I would like to share with you how to refer to and address Chinese monks.
The characters 师父 (shifu ) are Chinese for the word loosely translated in English as (spiritual) Master but it is so much more meaningful in Chinese – the first character 师 shi comes from the word 老师 ( meaning teacher ) and the second character fu 父 comes from the word 父亲 ( meaning father).
So in the Chinese Buddhist tradition, we can consider monks as the spiritual fathers and teachers to us, as they guide and protect us on our path to enlightenment.
You may also hear them addressed as 法师 (fashi) short for 佛法 fo fa ( Buddha dharma- the buddhist teachings) and again 老师 lao shi (teacher).
So for example, the Master you read about on this website is called Xuexiang, so he can be referred to as Xuexiang fashi or Xuexiang shifu, but when addressed, we can simply call him shifu or fashi.
So on that note, I would like to give a deep thanks to Shifu for his teaching.
When we give thanks or ask a question, we may also just say “thank you shifu” or “shifu, why is it hard to sit at meditation?”
It is an important distinction to note that although we can refer to all monks with their name plus shifu or fashi at the end, when people say “my” shifu (never fashi), they are usually talking about the specific monk that they have chosen to follow. In Chinese Buddhist culture it is helpful to have one shifu that you follow closely to best learn from. That person is usually the shifu they most resonate with, at least in that moment of time.
As a side note, we usually pay our respect to monks by joining our palms together like this🙏🏽 whether we walk by or greet them directly . You may also choose to do bow, and more devout disciples may even choose to kowtow.
I hope this helps and looking forward to studying together!
