His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun was a native of Taichung, Taiwan.  His parents, Mr. Lin Tze-jin and Mrs. Lin Ah-chiao, were both descendents of the well-respected Lin Family in Taiwan.  During the Sino-Japanese War, his parents moved the family to Beijing due to their participation in the anti-Japanese invasion activities of the Taiwan Cultural Association.  His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun was born and raised in Beijing, and began studying Black Sect Tantric Buddhism with his first master, Lama Da-De at Yong-He Palace when he was six years old.  At the age seventeen, His Holiness Lin Yun left Beijing and returned to Taiwan, where he studied with two great masters of Black Sect Tantric Buddhism, Master Hui Chieh-fu and Master Cheng Kwei-ying.  His other teachers were distinguished philosophers, artists, and scholars, such as Professor Cheng Ti-hsuan.

 

After years of studying and practicing meditation, His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun developed extraordinary abilities and reached high level of spiritual enlightenment. With his power, wisdom and compassion, he devoted his entire life to help people by resolving challenges in their daily lives via Ch’i adjustment, Feng Shui consultations, sacred transcendental cures, alternative healing methods, and bestowing his blessings upon those in need.

 

His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun was also well-known for his unique and valuable comprehensive teachings. Through the integration of Buddhist teachings, Yin-Yang philosophy, the theory of Ch'i, Feng Shui, spirituality, holistic healing, transcendental cures, and Chinese folklore, His Holiness Lin Yun developed his own unique and efficacious teachings, also known as Black Sect Tantric Buddhist teachings. Furthermore, through the use of certain contemporary knowledge to interpret ancient Chinese wisdom, His Holiness was able to make his teachings much more receptive, adaptable and applicable to the modern world.  He had revived and reinvigorated the ancient Chinese wisdom and folkloric culture and transmitted his teachings to the West.

 

His Holiness Lin Yun’s teachings are not only help people to resolve the difficulties and challenges in their daily lives, but also enhance people's well-being, elevate their spiritual level, and transform their lives. Due to the clarity, comprehensibility and efficacy of His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun’s teachings, these are now being widely practiced both in the East and the West.  The recent surge of interest in Feng Shui in the West can be undoubtedly attributed to the influence of His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun.

 

In 1997, Northern California Graduate University awarded His Holiness Grandmaster an honorary degree in Humane Psychology, to recognize his achievements in bridging Eastern and Western cultures and to affirm his spiritual and mundane mentoring on numerous people.

 

In 1998, His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun was enthroned by His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima, the supreme leader of the Tibetan Bon tradition and the 33rd Abbot of the Bonpo Menri Monastery. The enthronement signified the recognition of deep connection between H.H. Grandmaster Lin Yun, the Fourth Stage Black Sect Tantric Buddhism and the Bon tradition.

 

As a distinguished religious leader and foremost leading authority on Feng Shui, His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun received numerous invitations from leading academic institutions and religious communities all over the world.  He lectured at prestigious venues, such as the Library of Congress, the Parapsychology Society of the United Nations, the Women's Guild of the United Nations, the Society of Enlightenment and Transformation of the United Nations, and the American Institute of Architects. He presented at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Cornell, Duke, Johns Hopkins, University of Hawaii, University of Minnesota, California Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College, Brandeis University, Dartmouth College, Williams College, University of Washington, New York Institute of Technology, Oxford University in England,  University of Duisburg, Heine University, University of Munich in Germany, Beijing University, Qinhua University, and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in China, to name but a few.

 

His Holiness Lin Yun also conducted numerous lectures and workshops around the world, including the United States, Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, India, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, and South Africa.  His Holiness Lin Yun was also frequently interviewed by the news media, including national and local television networks, including CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, FOX, the BBC of England, and major television networks in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Far East Asia.  Interviews and articles on H.H. Grandmaster Lin Yun and his teachings often appear in newspapers, journals, and magazines throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.

 

His Holiness Lin Yun acted as a trusted advisor and confidante for many political and business leaders around the world.  He was a much sought after spiritual leader for giving guidance and resolving difficulties and sufferings in many people’s lives.

 

His Holiness Professor Lin Yun became an Adjunct Professor of the School of Arts and Letters at San Diego State University since year of 1997. Previously, he was Lecturer at the Yale-in-China Program at Hong Kong Chinese University, Visiting Professor at University of San Francisco (1980-81), Visiting Professor at Stanford University (1981-82), and Research Professor at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at Seton Hall University (1982-85).

 

In 1986, His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun founded the Yun Lin Temple in Berkeley, California, the first reformist Black Sect Tantric Buddhist temple at its fourth stage in the West.  In 1994, he established the Yun Lin Temple Cultural Center in Berkeley, California.  In 1996, H.H. Grandmaster Lin Yun established the second official temple, Lin Yun Monastery, in Long Island, New York.  In 2008, a new Yun Shi Jing She was established in Neihu, Taipei, Taiwan. Since the early 1980’s, numerous sanctuary shrines known as “Yun Shi Jing She” were also set up in different parts of the world.

 

In 2002, His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun appointed Khadro Crystal Chu Rinpoche as his successor. In 2007, he announced the appointment in public that H.H. Khadro Crystal will carry on the lineage of Black Sect Tantric Buddhism and to transmit Black Sect Tantric Buddhist teachings.

 

On August 11, 2010, His Holiness Grandmaster Lin Yun left the world in the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of seventy nine.  Around the world, his friends, disciples and students were overwhelmed with grief and mourning.