Ru Yi Meditation Centre is situated in the Xin Yi Township of Nantou County in Taiwan, approximately 800 metres above sea level on Fengguidou mountain. The mountain scenery is pleasant and the mountain mist brings unending changes. When winter comes and the plum flowers bloom on the branches in the expanse of white snow, the fragrant perfume of flowers fills the air, clarifying the mind.

The two masters were born and grew up there and after becoming monastics felt how inconvenient it was for the people of their hometown to study Buddhist teachings. Having always wanted to cultivate the seeds of Dharma there, in 2017 they returned to their home town to teach. After returning home, they transformed their former dwellings into a monastery, with the concept of teaching others the Buddhist concepts of right view and right understanding. 

Initially, a Buddhist prayer group was established to guide the learning of elementary students; in order to let the Dharma’s light continue forever, a special online book club was set up, hoping to allow lay people to build the Dharma’s right view and understanding via listening, thinking and cultivating moral character. Children are the leaders of the future; to purify their hearts they must be cultivated from an early age and hence the children’s spiritual growth camp was born.

The monastery is remotely located and it’s not easy to reach everyone, but the masters hold onto their wish of serving the Dharma for all living beings, one step at a time, hoping that the Dharma’s seeds of enlightenment will be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Ru-Yi Meditation Center was founded on September 21st, 2017 by Ven. Da-hui and Ven. Yang-hui. 

‘Ru-Yi’ is the transliteration of the Mandarin 如意. In Mandarin, ‘rú yì’ means ‘everything goes your way’ and is often seen in phrases like 諸事如意 (Zhū shì rú yì): everything as you wish. In the context of Buddhism however, rú yì has a deeper meaning. In the Bodhi path to enlightenment, there are 37 factors to develop. Four of these factors are known as the ‘spiritual powers’ referring to concentration on intention, effort, consciousness and investigation. In Pali they are called ‘Iddhipāda’, a compound term meaning ‘power’ and ‘base’. In Mandarin this translates to 如意足 (rú yì zú), literally ‘wishful foot’. Rú yì therefore has a profound meaning; to have the spiritual power to have things go your way, thereby having a mind that is a master of itself, able to accomplish what it wants.