Order’s Leadership

   OEB Senior Leadership

The Venerable Rev. Dr. Brian Chang-Jin Kenna 长金, Prior General and Director of Lay Ministries. Chang-Jin  was ordained a Priest in OEB by the consent of his root teacher, Shi Shen-Xi, and the Order’s Senior Council in the summer of 2017.  In addition, Chang-Jin has been invested with the life-rank of a Fully Professed Priest in recognition of his dedication to the Order and his demonstrable scholastic achievements.  Brian Chang-Jin is the Resident Teacher of his Meditation Center and Sangha of Long Island, New York, and maintains an OEB Chapter House there.  Chang-Jin continues his training in Buddhist and clerical studies as a servant/leader under the guidance of David Astor Sensei and OEB’s senior leadership. He received a BA, Masters in Ministry and Doctorate in Theology from Crossroads Theological Seminary.  He continued his post graduate education at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business in the Executive Certificate Program as well as Post Graduate studies in law receiving a Paralegal Certification from Blackstone Law.  Prior to stepping on the Buddhist path, he was a Baptist and UCC minister assigned to  several churches specializing in youth programs.   If you would like information on how to attend his meditation classes in New York, his email is: oebdaop@gmail.com

The Rt. Rev. Shi Shen-Yao (Shi Yao-Xin ZBOHY, Chang-Yao OEB Luis Lista) Sub-Prior & European Liaison Director. Shen-Yao took final Professed Monastic vows in OEB in March 2016.  In July 2015, as Shi Yao-Xin he received Dharma transmission and has been elevated to the rank of Master in the lineage of Fo Yuan Shakya of the YunMen (Ummon) Ch’an House through the Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu-Yun. As a master in his lineage and Zen Priest, he has also been appointed as the Associate-Abbot of the Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu-Yun, and the founder and senior teacher of Dharma Winds Zen Hermitage (ZBOHY/Zatma) in Namur, Belgium. Were he shares with humbleness and simplicity the combined practice of Pureland recitation and Ch’an meditation.

Yao-Xin has also been honored by receiving full ordination as a Zen Priest in the Order of Engaged Buddhist and authorized to teach the Dharma as represented by our Prior’s ordaining lineage which is both Ch’an, and Soto Zen by Rev. Shi Shen-Xi Astor, and was conferred with the dharma name of Chang-Yao.

Yao-Xin Shakya has studied Buddhism since he was 14 years old, when he first entered a Buddhist Temple for the eyes of a beautiful Vietnamese girl he wanted to seduce. Never got the girl but the dharma never left. Then he studied in the Burmese and Thai tradition but couldn’t find his right place. He then studied Tibetan Buddhism in the Rigpa and Drugpa Kagyu schools. Before finding his true home in Zen, ten years ago. He never was a sectarian and sees himself as an Ekayana (One Way) Buddhist.

He studies and teaches Ch’an Buddhism under the guidance of Ming Zhen Shakya.

In addition, Yao-Xin studies and practices Esoteric Buddhism in the Lineage of the Adi Buddha Mandala of the late Guru Chen Mihn Chien, under Root Guru Ewam Detong-Yutang Lin.

Shi Shen-Yao is also very happy and honored to serve as the Sub-Prior & European Liaison Director of the Order of Engaged Buddhists (OEB) founded by his dear dharma friend, the Venerable  Shi Shen-Xi.  His sangha  and residence is the chapter house of OEB in Namur,

Rev. Christopher Johnson Shen-Wen 沉行 Sacristan.  Shen-Wen is an OEB monk on the Clerical path of study and a formal student of Venerable Shen-Xi Sensei.  He received Priestly Ordination as a Buddhist Cleric on January 2024. He recently  studied under the Rev. Yao Xin Shi in the lineage of Fo Yuan Shakya of the YunMen Ch’an school.  He has also studied at the TreeLeaf Sangha in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, the Five Mountain Zen Order in the lineage of Seung Shan and the Dharma Winds Zen Seminary lineage of Hsu Yun.  He received Jukai from Jundo Cohen.  He holds a Bachelors and a Certificate in Stoic Studies.  

 

 

 

 

 

The Venerable Rev. David Shen-Xi Astor, Founding Sensei 沉 曦 (Xi-Ken 曦肯 OPB, Shi Qian-Xi 乾曦 DWZS) Dean of the Leadership Council & Spiritual Director. Rev. David Shen-Xi Sensei is the founder of the Order and passed on the senior leadership administrative role to his Dharma Heir in January 2020.

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Chiang-t’ien Ssu (Chin Shan), China

One of the two most exemplary of all Chinese Buddhist monasteries is the Chiang-t’ien Ssu, usually know as Chin Shan, at Chen-Chiang on the Yangtze between Nanking and Shanghai. Chin Shan is the word that most hear when monks from any part of China are takling about the way things ought to be done. It was the home to Ven. Holmes Welch for many years where he studied and practiced with the Ch’an Master T’ai-Ts’ang. Ven. Holmes Welch is the first American Dharma Heir of our Prior Shen-Xi’s lineage.  In 1949 after the communist takeover it found a new home in Taiwan, where it remains an active monastic community. However, the original structure still remains today as a magnificent example of Ch’an Buddhist temple architecture. The story of our modern Ch’an lineage begins at this illustrious monastery located in Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China. It was one of the leading centers of Ch’an practice and training and one of the largest monasteries in China. In the words of Ven. Ryugen Fisher, “To be a full graduate of Jinshan was the Chinese Buddhist equivalent of being called to service as a clerk at law to a member of the Supreme Court.” We would like to think that this focus of training and social engagement’s causal-chain continues today in OEB’s commitment to engaging the dharma in our communities. Located on Golden Hill overlooking the Yangtze River, Chin Shan was built over 1600 years ago. The tall octagonal structure which is Jinshan’s signature building is the Tower of Benevolence and Longevity. In its heyday, Chin Shan was home to over 3,000 monks.

Sojiji Monastery, Japan

Sōji-ji Temple, the Dharma Hall where Rev. Matsuoka Roshi was trained, is one of the two main temples of the Soto Sect of Zen Buddhism. Rev. Matsuoka Roshi was the teacher to Ven. Ryugen Fisher the second American Dharma Heir in our Prior Shi Shen-Xi’s lineage.  This is where the Soto Zen root to our Prior’s lineage is established, Chinese Ch’an being the primary path. The temple was originally founded in 740 CE in Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture. During the Muromachi Period (1336-1573) through the Edo Period (1603-1868), the Shogunate gave support to the Temple and designated it as their prayer hall. At one time of its peak, the Temple had as many as 70-odd structures in its temple grounds in Noto. The Temple, and Eiheiji in Fukui Prefecture which was established in 1244 by Priest Dogen (1200-1253) – the founder of Soto Zen, have been the two leading monasteries in Japan. It was totally destroyed by fire in 1898, and rebuilt over a period of several years and reopened in its present location at Tsurumi, Yokohama in 1911.

The Place of Peace Temple located on the grounds of Furman University, in Greenville, SC. Is where our Prior, Shi Shen-Xi, received  Cleric (priestly) ordination by his root teacher Ven. Dr. Shi Yong Xiang Lineage Heir of Ven. Ryugen Fisher.