| Vision | Date | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Ideals | 1998/9/24 | The ideal of “Uplifting the character of humanity and building a pure land on Earth” was first put forward and explained during a morning Dharma talk session about the vision of Dharma Drum Mountain held at Nung Chan Monastery. |
| The Common Endeavor of Buddhists | 1990/5/15 | Written at the Chan Meditation Center in New York, the Common Endeavor of Buddhists, formulated in twenty sentences, forms the adages with which all the members of Dharma Drum Mountain benefit themselves and others. |
| The Common Ethos of Dharma Drum Mountain | 1991/8/3 |
Formally proposed at the Fundraising Members Evening organized by the Association of Dharma Supporters, the Ethos includes: |
| Protecting the Spiritual Environment | 1992 | “Protecting the Spiritual Environment” was named theme of the year, to promote the ideal of “protecting the spiritual environment and purifying people’s minds”. |
| Four Kinds of Environmentalism | 1994 | “Protecting the Social Environment” was named theme of the year, which was then incorporated within “protecting the spiritual environment”, “protecting the natural environment”, and “protecting the living environment”, and together put forward as the Four Kinds of Environmentalism. |
| The Major Mission and Threefold Education | 1994/10/2 | Proposed at the Dharma Supporters Rally as the main work focus for Dharma Drum Mountain. The major mission is to promote comprehensive education and the Threefold Education includes Extensive Academic Education, Extensive Public Buddhist Education, and Extensive Social Care Education. |
| Four Fields for Cultivating Peace | 1995 | “Uplifting the character of humanity” was named theme of the year, and the Four Fields for Cultivating Peace—cultivating a peaceful mind, cultivating a peaceful body, cultivating a peaceful family, and cultivating peaceful activity—was the main focus of the activities. |
| Four Guidelines for Dealing with Desires, Four Practices for Helping Oneself and Others, and Four Ways to Cultivate Merit | 1998/3/13 - 15 | These three sets of four guidelines were proposed respectively as the keynote speech for the three-day event “I bless you—Dharma prayer assembly for blessings for the coming century”, held at National Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. |
| Fivefold Spiritual Renaissance Campaign | 1999/8/22 | Formally proposed at the 1999 Gratitude Rally for Global Representative Members, as a summing up of the prior approaches, to uplifting the character of humanity |
| Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan Buddhism | 2005 June | Formally proposed at the Dharma talks for the Dharma Drum Mountain Sangha, given on 23 and 24 September, 7 and 21 October in 2004 |
| The Six Ethics of the Mind | 2007/6/30 | Formally proposed at the seminar—The Six Ethics of the Mind for the Coming Age—organized by Dharma Drum Social Improvement Foundation |
| Four Affirmations | 2007/7/31 |
Proposed at a Dharma talk for all the staff of Dharma Drum Mountain, given at Yunlai Monastery
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