Our Origin
緣起故事A lamp kept burning for twenty years. Venerable Elder Tsung Tsai lit it; Venerable Xingren Shi carries it on.
- 30
- years of ascetic practice in a mountain hut
- 2003
- the year the Foundation was founded
- 103
- years old at his peaceful passing
The legacy of Venerable Elder Tsung Tsai
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. He gave his life to the Dharma and all beings, with a rare gift for meeting each person where they stood. He was deeply accomplished in both Zen practice and the study of the sutras. He was approachable and unassuming, compassionate by nature, cheerful in spirit, and quick with humor. He taught that a student of the Buddha must not stray from the Middle Path, that the Dharma is never separate from worldly affairs, and that a practitioner must treat the suffering of all beings as their own. Again and again the Elder urged those around him: “Practice the Mahayana. Walk the bodhisattva path. Seek no comfort for yourself; wish only that all beings be free from suffering.”
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
Venerable Xingren Shi
Abbot, American Buddhist Fellowship
President, Beacon Star Foundation
Aug 2026 · Excerpts from a Dharma talk
“The beacon still stands, but the one who keeps it must pass the flame on. Let me be the one who carries it forward.” — Venerable Xingren Shi
The Dharma is like a lighthouse on the open sea: it shows the lost their way, it gives light, it gives hope. And the small kindness and aspiration each of us carries is like a star in the night sky — seemingly insignificant, yet always shining. That was the Elder’s original intention in founding this work.
After the Elder passed away, his lay disciple Yanjing asked whether I would take it on, and I gladly agreed. The Elder had spent his whole life lighting a single beacon. I kept the English name unchanged, to carry on what he left us; the Chinese name I changed to Xingxing Zhi Huo (星星之火), “a single spark,” to open a new hope for what comes next.
The name comes from a teaching on the four small things that must not be underestimated. In the Āgama sūtras the Buddha cautions us that four things in this world should never be taken lightly:
- 01 A young dragon small now, but grown it can overturn rivers and seas.
- 02 A young prince a child still, but of royal blood, and one day he will take the throne.
- 03 A young novice junior in years, but with diligent practice he will in time realize the path.
- 04 A Spark the smallest flame is not to be dismissed; a spark can set a whole plain alight.
We chose the name as a reminder: never hold back because your own strength seems small, never pass over a good deed because it seems minor. A dollar given today, an hour of help, a single recitation of the Buddha’s name, even a dedication of merit that the home may be completed sooner — each of these is a spark. When thousands upon thousands of us do the same, that small fire is enough to burn away the world’s indifference, its selfishness, its unknowing dark.
The Elder’s wish was this: light reflecting light, lamp passing to lamp, one beam taking up where another leaves off. Then the setting sun is no longer an ending, but the dawn of another kind of meaning. May each of us, under the light of the Dharma’s beacon, become one who keeps the lamp — a star that shines, a lamp that burns itself to light the way for others.