Commencement of FGS South Island ‘Courses on Buddhism for Youth’
To enable the youth in the city to learn about and benefit from Buddhism, on 23rd February 2019, Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island launched the first lecture on FGS South Island ‘Courses on Buddhism for Youth’ to teach the youth the Fundamental Knowledge on Buddhism, the Buddhist Code of Behaviour and the Buddhist Meditation. On this day, 11 students participated in the class and FGS staff members Cao Qian and Kok Wei Low were the instructors.
The lecture started with the teaching on the fundamental knowledge of Buddhist practices and included the interpretation of the ‘joining of palms’, and the Buddhist ways of greeting each other. The class was conducted in an open manner whereby the students were allowed to scramble to answer a question as fast as they could and this method was indeed well received by the students, making the lecture more interesting and lively. Cao Qian and Kok Wei personally demonstrated on the way to greet and pray to Buddha. They also guided the students on the way to wear the prayer gown and on how to walk in a solemn manner with their hands properly placed together. After a few practices, the students showed some remarkable progress. The last part of the day saw the students participating in a night Dharma praying session where they learned the proper way to line up, to prostrate and to chant. Finally, led by the instructors, the students carried out the chanting of the Sutra accompanied by the rhythm of the Dharma instruments; successfully completed their first day of the Buddhism Course.
The students expressed the view that the contents of the first day lecture were rich and informative allowing them to learn about the basic Buddhist rituals and ways of behaviour. The lively ways it was conducted made it relaxing, enjoyable and interesting. They really look forward to the second lecture of this Buddhism Course where they will learn about the terminology and classification of the various Buddhist traditions and about basic Buddhist Meditation.