Great Joy in Welcoming the Year of the Monkey
The 30th of January 2016 marks the date where Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island NZ celebrates their prayers for the Chinese Lunar New Year with a wonderful vegetarian banquet that took place at the Cloud Water Cottage. It was attended by FGS NZ Abbess – Venerable Abbess Manshin, FGS NZ Temple Supervisor – Venerable Jue Xi, Venerable Rulian, Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island NZ President – See Shen Lee, Vice Presidents – Louisa Kuo and James Low together with 60 more members attended.
Before the luncheon, Venerable Abbess Manshin led the devotees in saying prayers, recited the Medicine Buddha mantra and offered light to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, wishing everyone would be smart and agile in welcoming the monkey year. Following that, the abbess gave a short Dharma talk with the classic Chinese story, “Journey to the West”. The story is about a Buddhist monk from China’s Tang dynasty named Venerable Xuan Zang, who travelled to India, which is the western regions of China, to attain Buddhist Sutras so he could share the scriptures, the law of nature, and the content and meaning of Tripitaka. As in the story, a famous fictional character was created, the Monkey King. The abbess wishes all could be like the Monkey King, being smart and agile, to have brave compassion and to protect the Buddhist Sutras and Dharma as how the Monkey King protects his master, Venerable Xuanzang.
During the luncheon, FGS founder Venerable Master Hsing-Yun’s Chinese New Year greeting was shown in a short video; subsequently, “A letter to the devotees by Venerable Master Hsing-Yun” which shows the fruits of Dharma propagating by Venerable Master in the past year was also shown. The crowd then started an activity of guessing calligraphy couplets and singing the “10 practice song”. The guessing of calligraphy couplets were words given by Venerable Master in the past years during Chinese New Year. Each gives auspicious meaning and members were rejoiced with the meaning of it. The singing of the “10 Practice Song” was also a fun going activity where members sang it with different dialects such as the Shanghaies, Cantonese, Taiwanese and more, giving joy and depth to the meaning of the song.
Laughter and applauses didn’t stop as joy fills the air of this 2 hours event. In the end, the abbess gave all members and volunteers an auspicious red packet, wishing all peacefulness and growth of wisdom. With the reopening of FGS South Island in the near future, everybody is welcome to visit more and build a community of a greater Christchurch.