Jian Jing Hui; Chairperson of Hong Jian Chuan Culture and Education Trust gave Seminar at the Temple
On 6th March, Jian Jing Hui; Chairperson of Hong Jian Chuan Culture and Education Trust gave a seminar at the temple titled “How to read and lead reading groups”. It was attended by BLIA North Island Directors, Sub-chapter chairs and committee members, 120 members in total.
First a recording of Ms Jian’s earlier TED was played, showing her speech titled “Dialogue between 3 generations”, where she talked her relationship with her mother in law and son. Through the perspective of a modern woman, she explained her life views based on motivation and enthusiasm. Then another clip called “I shall await for you at the book club with sincerity” was played to summarise her experiences while promoting the book club while making new friends.
Ms Jian then shared the state of happiness from reading with the audience with some main points of “Reading should not just stay at the level of observation and feelings, it should be transformed into that concepts that can give rise to new values.” Ms Jian suggests that reading can cultivate the ability to learn. A reading group then allows the investigation of one’s inner feelings and meaning of life, therefore leading to more friendship through the exchange of ideas of life experiences. Ms Jian further explained a few ways to lead reading groups:
1. How to express yourself and speak on stage
2. Structures to reading
3. How to discuss concepts
These were all used to encourage everyone to read with joy and playfulness as well as using the wisdom of Buddhism to look at life.
Despite the talk only lasting 2 hours, BLIA members took up the opportunity for Q and A enthusiastically with questions such as “How to be more innovative during group reading?” “How to encourage more members to participate?” and “How to grasp main points of the book?”
Ms Jian emphasised that reading groups can create a sense of freedom, so by further adding subjects of community, politics and entertainment, more topics of discussion can naturally be uncovered. This way the reading group can discover new views, areas of discovery and perspectives. Therefore it is important the reading group leader is well versed in book reviews and up to date information via magazines and publications. They will need to train themselves in the techniques and wisdom of asking questions, because only by inspiring themselves first can they hope to touch the heart of others, hence discovering more interesting life’s stories.