Final day of BLIA New Zealand Reunion Meeting

Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) New Zealand’s annual reunion meeting came to an end on March 18th, with the closing ceremony occurring at 4pm in the Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island temple. Distinguished guests include FGS Headquarter Deputy Abbot Venerable Hui Zhao, FGS NZ Venerable Abbess Manshin, FGS South Island Minister in-charge Venerable Jue Xi, FGS North Island Venerable Rulian, BLIA Oceania Fellowship Committee Deputy Committee Director Dolly Tsai, BLIA North Island Chief Advisor Jennifer Liang, BLIA North Island NZ President Stephen Yu, and other BLIA members making up 30 people. The final meeting was chaired by BLIA South Island NZ President Bernie.

BLIA South Island President Bernie thanked the BLIA committee members for attending the last day of the annual meeting, and said that is was a great honor to be working with such an excellent team who can uphold a high standard of organising activities. Just as Venerable Hui Zhao said, things will go smoothly when you have the right team to make it happen. BLIA North Island President Yu also commended everyone on the remarkable success of this meeting. He particularly like the meeting theme song “Faith”, and its catchy lyric “Together we are strong, together we have hope”, which sums up his belief that BLIA will certainly have a bright future. BLIA North Island Advisor Jennifer said that after these two days of activities and meetings, she learnt how to look at things from other’s people point of view, something that was not easy for her. Nevertheless, she was grateful for having such a wonderful team, and will learn to cherish the causes and conditions of this gathering. Deputy Committee Director Dolly Tsai described this meeting as one of many firsts. It was the first time Venerable Hui Zhao participated in this meeting, and who led the group to make light offerings to the Buddha in the Courtyard. At the end of the day, the most important part of learning about Buddhism is to act like a Buddha. Other than the big family of BLIA North and South Island members, we must also spread the Buddha’s teaching out into the world.

Venerable Hui Zhao said he was very grateful for this opportunity to visit New Zealand and speak to the public. He reiterated on Venerable Tzu Jung’s reminder that integrating Buddhism into society requires Buddhism to be localized and easy to understand, so that the public will naturally come and learn about Buddhism. Abbess Manshin praised the BLIA folks for their bravery in undertaking so many varied activities for the temple, such as delivering books, curating the art gallery, organizing Dharma functions and so on, all to spread positivity to the public. Venerable Jue Xi notes how spreading the Dharma overseas requires a change in mindset, and it is with this that allows BLIA members to accomplish so many new things. Venerable Rulian finished up by encouraging BLIA members to cherish the present causes and conditions, and act so as not to let the energy simply flow away, but to turn it into something brighter, shinier, an glowing hot.

This marks the conclusion of the annual BLIA reunion meeting for this year. As a grand finale, all the BLIA committee members stood up and sang along to the song “Faith”, letting the lyrics sink deep into the heart, and we sincerely hope that Humanistic Buddhism will continue to shine brightly in beautiful New Zealand.