- 30
- years of practice in a mountain hut
- 2003
- the year the Foundation was founded
- 103
- years old at his peaceful passing
The beacon Venerable Elder Tsung Tsai built and kept
In 2003, Venerable Elder Tsung Tsai founded the Beacon Star Foundation in Los Angeles. In 1966, at the invitation of the Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS), he left Hong Kong for the United States to teach, traveling widely to lecture and to pass on the Zen practice. In the 1970s, deep in the mountains at Woodstock, New York, he raised Ch’an Temple alone, piecing and stacking it together with his own hands. He practiced with rare diligence all his life, living alone in a hut at Ch’an Temple for thirty years. Venerable Elder Tsung Tsai lived simply and wasted nothing. He was warm, easy to talk to, and never acted like anyone important.
In 2022, the Elder passed away peacefully, at the age of 103. After his passing, his lay disciple Yanjing learned that American Buddhist Fellowship was preparing to build a senior home, and entrusted the association to Venerable Xingren’s care.
“Then let me be the one who carries the flame onward, and let all of us keep this lamp burning together.” — Venerable Xingren Shi
To carry on what the Elder left us, Venerable Xingren Shi kept the English name: Beacon Star Foundation. To open a new hope for what comes next, the Chinese name became Xingxing Zhi Huo (星星之火) — “a single spark.”
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