation houses from Hong Kong, to print the books or buy Dharma\u00a0books, to ship and distribute them to the USA for free.<\/p>\n
The BAUS Book Circulation Dept. has been dedicated to distributing free Chinese, English,\u00a0and Spanish Dharma books for more than 30 years. We also received support from many\u00a0ethnic Chinese devotees; other than many small donations, we are particularly grateful to\u00a0American brother B\u011bn D\u00e1 W\u00fa and Brother J\u012bn H\u00e0o Ch\u00e9n, who kindly let us use their company\u2019s\u00a0containers to ship our printed books to the USA without charging us for several years. This has\u00a0helped us to save a tremendous expense.<\/p>\n
Language: Chinese, English, Spanish. There are about 200 kinds of different Dharma books\u00a0in total.<\/p>\n
Schools of Buddhism: Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan, The doctrine of liberation, The Bodhisattva-path, Buddhism of the Human Realm, we have all the books about these schools and\u00a0more.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.baus.org\/images\/content\/book_circulation_02.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
We distribute the books according to their languages and ethnicities; to general Americans,\u00a0English speaking Buddhist organizations in the USA, people from other religions, and various\u00a0county, state, and federal prisons all over the country. Recently, small numbers of soldiers from\u00a0the American Army and Air force have started to request Dharma books as well.<\/p>\n
Countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, India, Pakistan, Mexico,\u00a0Brazil, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Republic of Paraguay, China, and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
For almost 15 years we have sponsored the BAUS director, American brother Richard\u00a0Baksa to take charge of the teaching materials for all the students in The Prison Buddhist Correspondence\u00a0Course.<\/p>\n
Since we begun to distribute a great amount of Dharma books, recording tapes, video tapes,\u00a0and CD\/MP3\/DVD media in recent years, it has helped many people either directly or indirectly\u00a0to establish book clubs in early years, and later to become devotees of Buddhist organizations all\u00a0over the United States. We also helped some Westerners by establishing an English website for\u00a0propagating Dharma purpose, which has gotten over one million clicks. The result of this book\u00a0and media circulation has influenced innumerable people from various county, state, or federal\u00a0prisons all over the United States to study Buddhism.<\/p>\n
Thirty years ago, one ethnic Chinese had been sentenced to 25 years for selling drugs. After\u00a0he went to prison, his father asked us to send him some Dharma books. We kept contact with\u00a0him for several years. After he had been in prison for 3 years, he sent us a letter, saying, \u201cI have\u00a0received bliss in disguise. If I wasn\u2019t in prison, I wouldn\u2019t get the chance to learn Buddhism.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t know I need to repent and transform myself to be a good person, and I don\u2019t know\u00a0how many evil things I might have done without repentance.\u201d About 7 years ago, an American\u00a0boy sent us a grateful letter along with his third request for Dharma books, \u201cI began to use drugs\u00a0at age fifteen; I killed two men when I was seventeen, and I am twenty-three now. I have been\u00a0sentenced to 40 years in jail. I didn\u2019t know what to do with the rest of my life, but after I received\u00a0the Dharma books from you as I requested, I finally found my direction. You have saved\u00a0my life, and I would like to express my deepest gratitude!\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.baus.org\/images\/content\/book_circulation_01.jpg\")
As the ancients said,<\/p>\n
\u201cDharma would not arise alone; it will be born out of cause.\u201d
\n\u201cVirtues\u00a0are not alone, they always have neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, from my 38 years of distributing Dharma\u00a0books, I truly realized the deep meanings of these two sentences.<\/p>\n
Because of Uncle Shen\u2019s one\u00a0question
\n\u201cHow to spread Dharma in the USA?\u201d<\/p>\n
the question that conveyed deep positive energy\u00a0(right cause), it unexpectedly stirred the indefinite right karma of common consensus. It influenced\u00a0many good virtuous friends and devotees to cooperate in this great project (some offer\u00a0donations, some volunteer to work), contributing our efforts to assist propagating Dharma in the\u00a0Western world together.<\/p>\n
I would like to take this wonderful chance on the 50th anniversary of\u00a0the Buddhist Association of the United States, to everyone who has participated in circulating\u00a0Dharma books, from the past until now, all the authors, readers, sponsors, helpers: I wish you all have good health, a prosperous life, bliss and wisdom, and wish you all will complete Buddhahood!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The cause from long ago: In year 1972, I was studying in my third year of college in Taiwan, when I joined the\u00a0Buddhist club in the university. After school, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17533,"parent":7143,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"tpl-services-group-home.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8122","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n