Venerable Yi Kong - Wisdom in Adversity
Venerable Yi Kong Director of Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) World Headquarter arrived at Christchurch on June the 12th, accompanied by Fo Guang Shan (FGS) New Zealand Venerable Abbess Manshin together with the President of BLIA North Island Dolly Tsai. They were warmly received by FGS south island Venerable Jue Xi, President of BLIA South Island Ms See Shen Lee and other BLIA members.
On the evening of June the 13th, Venerable Yi Kong gave an enticing Buddhist seminar entitled “Wisdom in Adversity” to the public of Christchurch. The event was held at the Chateau on the Park and attended by several distinguished guests including People Republic of China's Consul General for Christchurch Wang Li, Vice Consul Zhang Xun, Dr Surinder Tandon and wife, and Principal of PEETO language school Patrick O' Connor. Among others present were BLIA North Island President Dolly Tsai, BLIA South Island President Ms See Shen Lee, BLIA Advisor Sandy Liao and John Lai, several BLIA members and Christchurch people making up to the roughly 200 people present.
Before the seminar began, BLIA South Island Youth Adult Division (YAD) entertained the crowd with a hand gesture performance entitled 'Stars and Clouds'. Later, BLIA members also presented a celestial dance performance, followed by a short video of Venerable Yi Kong's life.
Venerable Yi Kong said this was her second time in Christchurch, having visited the city twenty years ago. She reminded the guests on how to use the wisdom of Buddhist teachings to handle difficulties arising in daily life. The seminar was divided into four important parts: 1) “A life of mindfulness” - learning to be mindful of time, place, body, objects, wealth, words, people, emotions, matters, principles, surroundings, and of the mind. Using the story of Zen and Chinese historical literature to explain the teachings of the Dharma. 2) “A life of acknowledging affinity” - being thankful of good affinity, staying away from evil affinity, reversing bad affinity, spreading positive affinity, but also maintaining a healthy view of affinity, not being overly affected by it, yet still creating it, sowing the good affinity to bear sweet result later on. As long as we learn it and apply it, life will be much more pleasurable. 3) “A life of positive transformation” - with the thinking skills of ancient Chinese Zen masters and poets, she told the guests how best to maintain an optimistic mind, and a positive outlook for life. 4) “A life of moderation” - moderating our sleep patterns, food consumption, physical body, rest time and last but not least, the mind. All feelings originate from the heart and mind, so Venerable Yi Kong made a special emphasis on this and encouraged the guests to work hard on this factor.
As a conclusion, Venerable Yi Kong provided the audience with a medicinal recipe for the 'mind'. The ingredients are: a good heart for everything, a slice of mercy, half teaspoon of gentleness, three serves of logic, a dash of faith, a piece of directness, lots of filial piety, a cup of honesty, a passion of doing good for the greater good, and a generous serving of convenience to others. These recipe ingredients should be cooked in a wide open-mind wok, not to be burnt, by being quiet patient and using a lowered temper heat. Then, mash and spread the result evenly, with every one of these steps mindfully considered before shaping it into perfectly shaped pills in the complete image of the six Pāramitās, about the size of a Bodhi seed. If we can swallow this 'Mind' medicine three times a day, at any time as we wish, aided by a soup of kindness, then it should do a lot of good for the 'mind'.
The guests were quick to give a round applause for Venerable Yi Kong's fantastic talk. A lot of BLIA and public members were eager to get Venerable Yi Kong's autograph as a token of remembrance. It was definitely a wonderful and exciting Buddhist seminar, with the audience expressing how Venerable Yi Kong's very enthusiastic and simple plain language stories have allowed them to understand the topics easily, and thus allow for an appreciation of the practicalities of Buddha Dharma teachings.