WALKER VALLEY – Five years ago, the former Walker Valley Golf Course property was bought, and then donated to the World Buddhist Cha'an Jing Center, which is headed by Master Ch'an Yun, originally from Taiwan. Master Ch'an Yun's group had been centered in Queens, New York, but now intends to move its headquarters to the Walker Valley site.

The former golf course buildings will now be repurposed. On the north side of Route 52, the former restaurant will become a meditation and lecture hall, while the house on the south side will become a gift shop and offices for the World Buddhists. This will complete the dream of Master Ch'an Yun, who since 1992 has sought to establish a monastic center for the propagation of World Buddhist doctrines.

After the World Buddhists applied for tax exempt status as a religious body, intending to use the property for religious purposes, there occurred several seasons of litigation with the Town of Shawangunk.

Curt Schoebel, Assessor for the Town of Shawangunk explains.

"When they got the property and applied for tax exemption they weren't actually using it for a tax exempt purpose. So for three years I denied the exemption. We won the case all three years in state supreme court."

The assessor noted, "It was the belief of their counsel that just because you're a 501(3)(c) tax exempt organization, a not for profit, that you would get an exemption. Not so, if you buy property it must be used for an explicit exempt use."

"They appealed to the Court of Appeals, and we won a 5-0 decision there. Now they have put in their plans to the Planning Board, and they are turning the old restaurant into a temple, so they will get the exemption."

Master Ch'an Yun is quietly excited about the prospect of finally realizing his dream of creating a peaceful monastic setting for training monks and nuns in the dharma of the World Buddhists. "To find a good place for our center was very hard. We searched for several years. We are very happy to be coming to this place."

Describing the World Buddhists' mission, Master Ch'an Yun says, "We want only peace for society, to the benefit of all sentient beings."

The Reverend Jing, who serves Master Ch'an Yun in a variety of offices, says that she visualized the Walker Valley property in a powerful dream some years ago.

"I dreamed of an Eagle, the kind you have here in America with the white head. It flew across the mountain and lead us here. When I first came here, I said, 'This is the place from my dream!'"

The World Buddhists are of the East Asian branch of Buddhism that is called Pure Land Buddhism, and Amitabha is the principal aspect of the Buddha that they follow. It is based on the Pure Land sutras, brought to China in the second century C.E. The Pure Land is a place of ultimate bliss, achieved through devoted Buddhist practice, meditation and a peace filled life.

John Tarolli, engineer, of Mercurio, Norton, Tarolli, of Pine Bush, who represented the World Buddhists at the Town of Shawangunk Planning Board, says, "They have site plan approval from the Planning Board. The DOT gave them approval for the entrance to the new parking area beside the Meditation Hall. Now they need to select a contractor and apply for a permit, once they have the information that the contractor will give them for that permit. The work itself, will probably take two weeks to complete, put in concrete curbs, and install a split-rail fence in front of the building. It could all be done inside a month."