This handbook was compiled by the monks, nuns and lay members of the Buddhist Text Translation Society, which was founded by Master Hsuan Hua in the 1970s.
Master Hua was born in 1918 near Manchuria, China into a family of frugal farmers. He learned to read at 15, and after his mother’s death at 19, he became a monk. He meditated by his mother’s grave for three years and practiced other austerities before receiving full ordination.
At Nan Hua Monastery in Canton, Master Hua received the mind-to-mind transmission of the Patriarchs from Master Hsu Yun, making him a Patriarch in direct lineage with Bodhidharma, the last patriarch of India, and Hui Neng, the first patriarch of Zen.
With the arrival of the communists on the Chinese mainland, the Master went to Hong Kong to promote orthodox Buddhism. In 1962, he brought monastic, Mahayana Buddhism to America. He founded the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, the International Translation Institute, and over 20 other monasteries and temples all over the globe, with the goal of spreading Buddhism worldwide.