Visit of Police Superintendent to FGS
On 10th August 2016, Superintendent Virginia Le Bas of National Manager Organised Crime New Zealand Police, together with her father Robert, mother Jill and nephew Logan, visited Fo Guang Shan (FGS) Temple South Island. They were greeted by FGS New Zealand Venerable Abbess Manshin, FGS Temple South Island Supervisor Verenable Jue Xi, BLIA South Island Vice President Louisa Kuo and Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island committee member Cao Qian.
After their candle lighting ceremony at the Buddha Hall, the visitors were presented with copies of FGS publication “Humanistic Buddhism – Holding True to the Original Intents of Buddha”, prayer Beads and FGS 2017 Calendars. Later, the visitors were accompanied to the ‘Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s One-stroke Calligraphy Exhibition’ at the FGS Art Gallery. In her speech, Venerable Abbess Manshin explained to Virginia the architectural and landscape design concepts behind both the FGS Temple North Island and FGS Temple South Island, and extended her invitation to Virginia to visit FGS Temple in Auckland, North Island in the near future.
At the exhibition, Venerable Juexi gave a short introduction on Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s one-stroke calligraphy. Though 90 year old, Master still persists with his one-stroke calligraphy writings every day. In his younger days, Master produced beautiful calligraphy writings. But after becoming seriously ill with diabetics, his eyesight has degenerated to near blindness. As a result, Master has to resort to one-stroke calligraphy to ensure continuity of the written word. It is exactly because of this unusual circumstance that the one-stroke calligraphy has evolved into its unique style and character, merging kindness with boldness. All the time, Venerable Master Hsing Yun never fails to remind people to “look at his Heart and not at his Writing”. Such humility and modesty coming from the Master have in fact further enhanced the one-stroke calligraphy with more meanings and values.
Before her departure, Virginia congratulated the Temple on its reopening and expressed her wish that more people would visit the Temple to make use of its many facilities and to share in the beautiful, tranquil and serene environment. Virginia also shared the good news that she would soon be going with her father for a bicycle tour in Europe for 6 weeks. They plan to cover 100 km per day and this would be their 6th participation in the same European tour. With blessings from Abbess, Virginia bade farewell to the hosts and promised to revisit Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s One-stroke Calligraphy Exhibition when she returns from her bicycle tour.