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Ven. Chang WenVenerable Chang Wen is a western monastic disciple of Chan Master Sheng Yen. For his training, in addition to being of service to the Chan Meditation Center, in Queens, NY, and attending numerous retreats with Master Sheng Yen at DDRC, he also lived in Taiwan, at the Dharma Drum Mountain World Center for Buddhist Education, receiving a monastic education at the Sangha University. After graduating, he received full ordination in 2006, and then continued to serve the Seminary as the counselor for the male students of the Chan Meditation Department. Over this period of training, he attended and assisted with numerous intensive meditation retreats in the Chan Hall and abroad, as well as served as the leader for DDM’s International Meditation Group in Taipei. Venerable Chang Wen holds a Bachelor’s Degree of Science from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He is fluent in both English and Mandarin. Guogu (Jimmy Yu)Guogu is one of Master Sheng Yen's main translators and he is a senior lay teacher at the Chan Meditation Center and Dharma Drum Mountain. In 1982, while still quite young, he learned meditation from Master Sheng Yen and he began practicing Chan intensively in 1989. He was the personal monastic attendant and assistant to master Sheng Yen for close to nine years. In 1995 he received permission to teach Chan from Master Sheng Yen. Guogu is now the guiding teacher for future Western Dharma and meditation teachers at the Chan Meditation Center. He is currently finishing his Ph.D. in the Department of Religion at Princeton University. Nancy BonardiNancy Bonardi attended her first meditation class with Chan Master Sheng Yen in May 1978. She has been practicing steadily ever since and attends Master Sheng Yen's intensive Chan retreats at least once a year. She was certified as a meditation teacher in December 1999, and has led many classes. She is a member the Board of Trustees of the Chan Meditation Center in Elmhurst, Queens. She currently lives in Connecticut, and she teaches 7th grade English. 
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