BLIA YAD Member Edwin Teoh Contributes to Buddhism Selflessly
Edwin is currently the president of Fo Guang Club at the University of Auckland. Fo Guang Club was founded by New Zealand Young Adult Division (YAD), with a noble aim of introducing the good values and attitudes to university students. Edwin originated from Malaysia, and he travelled abroad to New Zealand back in 2017 to pursue Bachelor of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Auckland. When he first arrived in New Zealand, he was aiming to enrich his university life by joining a club. Hence, he attended the Clubs Expo, and Fo Guang Club was introduced to him by BLIA YAD Committee Member, Karzin Leong. Soon after, Fo Guang Club organised an Orientation Day, which introduced the Temple to new members. Edwin was amazed by the tranquillity of the Temple, which uplifted his positive energy. Therefore, he decided to join this big family and volunteered himself to host Temple events as an MC.
Backtracked to the first time when Edwin became the MC in Temple Open Day 2017, Abbess Manshin introduced him to a distinguished guest. “How can we entrust you with the MC role?” Abbess asked. This question caught him by surprise, and he could not understand why this question was directed to him. During one of the nights of Australian and New Zealand Buddhist Youth Conference (ANZBYC), while all participants were having a heart-to-heart session with the Venerables, Edwin suddenly found the answer to that question. Apparently, MC is an important role, who represents the Temple in delivering clear and concise messages to the public, and hence that explained why Abbess directed this question to him. From that time onwards, when he holds a microphone to host an event, he would remind himself to perform to the best of his ability and spread the words of kindness and wisdom to others.
Apart from getting involved in hosting and performing for events, he utilises his free time to serve the Temple. While dedicating his time for event planning for Fo Guang Club, he also leads the youth group in completing Temple tasks such as gardening, dining service, event management and preparing food for offering. He had hosted a few major events, such as ANZBYC 2019, International Buddhist Youth Conference (IBYC) Seminar, Buddha’s Birthday Multicultural Festival of Cultural Sharing, Cherry Blossom Festival, Art Salon Opening Ceremony, Taking Refuge and Five Precepts Ceremony. He appreciates every cause and condition given, and he vows to deliver joy to the public while upskilling himself to be a better MC.
During ANZBYC 2019, the participants interacted with the Deputy Chancellor for International Affairs of the FGS Institute of Humanistic Buddhism, Venerable Miao Guang. Venerable Miao Guang has a high level of mastery in both Chinese Mandarin and English languages, and the transition between both languages is always seamless when she speaks. Edwin treats Venerable Miao Guang as his role model, and he vows to polish up his language skills by following her footsteps. At the end of ANZBYC 2019, Venerable Miao Guang gifted a book to Edwin, and she enclosed words of wisdom shine a light of joy and wisdom unto yourself and the world in the book. This meaningful phrase has since become his important life motto, and he would like to maximise his potential, with the aim of being a Buddhism Dharma Speaker in the near future.
Edwin is very grateful to Abbess, Venerables and the monastery for providing guidance by sharing their personal life experiences whole-heartedly. “Buddhism will still flourish even without me, but my life without Buddhism would have been dull, since I will miss out on a lot of learning opportunities,” Edwin said. He added, “If the root of faith does not penetrate deep enough within myself, then I will have no hope to light up myself and the world. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Fo Guang Shan New Zealand, and I wish to repay the kindness by shouldering more responsibilities and contribute to the community tirelessly.”