BLIA Seminar

13th June

This was the first BLIA seminar to be held at Fo Guang Shan Temple, North Island, New Zealand, and was attended by 27 Committee members, including seven members of the English Sub-Chapter. The purpose was to educate committee members about the function of the BLIA, BLIA etiquette and to encourage members to be mindful, compassionate and tolerant.

Peter Young, assisted by Veronica Lee, translated throughout the day and the members of the ESC would like to thank them both for their time and effort to enable them to be part of the seminar.

The morning session was led by VenerableYing who talked about the history and purpose of the BLIA before going into more detail about the ways in which people develop and grow when they work with groups of people. She told the story of Niaike and Bai Juyi as a reminder that we should not have an egotistical or arrogant attitude and that if we followed the Gatha of the Seven Ancient Buddhas, ‘commit no evil; do good deeds’, which appears to be trivial and ordinary, society could be filled with love and joy. This addressed the ways in which everyone views life and that there are so many different answers and perspectives – everyone is right because everyone’s feelings are different and with different realizations we come to different answers. By taking part in activities we make the self and others successful. Therefore we have to ask ourselves the question, what do I want to achieve in or for the BLIA?

Two more stories were told to reinforce the teaching that every human has a different ‘angle’ on life and that we will find the best angle through communication. We should be like our tongue, soft and flexible, which stays with us our whole lives. Teeth, on the other hand, are hard, decay and disappear.

Venerable Ying also explained some of the administrative processes of the reporting requirements of the sub-chapters. Reports and photographs should be submitted within 3 days of the event and the activity reports prepared and available by the 25th of the month.

After lunch there was a short interval of singing in Mandarin and English led by Anders.

Venerable Hao led the session on BLIA etiquette. There are apparently over 3000 rules of etiquette but, given the time restraint, only a few relevant ones were explained. These included physical movements; greetings; traveling in cars; taking and collecting Sangha from the airport and writing letters.

The rule of etiquette I would like to share in this summary is the one relating to areas of our physical being in that we are advised to:

Stand like a pine tree, walk like the wind, sit like a bell and sleep like an arrow. We should also hold our hands as if holding water, stand as if we have a pot of oil on our heads and to step lightly. Also of these actions help us to be mindful in our practice as we go about our daily lives and create a good impression to other people.

Venerable Abbess Manshin joined the seminar for the second part of the afternoon and acknowledged that this first seminar was conducted in Mandarin but that the next one would be spoken in English. The members of the ESC thanked her for this consideration.

Members were given copies of the BLIA handbook and reminded of the BLIA Guiding principles and their meaning. We continued to look at the significance of the BLIA’s four-line verse and reminded of the basic criteria of BLIA affairs; education to foster talent. Culture to propagate the Dharma, charity to benefit society and Dharma services to purify people’s minds. All of these points, including the BLIA slogan; to give people happiness, confidence, hope and convenience, were the basis of the continuing words of wisdom that the Abbes shared with the members.

The Abbess encouraged the members to look at themselves to make the self strong, to learn and improve the self by taking the opportunity to walk the Buddha’s path. Through activities we learn and increase our power and that if we think we can’t do something them we must learn.

One of the benefits of being a member of the BLIA is to have affinity with friends. The Abbess referred to the Gatha of the Seven Ancient Buddhas emphasizing that to get good results we have to do kind things first. This led to a discussion about the reasons for being a vegetarian and having respect for

The day concluded with contributions from the members who all greatly appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the BLIA. The Venerable and the President were thanked for their hard work and the contributions they had made to this successful day. The seminar had also enabled members to have a greater understanding of each other and the goals they are working towards to propagate Humanistic Buddhism.