3 Preliminary Masters of Ming Bao
Dharma Master Tào Wei (Marcel Sirander)
Born in Marseille, the 18 year old Marcel set out for China in order to study Buddhism. In 1932 he arrived at Nánjìng at the ??? Monastery. He stayed on for six years when he was forced to leave China due to war. He then also defrocked. When WWII broke out he left France for Sweden, came to Gothenburg where he stayed most of his life, working as a janitor at the university. He married the Jewish refugee Paula/Tào An and had two daughters. At his retirement, he divorced his wife and went to Hong Kong to regain his ordination. This was done at a local Tientai temple under the guidance of the Venerable Kwong On. He returned to Sweden and formed his own The Lotus Buddhist Order as well as the Swedish Buddhist Society. He soon gained a number of followers/students among which Míng-Bǎo was one. Míng-Bǎo met him in march 1976 and began an intense apprenticeship, studying the basic Theravada teachings, under the severe Tào Wei lasting until his untimely death in 1983. In 1979 Tào Wei gave refuge to Míng-Bǎo and gave him the name Tào Chúan, appointed him his Dharma Heir and encouraged him to teach.
Venerable Myokyo-Ni (Irmgard Schlögel)
In early 2003 Míng-Bǎo realized he was in dire need of a new teacher to guide him through the Dharma-jungle. He then came to think of one of Tao Wei’s old friend from the The Buddhist Summer School in England, the Venerable Myokyo-Ni. He wrote her a letter asking if he could come to her training center in Luton. She welcomed him to stay for a week. Myokyo-Ni was an Austrian woman who had lived in a Japanese Rinzai temple for 12 years, before moving to England. There Míng-Bǎo had a deep realization of oneness when, for the third time in two days he was ordered to polish the book shelves in the library.
However, Míng-Bǎo realized soon that the Japanese style wasn’t what he was searching for so when he returned to Sweden he began his search for another master to guide him.
Venerable Míng-Qí (Lily-Marie Johnson)
Soon he found the website of Míng-Qí, liked what he saw and contacted her. After a while Míng-Bǎo wanted to go to Geneva to see her, but instead she invited him to come with her to China to meet her master, the Venerable Grand Master Jìng-Huì. As it turned out she had no interest of becoming a personal teacher but wanted Míng-Bǎo to become the apprentice of Jìng-Huì instead. Never the less, Míng-Bǎo has since considered Míng-Qí his mentor.